Using the Kirby OC Fighting Tournament system as a base, I’m expanding it into a tabletop combat experience. Here, I’ll post my Dev logs on the balancing and asset-work for this system, as well as any patches and content packs once complete. This is intended to be a completely free system and I want everyone to have as much fun and ease-to-access as I am making it!
…Because of crippling procrastination. Let’s start with introductions. Tess, would you be a dear and come forward?
“No. Not feeling like [One Meeeeleeeon Dollaarrs~] today boss.”
Te- bruh. You’re the mascot just get the fu- sounds of a slight scuffle and some furniture being thrown around
Ta-da! Everybody say hello to our very own Tess Donna! Art supplied on request by the very talented user @torchrandom go give them love and support. Tess! Anything to say to the audience?
“I would [ra-ther die]”
Tess I swear to god just… get in this box we have a demonstration to do. Update details below the cut.
Muffled sounds of complaint
Now that Tess is sporting the beta design of an in-game unit token, let’s get to talking about some of the ailments you can expect to see in Keen Original Fighter Tour
The Slowed ailment
“W-h-y… i-s… e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g… s-o… f-a-s-t-?”
This ailment has been reworked since its debut in KOFTournament. Originally it was a turn-skipping ailment with worse luck for heavier armors. Now, it cuts your speed stat by three points, reducing your overall movement in battle. Slowed will also have a unique mechanic for shaking off where; instead of rolling to remove it, you spend a turn making zero movement and choosing to convert your action into a reaction. Taking this passive approach to your turn will guarantee its removal. However, when AFTERSlowed; you cannot move at all on the first turn of effects, your speed penalty increases from three to four, and the ailment is immune to the normal method of shaking it off (items still work though).
The Confused ailment
“What in the [by boogity] is going on here?! Did you scramble my [trumpet honk] circuits boss?!?!”
Confusion remains largely unchanged from its OG version. The dice rolled has simply changed to a d% instead of a standard d10, but you will still hit yourself while attacking by rolling lower than a 50%. The OVERConfused ailment only changes the standard one by dealing 1d4 damage to yourself when your successful roll is between 50% and 70%.
The Bleeding ailment
“What on god’s green [DIC Productions] are you- OW! You stabbed me like a pincushion! Now I’m [‘tis but a scratch]!”
Bleeding is a new ailment introduced for Keen Original Fighter Tour. Bleeding has you take 1 damage at the start of your turn for each turn you’ve been bleeding (1 on the first, 2 on the second, so-on and so-forth), and will reduce your vigor and endurance stats by 1. When OVERBleeding, any damage type that you would take normally is now considered potent damage, and resisted damage will be taken as standard damage.
The Drenched ailment
Sounds of aggravated struggling and lots of waterboarding
The Drenched ailment is a mix of old and new. Like before, your agility stat is reduced by 2 and you take 2 extra damage from Shock attacks. A new effect is that when you make movement, you are affected by slippery terrain conditions (think ice physics in puzzles, but there is a punishment if you run out of movement before stopping). OVERDrenched is still a rough ailment, because you are so bogged down with moisture that your character’s typing is overridden to only Tidal. Because your elemental balance is so unstable; Shock damage replaces the ailment with Paralysis, Chill damage makes you Frozen, and Light damage causes Blindness.
And that’s the update! Credits for references below.
Tess artwork by user @torchrandom, you can find their art at @torchsartblog
Ailment artwork by user @beef-chuck
Tess pop-culture references in-order
Dr. Evil - Austin Powers
“I Would Rather” - Artist is Jazz Emu
Toadbert - Mario & Luigi rpg series
Doot meme
DIC children’s entertainment company: broadcast logo meme
Patching the OG Abilities problem: Universal Actions fix the Skill(s) Issue.
Teased in the introductory post, there was a problem with the KOFTournament system implemented Blocking and Dodging: such a basic tool of combat had to be listed on your character card like a Pokémon move, and if you ‘forgot it’ you could only stand in one place and take the hit. Our Universal Actions list contains 5 skills for every player unit and enemy unit alike to use freely without needing to use up a Skill slot on their cards.
The list is broken up into 2 categories: active skills & reactive skills.
Active Skills:
The active skills are both new additions: sprinting and throwing. Sprinting is the simpler of the two, as every turn is made of two parts (action and movement, though not in any particular order) and sprinting simply uses the action part of your turn to double your speed: effectively doubling your maximum movement that turn. Throwing however, has a little more nuance to it; as units can throw items, weapons, movable objects and constructions, and even fighter units (after a small contest of course).
Throwing items is the simplest: you can throw it a small distance, and that distance increases or decreases based on your Vigor stat. Weapons are thrown in this same way, but by throwing a weapon you can make a melee attack at range. Attacking in this way however will give you the disarmed debuff, so strategize wisely when throwing your weapon.
Throwing movable objects and units is a bit more nuanced. For objects/constructions, you cannot throw anything larger than yourself, and it can only be thrown in a linear direction of tiles equal to your Vigor stat. Throwing fighter units follows the same restrictions, but you need to first roll a d20 and add your Vigor to it: if you roll higher than that unit’s defense then it can be thrown.
What is the point of throwing people and things around, you might ask? To deal damage, of course! When an object, construction, or fighter makes contact with another entity of those three types, both things take 1d8 blunt damage from the impact.
Reactive Skills:
The reactive skills include blocking, dodging, and a new skill called parrying. Reactions are performed less straightforwardly than actions, as you will announce on your turn that you will save your action to use in response to another fighter’s turn. All three reactions work in a similar way; you roll a d20 and add a specific stat value to the result in an attempt to avoid damage. Success will be determined by the armor you have equipped.
When blocking you will roll a d20 and modify the result using the value of your Endurance stat in an attempt to reduce the incoming damage. Dodging will have you roll a d20 and add the value of your agility stat to the result in an attempt to avoid the attack altogether. The new parrying skill will roll a d20 and use the value of your vigor stat in an attempt to turn aside the enemy’s weapon to avoid the attack.
Successful blocks will reduce the damage of the enemy’s attack by 1d6 and the value of your endurance stat, while dodging and parrying will change your opponent’s hit into a miss. Blocking is easier to perform when your armor is more defensive, dodging is easier the speedier your armor is, and parrying is most effective when your armor has more balanced stats.
With these 5 skills available to all fighters, combat becomes more dynamic and players can choose other skills to equip!
If anyone on this site has been a fan of Kirby OC Fighting Tounament (The one where your characters compete using dice-based combat, not the popularity contest), then you might be eager to hear this recent development news from the architect team:
From the makers of KOFT, a new tabletop-style combat version is in development: Keen Original Fighter Tour!
Because if the old orange ain’t broke, and the acronym is a chef’s kiss, DON’T FIX IT.
More details to expect under the cut.
What’s new:
An all-new battle grid system with new movement and range mechanics.
New non-player enemies for PvE combat, meaning…
A new Battle Captain role for gameplay, or Storyteller for those heavily devoted to the art. As a Battle Captain, set up enemies for you and your friends to face off against as allies, or don the title of Storyteller and weave a crusade to test the teamwork and prowess of the other players while you play only the opposition.
2 new elements are being added to the type chart: expanding the roster from seven to nine.
New Character Progression systems to boost your characters using their own battle experience.
A new class & subclass system of equipable perks, now with a feature of equipping multiple perks simultaneously.
A handful of new ailments complemented by a list of new debuffs: stacking up to 2 effects at the same time.
New Abilities, now renamed Skills for more of the stat-based builds you love to play.
New Skill types: Universal Actions & Reactions. Now the pesky bug of not knowing how to block (simply because you forgot to equip it last Tuesday) has been ironed out.
A new setting and theme for the base gameplay, where original characters explore Remeria: the world-tree forest.
New economy system. Learn to enjoy Sparx: a magical material interwoven into the entire flavor of the experience.
What returns:
All of the weapons from K.O.F.Tournament 2.0.0.
All of the Ailments found in the old system (now with a fresh coat of paint and some rebalancing).
All 7 Elements found in K.O.F.Tournament with only one tweak: 2 new resistances to Light damage.
All abilities found in K.O.F.Tournament are returning, and some have been reimagined for the new gameplay experience.
Most items and consumables sold by the vendors of KOFTournament will be returning. Things like the cures and healing items may receive a new branding and name, but they’re here to stay.
What has (unfortunately) been cut:
Kirby (and the more broader Nintendo) references in theming and items. These things will return in the first planned content update after Full Release 1.0.0, but KOFTour will need to establish the identity that ALL AUs and fandoms are intended to be welcome to use the system. Content developed by the KOFTour team will focus on fandom-specific additions in the planned future content boosts (all intended to be non-copyright-infringing and IP neutral).
The Welder’s Perk system. This system of character upgrades is being cannibalized to fuel and improve the Subclass Perk system. For the more traditional Welder’s perk experience, a perk mixing feature will be included in the Subclass progression mechanic
All KOFTournament merchants and currencies.
Some items and consumables. The boss battle system of KOFTournament was uniquely maintained in-server but the items for it were equally unique.
Item art for the old items MAY return in content packs down the line, but having item art is not part of the plan for KOFTour.
Progress updates are planned to be announced every Friday with some form of coherence tying together the update. If I miss a day, expect a reason or delayed update that Saturday or contact me through my ask box.
