I am looking for a core combat mechanic for an RPG that allows

>>49923301
DnD 5e

>>49923451
That is exactly the opposite of what I want.

>>49923487
play 5e faggot

>>49923301
>quick turns
>variable damage
Try checking out Ars Magica. The combat system takes up maybe 6 pages, including equipment tables, examples, and optional rules. Make sure you're looking at 5e, because all the other versions are pretty well broken in their combat.

It might also have the wide range of stats, but I'm not 100% sure what you meant by that.

>>49924080
I mean something where a character's combat stat can range between, say, 1 and 25, and the system still works, maybe even larger.

I thought about a d% system, but they're usually hit/miss rather than "how much damage do you do?

>Make sure you're looking at 5e,
As I said, that's basically the opposite of what I want. Having to roll twice and do math on both rolls is too slow, and the numbers are generally pretty restricted.

Look at the one roll engine, OP. That may be to your liking.

>>49924135
I meant 5e of Ars Magica, since the previous versions have naked peasants with sticks at the top of the combat food chain.

Also, thinking of percentile dice, maybe check Unknown Armies. It does some interesting things with percentile dice, like using the values on the dice to determine damage, that might give you some ideas.

>>49924174
>>49924185
Either of you be able to summarise the core mechaics? I'll look into them a bit later, but ideally I'd like a rough idea of how they work first.

>>49924249
Ars Magica:
>characters have 5 relevant numbers, with the calculations and space to write them down on the sheet
>initiative, attack, defense, damage, and soak
>on your turn, you roll+attack, your enemy rolls+defense
>if attack wins, note the difference between them (so if it's 17 attack vs 14 defense, it would be 3)
>add your damage, they subtract their soak
>they take a wound based on the resulting damage (you might change that part)

Unknown Armies:
>you have your percentile combat skill
>roll under to hit, +- modifiers for the situation
>on a success, deal damage equal to the sum of your dice + weapon bonus for melee, or the number on dice (up to a maximum based on the weapon) for firearms
>there's also matched results + crits/botches, for gradations of quality

>>49924389
Neither sounds like exactly what I'm looking for, but I might be able to mod Ars Magica. i'll look into it.

>>49923301
a variant of BRP (the Call of Cthulhu system), aka runequest. not sure which version of RQ is quickest. it's basically straighwordforward d100 roll under. chars can parry/dodge once per round. a hit usually does damage in the range of 1d4 to 2d6, depending on weapon. damage bonus die gets added to that. normal humans have 10 HP. strong heroes maybe... 15.

>>49924463
I'm more interested in mechanics than systems, and as I elaborated here >>49924135 I prefer attacks just be one roll to determine damage, rather than having separate rolls to hit and damage.

Open Legend is somewhat light in terms of the array of stats, but there's a lot of combat options that evolve out of the fifteen or so attributes and the (large list of) feats that characters can get.

It has single-roll combat for both effects and direct damage (and doing both in a single very effective attack), and has a high degree of variability in attack effectiveness.

>>49924880
It also meets his desire for their to be a large difference between stat numbers, since there are 15 stats, and any of them can be a valid combat stat. They range from, what, 0 to 9?

I've yet to see an RPG combine speed and depth.

Light combat mechanics are almost always unsatisfying, trading out detail for swift resolution, generally making combat perfunctory at best.

Meanwhile, even the lightest systems I've seen with satisfying combat slow down significantly.

I think the root of the problem is choice. You can have the most elegant mechanics in the world, but if you give your combat depth then people will have decisions to make and those decisions take time. Of course there's variability in both categories, some light games with more or less satisfying combat and some crunchier games with longer or shorter turns and encounters, but there seems to be a real break point where you can't have both, and I've never seen a system balance it dead on.

>>49926900
That is not what I mean, I meant wide range within stats, not a wide range of stats to choose from.

>>49926997
As in each stat can do a lot of different things?

Open Legend lets you do that; you can solve most problems with at least two attributes (e.g. Perception and Prescience), and most attributes let you get out of any situation if you're clever enough.

Most attributes have some use in combat as well: deception and persuasion don't get much love, nor do most of the mental attributes, but all of the other attributes directly tie in to either the use of weapons or the activation of boons/banes to cause special effects.

>>49926997
Each level of stat means you add a number of dice to your base roll (a d20) so if you want a wide gulf between the results a low star score can get, and a high stat score, someone at level 9 adds 3d8. Dice explode. They'll get much higher numbers then someone with a low score.

If it's the granularity you want, then it won't work for you and you need a percentile system.

>>49927023
>As in each stat can do a lot of different things?
No, as in combat stats have a large number of values e.g 1-25 or 1-50.