System Focus - Combat

While I was whiling away my time doing whatever it is I tell myself is worth my attention, I was stricken with a powerful need to commit some thoughts to this blog before I continue with anything else. I'd like to finish the Giants article, but I'm still trying to get it to a level of polish that I'd be willing to present. I added some information about the Jord, but I need to cut it down so that the practically useless information is no longer present. (Who but me cares that no one understands the Jord because their language is complicated to historians? That gets more attention than the fact that they eat souls? God I'm an idiot...)

For a long time I've been nervous about combat in my SAME campaign. Simply put, I don't like the rules I've written. As is, they provide no real incentive to enter melee combat. And that isn't bad, but it isn't representative of the kinds of scenes I want to illustrate with each combat.

I want guys who leap right into the fray, dodging attacks by a hair's breadth and retaliating in kind. I want guys perched up on a high ledge who summon strangling roots and hurl orbs of molten rock upon unsuspecting foes. And I want each option to be as viable as the other, so our characters never have to be shoe-horned into one job because they picked a certain ability over another.

That said, I was stricken with an idea recently. It was simple, and elegant. So much so that I'm wondering why I didn't think of it sooner. That way, I could have worked out some additional hang-ups before I lost my drive to write about it. Anyway...

Every additional increment they are away from melee, a defending character adds two to their defense.

Melee: add nothing
Near: add 2
Far: 4
Distant: 6
etc...

Ex: A warg is 120 feet away, but Someguy wants to call up a set of earthen spikes to pierce its wooly hide. He attacks with his Moxy, which is better than his Agility, looking to beat a 14+M defense. He's willing to attempt it, because he's looking to damage it a little before it reaches the party, etc...

Also, spells can attack with either Agility or Moxy. I don't really care anymore; the only reason I was sticking to Moxy is because I was getting held up by the "spell" moniker. All it was doing was making Strength/Agility characters useless or boring. So, that's out. Everything's just attacks now. It doesn't matter if your physical attack has a magical source or vice versa, it's up to you and your preferences.

The benefit of these changes should be apparent; there's more risk in fighting in melee, but you can put enemies down more quickly. There's less risk in fighting ranged, but you kill stuff more slowly.

That's it. All that's left is to tweak it some, so that everything evens out in a way that satisfies me.

Your thoughts?