Gameplay mechanics (no ontology)

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This page lists the gameplay mechanics of Mazeworld, by alphabetical order.

Aiming and body parts

The contestant may choose to attack specific body parts of his/her enemy. Depending on the type of enemy, damage on certain body parts might be higher or lower, often with a special effect.
When a player does not specifies a body part attacked, it is by default the upper body, the abdomen, or other applicable. Please check the individual articles of every creature to know what body part it has.

By default, the following values are used:

Body group Pain multiplier Effects
HEAD 5x damage Failure threshold +1
BODY 1x damage No penalty
LIMB 0.4x damage No penalty
EXTREMITY 0.5x damage Failure threshold +1
WEAK POINT 3x damage Failure threshold +1

HEAD group: Head (as a whole), Face…
BODY group: Torso, upper body, lower body…
LIMB group: Arms, legs, shoulders, elbows, wings, tentacles…
EXTREMITY group: Hands, feet, mandibles, claws, tails, horns, inert genitals
WEAK POINT group: Eyes, teeth, protruding fangs, active genitals, antennae, beaks, tongues, life support system of a Failed

  • Weak points in italics are affected by Note 4.
  • Note 1: The headshot multiplier does not apply if a Blunt-type weapon is used. Refer to the Damage chart for more info on damage types.
  • Note 2: The headshot multiplier only apply if the concerned body parts are not protected by protective headgear. It must be noted certain pieces of headgear may also protect the face.
  • Note 3: Aiming at the face results in a FT+2 instead of the FT+1 of head in general.
  • Note 4: Eyes and teeth count as weak points only when Blunt-, Sharp- and Piercing-type damage hits them. For other damage types, it counts as face and are thus affected by FT+2, but also 5x damage multiplier.

Explosives

Assuming normal Failure Threshold of 5...

Score Explosive power Pain multiplier Effects
11 and 12 Direct hit 1x damage If total Pain is 40+%, severed limbs
8 to 10 Close-hit 0.75x damage If total Pain is 40+%, severed limbs
6 to 8 Far-hit 0.5x damage May cause wounds
3 to 5 Failed 0x damage Blast misses
2 Critical failure 1x damage Direct hit on the user

If the Failure Threshold is different than 5, then the hit is failed if the score obtained is equal or inferior to the FT. Otherwise the degree of success varies according to the above shown table.

Explosives work in a particular way. In most cases, the following steps are observed:

  • 1) The user must choose an intended target to attack with the explosive - it must be noted that (except in the NOTE 2 case) aiming for a precise body part is impossible. An user can choose anything he/she wants as an intended target; even cover, or the ground between enemies.
  • 2) The dice roll usually determines the explosive power. Refer to the table above.
  • 3) The intended target of an explosive will suffer from the according Pain, but also, if applicable, one of several effects: wounds or severed limbs; the affected body parts being chosen at random with @bodyaim.
  • 4) Splash damage will hit everything on the intended target's side, but aside from the intended target itself, victims of splash damage alone will suffer from Pain only.
  • NOTE 1: M67 grenades produce shrapnel upon exploding. The shrapnel will hit all enemies affected by splash damage, their amount being distributed as close as equally, as possible. In the case rounding must be made, the intended target is always hit by the most shrapnel.
  • NOTE 2: FRAG-12 shells work essentially like bullets in regular firearms. There is no splash damage (only affects intended target), there is no random @bodyaim affected (will affect the body part aimed at, like with normal weapons), and there is no concept of explosion distance (it is always a direct hit, thus it will likely always cause severed limbs).
  • Planted explosives such as C4 charges, as their name suggest, follow special rules concerning their use, which may cause differences in how to attempt setting them off. For more information, read the articles about the concerned weapons.
  • It must be noted that failure threshold modifiers work differently with explosives, since the hit is dependent on the total score. For every increased accuracy occurrence, your score +1 is calculated. Likewise, for every decreased accuracy occurrence, your score -1 is calculated.

Explicit content

Upon request, a player may have more explicit or sensible parts of the game skipped or mellowed down if he/she feels he/she is uncomfortable with having them described. Usually, the player will be prompted if he/she wants everything happening to their contestant described, though an agreement between the player and the game master can be made beforehand.

Damage and protection

Please refer to their articles: Damage chart - Protection chart

Fighting mechanics and RNG

Mazeworld requires two kinds of random number generations: regular, d6 dice throws, as well as more complex xdy throws. Most of the RNG matters are hidden to the player during gameplay.

  • When a contestant is facing the door(s) inside a room, unless he/she is facing a door leading to a scripted event (see later), every room is assigned a random number, each number corresponding to a room on the complete list of events. The list of events is randomized between every game, as such, it is impossible to correctly "map" which number corresponds to which room between different games.
  • Encountering an enemy triggers a 1d6 roll which sets how many instances of that creature will be met and thus, have to be fought. Depending on the strength perk (see Encounters for more details about strength perks), the amount may change from 1 to 5.
  • During combat, the GM may roll at its own discretion a 1d100; it is rolled after an intelligent or otherwise sapient creature's Pain levels reaches a high amount (70+%). The purpose of this roll is to determine how the wounded target will react, from being knocked out of the fight early, to a burning wish of retaliating even harder.

Depending on the score obtained, the encounter may, from negative to positive: Pass out, quake in fear, become very anxious, resume the fight normally, or explode in anger. If an encounter passes out, it can be looted and robbed from without retaliation, until something wakes it up.

Die roll WEAK Normal STRONG SUPER STRONG
1 2 1 1 1
2 3 1 1 1
3 3 2 1 1
4 4 2 1 1
5 4 3 2 1
6 5 3 2 1
  • Fighting is turn-based. Success or failure of the attack of each participant in the fight (contestant, enemy or enemies) is decided on a dice roll. Every fighter is assigned two dice. Contestants can choose where to aim their weapons, or what body part to attack.
  • The contestant has by default a first-turn advantage, which means (unless under certain conditions) he/she can always attack first during a fight. This is required to be able to do stealth attacks. Losing the advantage renders stealth impossible as the enemy will always spot the contestant first.

During normal circumstances:

Score What happens Effects
12 Perfect hit Attack hits perfectly (headshot, weak point hit, extra damage, etc.)
6 to 11 Hit Attack hits where the contestant aimed at successfully
5 to 3 Miss Attack fails to hit where the contestant aimed at
2 Complete failure Weapon fails completely, jams, backfires, or contestant hits himself/herself
  • Scoring 2 leads to a complete failure, leading in the attack backfiring to the attacker in one way or another.
  • Melee weapons will hit the contestant instead of the target or fail in a similar manner
  • Firearms may fail in several different ways. Most of them will stovepipe, which results in a spent casing stuck in the ejection port. It requires a full turn to remove the casing and be able to shoot again. Other malfunctions include dud rounds, in which ammunition simply fails to fire; cycling the weapon corrects the problem and may fire immediately next turn. For belt-fed machine guns, feeding failures may occur. Similarly to a stovepipe, an entire turn must be spent reloading the belt to address the issue.
  • Explosive ordnance may explode at the contestant. Check the explosives damage chart for more info.
  • Scoring between 3 and 5 leads to a failure, leading in the attack simply missing, or in the case of buckshot or flechette ammunition, inflicting very low damage.
  • Scoring between 6 and 11 leads to a success, leading in the attack landing as intended, with more or less accuracy on where they hit.
  • Scoring a 12 leads to a perfect hit, leading in the attack landing exactly where the player wished, and with exceptional results (a headshot, a weak point being hit, extra damage suffered, etc). It depends on what weapon was used, and on whom.

Certain items or effects may affect those thresholds, and certain encounters may have naturally different thresholds - most of the time, they will be referred to as their Failure threshold, to determinate which values will lead to failing an attack.

Other useful ways to throw 2d6s

  • Melee weapons can be used to hit multiple times in a single turn; up to 2 for Class 5 Long, and up to 3 for Class 5 Short weapons (Does not apply to ranged Class 5 weapons). The player must indicate how many hits he or she will attempt, then roll 2d6 an appropriate amount of times. Similarly to the unarmed combat system, the combo fails at the first failed roll. Example: If the contestant has a FT of 5, attempts to hit 3 times with a melee weapon, and rolls in order: 9, 4, 7 == The first hit is successful, the second isn't, and the third does not happen because the 2nd one failed to hit.
  • Rolling to take cover. The action has a fixed FT 5 and this cannot be influenced. Rolling positively ensures the contestants and his/her possible ally takes cover AND gets first turn of attack; failing the roll has them take cover but their opponent sees them and may attack them.
  • Attempting to slip past encounters unnoticed. The action has a fixed FT 5 and must be rolled by both the contestant AND his/her ally; if either one fail their own roll, they do not reach the next doors in time and any encounters they tried to avoid will wake up and/or notice them, with appropriate reaction.
  • Attempting to pin down/grapple an opponent, depending on what kind of creature the opponent is. It works like an attack; thus its FT is that of the contestant (therefore influencable). If the attack succeeds, the opponent will be pinned down, or grappled, and may roll to escape the contestant's grasp. If their roll succeeds, they break free. If it fails, they remain pinned down and the contestant may freely proceed to do anything else.
  • Attempting to escape during combat. It works like an attack, thus this action's FT is also that of the contestant (therefore influencable), and must be rolled by both the contestant and his/her possible ally. If one of the two fails their roll, the two will be separated; it is entirely possible to abandon an ally that way. Succeeding escape allows the contestant and his/her possible ally to rush to the doors and avoid combat. Failing the escape roll ends immediately the turn, thus caution is advised if the opponent is particularly strong.

Fighting: Multiple opponents

When fighting a group of opponents, especially so if this group happens to be that of an intelligent type of encounter (Maze Soldier, etc), the situation for the contestant becomes different and fighting may become more tactical.

  • Depending on the strength perk of the enemy group, when the enemy's turn comes, the amount of enemies that can attack varies.
    • If the enemies are WEAK-perk, up to 3 enemies from the group may attack during the enemy's turn.
    • If the enemies have no perk, up to 2 enemies from the group may attack during the enemy's turn.
    • For everything else, only one enemy at a time may attack during the enemy's turn, regardless of the group's size.
  • If the group is composed of encounters of varying strength perks, the highest perk prevails for this rule.
  • There may be situations where more than 2 groups of encounters, including the contestant's, may be formed. In that case, before the battle, dice are thrown to determinate the order.
    • For example, if a contestant gets into a room and finds a youkai and a Soldier about to fight, the fight is divided into 3 groups: the contestant's, the youkai's, and the Soldier's. The contestant always starts first (or last if afflicted by overloaded backpack). An 1d2 is then thrown, 1 representing youkai and 2, Soldier. If the dice roll was to be 2, then the Soldier would be first.
    • In a situation involving the contestant, a youkai, a Soldier and a Citizen and all of them were in different groups, a 1d3 would be thrown to determinate who goes first among the 3 groups other than the contestant's, then a further 1d2 to determinate who goes second among the remaining 2. And so on, as groups increase.
  • Contestants are not limited to attacking an unique target if they are facing multiple enemies; they can choose between all the present enemies. It is, however, impossible to "spray" at multiple targets -at once-, a contestant still has to aim at -something- in particular.

Scripted events

Every X rooms, a contestant will find a door that will lead him/her to a specific room. In some cases, the numbers overlap, leading to the contestant having to choose between 2, or more rarely, 3 doors.

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