The Doubling Devil

I.

I've been working for a while now on a new game. Confusingly, I'm calling it G&G (Goblets & Grues), which is what my failed project from over a year ago was also called.

What can I say? I really like the name. This is just a short post about a new mechanic I just added to the draft rules that I'm really excited to try out.

So, the idea of this new G&G is to combine a focus on exploration and problem solving with a light emphasis on tactical combat. I miss 5E and how the differentiation of roles in combat makes every player feel important.

How to marry these two things? The two approaches seem irreconcilable...

1. "Combat as war" gameplay positions the uncertainty of combat as something to be mitigated or avoided entirely.
2. "Combat as sport" gameplay positions the uncertainty of combat as the heart of the game: the fundamental thing you're supposed to have fun with.

II.

I would argue that there's a popular game series that has been combining these two modes of gameplay for over a decade: the Dark Souls series.

For the bulk of a Souls game (including Bloodborne, Elden Ring, etc.), the player is encouraged to approach combat "as war." You can employ all manner of tricks to avoid getting caught in a fair fight, the game encourages you to do so by limiting the number of times you can heal.

But the games are punctuated by "combat as sport." When the fog walls come up, there are few if any tricks left to employ; the player must defeat the resident boss in a more-or-less "fair fight."

The boss fights shift the player's mindset by making it difficult to retreat. One cannot retreat from a boss fight without leaving souls behind or using a consumable "homeward bone" item — an item which takes time to use and leaves an opening for the boss to kill you before you escape.

III.

So, can we simply adapt the Souls structure directly? Many TTRPG designers have tried, but in my opinion, it doesn't translate well. In Dark Souls, repeating the same combat over and over is fun because the player is constantly wrestling with their own ability to make smart and precise inputs.

In an RPG, a combat encounter is like a puzzle: once you solve it, you're ready to move on. Repeating the same fight over and over just waiting for dice rolls to turn up in your favor can only create frustration.

So, the challenge is creating a kind of combat encounter that discourages the players from retreating without forcing them to repeat the encounter over and over.

We could just put a treasure chest in front of the players that will only open if they beat a nearby combat encounter without retreating. But I see two problems with that idea...

1. The encounter has no impact: they didn't have the treasure before the fight and they don't have it now.
2. How am I going to explain this mechanic to the players? A plaque on the wall explaining the mechanic? An "oh, you recognize this kind of chest and know how it works" moment? Both feel clunky.

Below is what I came up with to solve those problems. Again, it's untested, but I'm excited to give it a try.

IV.

The Doubling Devil. An impish figure who appears in a puff of smoke at the entrance of some dungeons to challenge the PCs to a game. He instructs the PCs not to take a full night’s rest until the game is complete, and to call his name after they are finished gathering treasure from the dungeon.

If the PCs take a full night’s rest, the game is forfeit. If they follow the Doubling Devil’s instructions and then call his name, he beckons the PCs to a nearby Surprise Room [essentially, a nearby interesting combat environment] and summons a number of demonic or undead monsters into the room (a combat encounter prepared by the GM).

Before the Doubling Devil commands the monsters to attack, each PC can wager any amount of currency. If the PCs defeat all the monsters in the encounter, the Doubling Devil doubles all currency wagered. If the PCs retreat or ask the Doubling Devil to call off the encounter, all currency wagered is gone forever.

V.

Some design notes:

1. The "double-or-nothing" mechanic adds impact for losing the fight, and wagering allows players to modulate that impact based on how much they want to engage with the combat side of the game.
2. Transforming the mechanic into an NPC allows me to explain and clarify the mechanic to the players "in-fiction" via the character's voice.
3. A little devil is appropriate because (a) devils make deals and (b) it matches the main category of monsters that only exist to fight, demons and undead.
4. To top it all off, there's now a good reason to try to complete a dungeon without leaving to rest for the night, which highlights the element of resource management (PCs in G&G can only fully heal once per day, by eating lunch).