Today I’ve been wrestling with the first steps of a battle system. As far as systems go it is relatively complicated and is taking a lot of time to get up and running.

Unlike most battle-systems where stats like agility, strength, or endurance are static, in Heroic Journey these attributes can, and do, fluctuate.
Take clout(a strength analogue) as an example. A hero with 20 clout has a relatively good attack, but they can choose to use some of those points, say on a especially strong attack, smashing up a treasure chest, or breaking free of some evil creatures grasp. Using these points can help the hero, but they will make them weaker for the remainder of the day.

The same goes for agility. When an enemy attacks, a hero can choose to spend some of his agility to dodge, or to escape a trap if undetected. Handy though this is, agility dictates the turn order of battle so a hero who has spent all theirs will find themselves last to attack in every battle round.

Aesthetically I like the way this all looks; lots of variable bars. It also plays really fun (so far, though I’m far from finished). While trekking through a dungeon you have to constantly ask yourself: should I use this skill, talent, or profession here and weaken myself when I don’t know what’s around the next corner?

Today was a good start. I got the system for turn order in place, Developed the basic menus for attacking and magic use, and set up a system to rotate to the next most agile combatant in the battle turn.