Battle Borgs

Dorin the Doorkeeper Knight: a playtest character who dumped all of his points into Toughness. 

In 2001 one of my friends at the YMCA afterschool daycare invented a pen & paper game called Battle Borgs. At the time we were spending a lot of time playing various RPG and monster collecting games on our GameBoy colors, as well as making lots of drawings and labeling them. Battle Borgs essentially combined those to pastimes into a single game. You drew your character, wrote down their stats and three attacks, and then battled your friends with them. 

With respect to Nathan E, it didn't work very well. We never figured out a way to solve first-turn advantage and were very conservative about deviating any character's stats from the basic template, so the way to win every match was to go first, hit your opponent a couple of times with your basic attack, and then finish them off with your ultimate. Still, I can still remember all of our Borgs: Mattsum, who switched his flags with pictures of axes on them into axes with little flags on them. Sandsum, who blasted people with sand. Gryndlewing, a butterfly with sharp wings. Saber, who was fast but weak. The anime fire knight Ayen and brother the dark knight Raymen. Skug the snail, with his fearsome Head Bump attack. Smett Mess, whose hands were so big he could slap people's heads off. Smett Tippy, an upside-down Christmas tree who spun very fast to fling ornaments at people.

In 2017 I wrote a second edition of the game. Here it is!

BATTLE BORGS

Making Your Character

First, draw you character and give them a name. Next, you'll need to determine their stats.

You have a base 6 Hit Points

You have 10 points to distribute between Strength, Toughness, and Speed. You must have at least one point in each.

Strength is used for making Attacks, and for Fighting Off incoming attacks.

Toughness is used to modify your Hit Points, as well as to Block incoming attacks.

For every point above 3, add +1 HP. For every point below 3, subtract 1 HP.

Speed is used to determine which fighter gets the first move, as well as to Dodge incoming attacks.

Resolving Actions

Roll a number of dice equal to the relevant stat, then take the highest number. Your opponent does the same, and whoever has the higher number succeeds.

In case of a tie, compare the second highest value among your results. For example: if you rolled three dice, getting 6, 4, and 3, and your opponent rolled two dice, getting 6 and 3, you would win that contest. If a player only rolls a single die and their opponent rolls two or more, that player automatically loses a tie. If both players roll a single die and the result is a tie, they re-roll.

If an effect would cause you roll fewer than one dice, roll two dice and choose the lower value.

Attacks

Each fighter has three Attacks:

Aggressive Attacks: roll attack dice equal to your Strength +1. Defend with -1 dice on the following round.

Balanced Attacks: roll attack dice equal to your Strength.

Cautious Attacks: roll attack dice equal to your Strength -1. Defend with +1 dice on the following round.

Remember to name each of your character's attacks!

Defense

Each fighter has three methods of defense:

Fight Off: roll defense dice equal to your Strength -1. If you win the contest your opponent takes 1 damage. If you lose you take 3 damage.

Dodge: roll defense dice equal to your Speed. If you win the contest you take no damage. If you lose you take 2 damage.

Block: roll defense dice equal to your Toughness. If you win the contest you take no damage. If you lose you take 1 damage.

Combat Procedure

1) Each player rolls their Speed. The winner goes first.

2) The attacker declares their attack type.

3) The defender declares their defense type.

4) Roll off and determine results.

5) The second player's turn begins. They declare their attack, etc.

Gryndlewing v2: a balanced borg who confounds his enemies with light magic