Mechanics Lab: Deathzap and The D6

I’ve been playing a lot of Deathzap lately and not reporting on it. I think that’s because I’ve never been happy with the rules. Even towards the end of the Oltra campaign I played out not too long ago the rules were niggling me. By then I was using a variation on the Simple Toy Soldier Game. It worked, quite well in fact, but didn’t have the ‘feel’ I was after. The feel I think is something like 40k but lighter and faster. Roll to hit, saving throws. Simple turn structure move, shoot, melee. You get the idea.

So what’s wrong with Deathzap?

I recently jumped back to the original game and played a few turns with pretty much everything I’ve painted. If I could nail down one thing that’s wrong with it, it is that everything dies too quickly. This is an unfortunate side effect of using six sided dice. It’s not as big an issue as it would be if units didn’t fire simultaneously in Deathzap meaning everyone gets to shoot before any figures taken as casualties are removed. But the speed at which figures are removed makes missions and objectives pretty irrelevant as most figures will be dead by turn 3.

My latest solution was to limit he effectiveness of weapons, but that has kind of reached its limit. Here’s where the 6 sided die issue comes in. I’m always a fan of modelling the effects of cover in my games. Cover after all is fairly important in modern warfare. But the best I can do on a 6 sided die is make you hit on a roll of 6. That is without adding extra complication to the rules which I also don’t want. Hitting a target in hard cover on a roll of 6 then means you hit guys in soft cover on 5s or 6s and in the open on 4s, 5s and 6s. Throw in the effects of automatic weapons, buffs to various forces when they shoot and your units are taking lots of casualties fast and your pushing the humble D6 to its limits.

I mean ultimately this is my own fault because it’s my choice to stick with the D6. It’s just my favourite die. So where do we go from here:

Option A: Retire the D6. A D10 would fix the issue almost immediately with no added complication to the rules. I already have lots of them. The drawback of this however is that people are less likely to try your rules for themselves if they have to amass a bunch of niche equipment first. Even long time gamers won’t have bags of D10s on standby, whereas very few people won’t be able to gather up some D6s.

Option B: Add complication to the rules. This wouldn’t be much to be fair. Say once you’ve worked out how many dice your unit is firing with they have to pass a skill check like rolling for Ballistic Skill in 40k. It would enable me to model more elite troops too. Say Heroes on 2+, Elites on 3+, Regulars on 4+, Recruits on 5+ and Civilians on 6+. Then the standard Deathzap sequence follows.

Option C: Switch to a 2D6 system. This adds the granularity of the D10, while sticking to the D6. The only problem is practical. When rolling for the shots of 6 figures how do you know which dice to pair? I could paint the pips of dice I already have, buy new paired coloured dice (same issue with the D10s) or roll the first dice in the pair in a group and then reroll those dice individually afterwards keeping track of which ones will have rolled high enough? The 2D6 system would also give the room to model more weapon and figure characteristics without increasing the number of dice rolls, in the actual game, so it could be the best of the options.

Any thoughts of which solution is best let me know. Plus if you’ve made it to the end of this rambling post you get a gold star!