First things first, hello you there my dear reader! Hope you're having a good day.

You'll have to excuse me, but I'm not an english-native speaker so please ignore my inevitable spelling mistakes.

Introduction

Coming to this post.

Recently I started playtesting with my group (just barebones combat mechanics for now) a pbta-adjacent game designed to recreate the narrative feeling of Shonen manga fights, à la DBZ, Naruto and weebs' comics like that, despite leaning the game on the crunchier side (especially in character building).

In our group we all agree that a granular character progression system (with a somewhat strategic component during fights, despite keeping it as narrative/theatre-of-the-mind as possible) is vital for such a system to stand out in between sub-par OVA-like traditional rpg systems and generic narrative systems (that tends to always be alright, but missing the mark by a little for this specific theme), so that's one of the core premises of my design. To allow for granularity to arise, a critical mass of interacting game elements is needed (at least in theory), but I really liked the way World Wide Wrestling's almost freeform combat system felt and how much the spectacularity felt engrained to the system (and how much similar to tropey shonen fights seem to be).

Combat System

Now, we started thinkering with the core premise by cobbling together mechanics taken by different games (notably Fate's zones and Create and Advantage, World Wide Wrestling wrestling moves and Ironsworn's derivative combat moves, True20's Toughness, City of Mist's statuses and DnD 4e I guess?) and the current results seems to be encouraging.

What I could write down from my notes would look something like this. Think of the following rules as the equivalent to turns, actions/action management, attack, damage, AC and movement rules of DnD 5e, with everything else regarding character customization (such as Feats, Spells and Character Abilities in that system) being left out.

• For easiness, my current version run with a 2d6 pbta classic dice system with still unnamed stats (for now, Toughness, Swiftness, Cleverness and two additional elemental stats from a list) ranging from -1 to 3 and the usual 6- failure, 7-9 partial success, 10 for success. This is far from being definitive.
• Status - Statuses are penalties or bonuses tags attached to game elements, such as Stale (-1) or Lurking ( 2/1); add or remove (intensity) to your (duration) next rolls where the status is relevant. The sign of the status' intensity indicates if the status is expected to be mostly used as a bonus or as a penalty.
• Combat - The combat is one-on-one, symmetrical (is the same for player vs. player or GM vs. player, the GM do roll dice), and turn based. The combat field is zone-based (such as Fate) and Statuses can be attached to zones as well.
• Initiative - When it's your turn, your character is on the offensive (they "have the initiative") because they found a hole in the opponent's attacks. The initiative pass to the opponent when it's "passed out" and is often as a consequence of failing moves or interruptions. The game is a conversation, yadda yadda yadda. If the fiction calls for it, roll for a move; being the following:
  • Strike - When you try to deal with someone for good by attacking with a weapon within range, roll Toughness. Add a Stale (-2) penalty to Strike.
    • Success - You choose to either attach Down! (!!) to your opponent and hand out initiative or attach Bruised (-2) to your opponent and keep the initiative.
    • Partial Success - You choose to either attach Bruised (-2) to your opponent and hand out initiative or attach Pressure ( 1/1) to yourself and keep the initiative.
    • Failure - Hand out the initiative to the opponent and clear Stale from all the moves you have.
  • Move - When you move to change your relative distance with someone, roll Swiftness. Attach a Stale (2) penalty to Move.
    • Success - You move to a different zone and keep the initiative.
    • Partial Success - You choose to either move to a different zone and attach Bruised (1) to yourself, or your opponent block/follows you. You keep the initiative.
    • Failure - Hand out the initiative to the opponent and clear Stale from all the moves you have.
  • Be Creative - When you do something creative in order to gain advantage down the line, tell what you do and what you want to achieve, then roll Cleverness. [rule for attaching statuses on the fly]
  • Use a Technique - When you use a technique your character knows, do what the move says.
  • Raise your Guard - When you take a breather from the offensive, remove all Stale from your moves and [something beneficial].
• Down! Down is a special status with no intensity and no duration. When it's your turn, if you've the Down status attached, you're passing out. You may concede the combat and pass out or you may try to bite the bullet, roll Toughness. Bruised are penalties for the roll.
• Techniques will be the bread and butter of the whole character progression system. I'm envisioning "move trees" or customizable playbooks, with crossing paths, prerequisites and juicy stuff down the line.
• Intrusion moves are moves that could be used even when your character doesn't have the initiative. Last minute dodges, pushes and initiative steals may fall in this broad category. (Think something like DnD 5e's reactions mixed with Ironsworn's Turn the Tide moves)
• The player that has initiative continues narrating and making Moves (amassing Stale penalties) until one of the following happens:

1. The result of a Move demands that you hand off initiative;
2. You voluntarily hand off initiative by taking a breather;
3. Your opponent uses the Interrupt Move to take control;

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TL;DR In combat, you keep initiative and keep attacking if you succeed, but the game pushes you to not use the same moves many times in the row. It's beneficial to accumulate enough bruises on the opponent before trying to put them down for good (with Down!) or they may be able to bite the bullet and go on. The turn pass to the other player always as a consequence of a failure of a move, keeping the "swinginess" of the spotlight swinging during combats in the aforementioned comics, where the advantage seems to always shift every other chapter.

Considerations and Questions

I have few questions to submit to reddit's hive-mind.

1. Could you spot any pitfall awaiting for me? I'm very early in this design, so I'm still in time to improve things going down the line.
2. What do you think would be the most optimal strategy to crack this barebone system?
3. Are there specific games you think I should check into for inspiration or adjacent to my idea?

Again, thanks for reading and for any incoming suggestions!