Duel #

Two parties collide, playing off of each other as they try to get an advantage over each other. We’re going to call this a Duel.

For lack of a better term, I’m going to call each party a duelist going forward.

Do I need this in my game? #

This works best in games that intend to involve a lot of conflict between two specific parties: obviously two duelists is a clear answer, but this could just as easily be a debate, an argument, two lawyers arguing over a court case, or some other kind of competition, regimented or otherwise. You can also use this for more asymmetrical competitions, like chases. This also doesn’t have to be two characters specifically either: the crews of two ships, for instance, might fit the bill. (For games where there’s less extended individual-character spotlight, though, that might be a tough fit.)

Establishing Stakes #

When considering a Duel, ask yourself: what does each duelist want out of this?

Timekeeping and Pacing #

In my estimation, a Duel like this feels best with simultaneously declared action. Very typically, a “round” should involve both parties declaring an action secretly, revealing it, and then resolving what happens.

Escalation #

This could tie in with Escalation in a few ways. Some options include:

• Escalation goes up every round and adds to both duelists’ rolls. This creates a situation where everyone involved is more efficacious as time goes on.
• Escalation is a per-duelist thing, with certain actions making each individual’s Escalation rise or fall.
• Escalation is a back-and-forth measure of one side’s advantage over the other, giving a bonus to rolls for the “winning” side if you want to create a snowball effect or for the “losing” side if you want to encourage comeback scenarios or create a duel system that leads to more stalemates. (The opposite side can also be given an equal penalty to that bonus to amplify either effect further.)

Resolution Order #

As noted above, resolutions are simultaneously declared, and sometimes they can resolve simultaneously. It’s easy enough to imagine two duelists attacking each other at the same time, for example. But sometimes that gets a little stickier: if one duelist puts up a defense at the same time that the other attacks, for example, there is an implicit order to it if the defense matters for that attack. Think about what happens in each case.

You can also enforce a specific order of resolution based on the type of move. Sometimes this means certain actions always happen first or last relative to other actions, but sometimes it means a character who has a “better” resolution order can decide.

Location, Relative and Otherwise #

If there are exactly two duelists, usually there’s a few kinds of “place” that can matter if you want them to: where in general you’re fighting and if someone/something could interfere, relative distance between the two parties, if one of them is near/on/behind some kind of landmark or such. (Does someone have the high ground?) I don’t think there’s quite as much benefit here as with skirmishes, but it’s something you can definitely play with. Just keep an eye on how many things you’re tracking at once and if it’s actually adding anything or if it’s making something that could be abstract more concrete to its detriment.

In a less “physical” kind of duel, you could probably map these metaphorically to other ideas: “close” could be arguing more aggressively while “far” could be trying to look objective or impartial, “locations” might be topics, etc.

Actions #

An action in this case is usually the one thing a duelist has decided to do in a round. As mentioned, they’re typically decided upon, revealed, then resolved in whatever order befits the game.

Comparing them to skirmishes, these can sometimes be a little more complex.

Roles #

Actions, abilities, and general qualities for characters in a duel typically fall into one of three Roles, which are each split into two Sub-Roles. A lot of these will overlap for various abilities. This overlap is fine, but it’s helpful to start with one particular role and sub-role when creating qualities.

These exist to guide a designer in thinking about how to make abilities and archetypes stand out from one another. It’s often helpful to come at an ability or class from a perspective of “which of these roles/subroles am I making this ability to fulfill”. This gives them a specific purpose and helps you avoid making samey abilities.

Role Priority #

In this case, the classification of abilities also provides a rock/paper/scissors-like relation: what I’m going to use going forward is that Defensive beats Aggressive beats Indirect beats Defensive. You could keep this implicit, but you could also make it a very explicit thing. If it’s explicit, I like to call it priority. You could do any or all of the following with that:

• Let the priority winner decide resolution order (simultaneous if nobody wins)
• Give Advantage to the roll of whoever wins priority and Disadvantage to the roll of whoever loses (and neither if nobody wins)
• Interact with Escalation (like shifting it towards whoever wins, or having it add to the winner and subtract from the loser)
• Give some abilities extra effects if they win Priority

Aggressive #

The Aggressive classification is focused on getting the task done, be it dealing Harm or working through Completion.

Defensive #

The Defensive role is focused on preventing or mitigating attacks. Given that it frequently doesn’t progress things, be careful: these have to be worthwhile to use.

Indirect #

Tells #

If two parties have been clashing for awhile, they start to get a feel for each other. This is represented by Tells

Whenever a duelist has a Tell on a certain action, it lets them break out of simultaneous action. They get the following choice:

• Change what they were going to do. This is treated as if they chose that action and revealed it.
• Gain 1 Advantage on what they were already going to do.

If both duelists have a Tell on each other, they both have that choice: similar to the original simultaneous reveal, they choose their next course of action and reveal at the same time. This second reveal is final.

Gaining them during the duel #

Here are some ideas how to get them in-progress:

• Every time the other duelist uses a specific move, each duelist keeps track of how many times they’ve used that move. Anytime a move is used a second time and onward, after incrementing it, that duelist rolls a die. If it rolls under the number of times used, they get a Tell for it.
• An action could explicitly grant you an immediate Tell as if you’d rolled under, or it can increase the number for the above method.
• A duelist could get an immediate Tell at a half-Endurance Threshold as a kind of comeback mechanic.

Gaining Tells outside a duel #

Things outside of the conflict can grant these kinds of insights too.

• Familiarity with a weapon, or approach, or style the other duelist is using.
• Specific information about a particular move the other duelist will use.
• Relationship to the other duelist prior.
• Gained knowledge from previous duels.

Machinations of Court And Frame #

Characters gain Tells in a variety of ways:

• Inside a duel, they track usage instances as noted above, which also provides an incrementing number.
• Usage instances can be increased by certain actions (see Feint above for an example).
• Each duelist being familiar with a particular kind of mech from exposure grants starting usage instances for the mech’s baseline actions.
• The two duelists having a relationship (professional, friendship, rivalry, or something else) grants them starting usage instances for their signature actions.