Dice and Resolution
The most important part of the game, the resolution system. A bit of an admission on my part, I heavily dislike (mostly) D&D 5e in part due to how it handles its D20 mechanics. It's very cumbersome and way too swingy. Modifiers are less but still present as well (look at cover). Most games handle D20's either way too simplistically or feel undercooked. The one game system that really impressed me was Infinity, a really nifty sci-fi wargame. Sadly, it's high kill rate turned me off from it, but its D20 mechanics are near flawless. Really impressed me. Ultimately, I like the D20 and its broad range of values so I decided Xenoblight would be a D20 system.
The question became "what do I want to do with a D20?" since there are a few ways to go about it. I settled on a roll under system for a few reasons. The main one is that it's really straightforward. Roll under your attribute value. Done and easy. I'm also not crazy about modifiers so there are none. This system works great since it purely represents the skill of the fighter. But like in any battle there are different factors that can change how well someone can act.
Here come in one of the few amazing concepts D&D 5e introduced, at least in my humble opinion. Advantage and disadvantage. Such a great concept. Roll an additional die and if it's advantage, keep the one you want. If it's disadvantage, keep the lowest or highest in the case of Xenoblight. This frees me up from thinking of multiple ways fighters can gain bonuses or detriments. A lot of wargames get bogged down with rerolls, modifiers, multiple extra dice, etc. This game is meant to be easy to understand, at least as much as possible. So limiting the complexity to just advantage and disadvantage helps a ton.
The worry comes from expanding factions if the core rules are simple but that's a topic for another time as there are still ways of influencing the system despite it being simple.
Going back to attributes, those are straightforward too. Speed, how many inches the model can travel on the board; Melee Attack, how good the model is in melee; Ranged Attack, how good the model is in ranged combat; and Nerve, how well the model handles stressful situations. HP is different since it is the hitpoints a model needs to lose before being removed from play. Each of the other attributes (except Speed unless it's a vehicle) will normally be higher than 10 simply because the game is about at least somewhat experienced people fighting each other. You will be succeeding on average more than not.
This one is a bit shorter! I plan on adding a few more basics but hopefully will be playtesting this week so the game is ready to go near the end of the jam. Really excited to see how it plays out.