We love Troika, but it’s not without its troubles. Chief among them? Armour!
Fret not! WatcherDM is here with a house rule to punch up your combats.
The Use of Weapons (and Armour)
In Troika, weapons roll on a table of seven different damage values. Armour reduces the roll, not the damage. If you’ve played or run Troika, you know this. But one thing I didn’t truly grasp until I’d sat player-side for a few games (forever GM problems, amiritefolks?) is just how fun-sucking one little mistake in monster design can be.
The culprit? Armour 3.
An innocuous pair of words, but damn if they don’t grind things to a halt.
Consider this. Rolling a d6-3 with a minimum of 1, four of six possibilities have you dealing the lowest amount of damage possible. It’s disheartening to roll a 1 a sixth of the time; two-thirds is brutal!
You can counteract this. Carrying armour-piercing weapons or burning luck to get a +2 to your damage roll are the two obvious ways, but each has its own issues. Anti-armour weapons are rare at character creation (at least among the base classes). Burning luck is a bit of an esoteric rule (the second half of rule 3.3), and I’ve often seen even veteran players forgetting it. So, although a shrug of the shoulders and a murmur of ‘player skill issue’ isn’t totally unreasonable, I think a little mechanical nudge is in order.
House Rule
Ignore the core Troika book. Make Light Armour the default.
Unarmoured persons are not prepared for combat. They take +1 on all damage rolls.
Lightly Armoured takes the die roll at face value.
Modest Armour takes -1.
Heavy armour takes -2.
In other words, just add +1 to all damage. Easy.
Even heavily armoured goons are threatened by four possible damage values. Guns, polearms, and blunt-trauma weapons need heavy armour and shields to defend. Combat is faster and deadlier than ever. Adventurers expecting combat should dress for the occasion!
GM Advice
Even with this fix, avoid mass numbers of heavily armoured combatants. Heavy armour works great on boss monsters, spell casters, and low-skill low-stamina monsters. When running modules like Big Squirm, consider the armour values of enemies like the Defence Automatons. In cases where armour is flavourful, consider reducing stamina to compensate.
Higher numbers are more fun! Your players will have a better time rolling unaltered 6’s against a mountain of stamina than they will chipping away with 4-3, followed by 2-3, then another 4-3, for a result of three 1’s in a row. Boring!
So ditch the armour! Raise the damage, and the fun will follow.
If you like this house rule, check out our recommendation for what to do when the End of Round Token is the first one you draw: the Farce. Or check out Drawn from the Margins or one of our other Troika Modules!