Healing hit points

I don't like HP for a number of reasons, and I'd like to replace it with something better. Abstracted as 'hit points' it could mean almost anything, but most people tend to read it as 'health' or 'life,' which makes turn-based battles feel like everyone is standing in place, just hacking away at each others abdomens until one of them finally drops. But that's not really how fights work, and it leaves you with what I think is a pretty weak conceptual and mechanical foundation to combat.

Fatigue, by Magnus Fallgren

The first change is pretty simple, just call it Guard instead, with successful melee attacks wearing away at your guard until you become vulnerable. Another successful attack beyond that will cause a Wound that leaves the target incapable of combat. It could be anywhere in a wide range of severity, but personally I'd recommend making the player the one who ultimately decides if their character will die. I'm also a big fan of downtime, taking a break to really heal so that the game doesn't feel like an insane rush where an entire world-saving campaign happens in a week or two. To this end I like a week to a month as the healing time for most Wounds.

(I also like a week of downtime required for leveling up, but that's probably even more controvertible)

Characters also have Endurance, which they can spend a turn using to restore their Guard. Endurance would also be what most non-melee threats deplete, since you don't exactly block or parry arrows or a rolling boulder. You could have Endurance recover after a night's sleep, but a full day off makes more sense to me. Most people don't feel fully recovered until they spend a day relaxing, after all.

Day 21: Furious Undead, by Konstantin Vavilov

There might be a mental analogue to Guard, such as Focus for spellcasters and potentially archers or other ranged attackers, refreshed in a similar way by expending Endurance. To add some extra spice and realism to melee combat, characters can also make a Finishing Strike or Aggressive Attack where you roll a larger damage die, instantly Wounding the target only if it rolls higher than their current Guard. It does nothing if it rolls lower though, and might cost Endurance to attempt.

Combat systems

The point of combat

My goals when designing a combat system are that it should first have enough dynamism to not be a solved game or rote repetition, second be as simple as possible, and third be as realistic as it can. The order there is very important. I do not want to play a tabletop RPG that is mostly or entirely about combat, that's something I find video games will always have the advantage at, in terms of providing an exciting, tense experience. So here are three of my favorite attempts I've made at creating the kind of combat I'd want to play.

 

Duel by Antonio J Manzanedo

Three Hand Duel

There are three combat stances: fast stance, parry stance, and feint stance. Parry beats fast, feint beats parry, and fast beats feint. Anyone can use fast stance, anyone with a weapon (or specialized unarmed training) can use parry stance, and anyone proficient with their weapon can use feint stance. Anyone whose stance beats opponents’ stances deals damage dice plus bonus damage. Anyone whose stances matches their opponent's both deals and takes bonus damage (but not damage dice). Blocking stance is available if you have a shield, allowing you to roll a 'damage die' that will reduce any damage you take in the following round. Weapons and high strength increase damage, armor reduces damage taken.

Advantages: pretty complex without being hard to use, gives plenty of active decision making opportunity to players. Inherently feels flavorful because you're declaring how your character will fight. Easily scalable up to mass combat with something like charge, flank, route or similar (I haven't looked into medieval battle strategy). It also addresses the massive threat of being flanked, as both opponents can doom your options. There is also some opportunity to add special stances as class abilities or other kinds of specialized combat training, but this should be done with extreme care. Also runs faster than most dice systems, because someone is always taking damage.

Challenges: make sure you choose what your stance will be before you ask someone, you'll probably want to write it down. Honestly cards might work for this purpose. Also a bit hard for people to wrap their head around if they're not familiar with the terms, but they can be easily equated to rock, paper, and scissors (obviously what the system is based on). Also if you're unarmed or not proficient, there's always a best choice against you, so that's iffy.

Battle by Faraz Shanyar
 

Behind the Blades

Each character has a stamina stat. Before the turn, they can invest however many they want into offense and defense respectively. If one side's offense totals higher than the other's defense, that amount of damage is dealt. Armor and shields add fixed defense points, weapons and strength add fixed offense points. Possible additional rule: one may invest a third of their stamina in a 'guard break' that reduces enemy defense to zero. Stamina may lower each turn.

Advantages: very simple, very deadly. Again, possible to add special moves with a fixed stamina cost, or a fixed portion cost.

Challenges: again relies heavily on not knowing what the opponent will do. Even more so, knowing the enemy's stamina can potentially cause problems.

Spilled Wine by Daniel Landerman (NSFW warning)
 

Steel Ruckus

An attack is a d20 roll. If the result is higher than the opponent's defense, the attack is successful, and you can either strike them or shove them away. The first strike throws you off guard for a turn. If struck while off guard, you are wounded and unable to fight until healed. Strikes can be either deflected or absorbed, with a weapon or tool you are holding. Deflecting causes you to drop that item, while absorbing the strike damages the item. It takes one turn to attack, close distance (such as after being shoved), run away, grab two items from the ground or your belt, or grab one item from a container within reach (like your backpack) or from another belt in reach. Armor and shields add to defense, weapons and combat training add to attack.

Advantages: most compatible with D&D style combat systems, which includes a lot of OSR stuff, so conversion of existing combat should be a lot easier. Lots of potential for environmental fun, like shoving people into hazards (down stairs, into spiders) or dropping a weapon out of reach (off a bridge, down a cliff).

Challenges: the way shoving and running away work, there should probably be a similarly robust chase system. That seems like fun, but it is a challenge. Should also come with somewhat strict limits on what can be hung from a belt, lest players simply load their waist with spare weapons and shields.

-----

If you've been following for a while, the Three Hand Duel was what I was using for my Skies Below stuff. These are still broadly in chronological order, in the order I came up with them. I'll probably stick with Steel Ruckus for the time being, and flesh it out with more details in the future.

The beasts may challenge our gods

This is part of a GLOG community project to make rules for fighting and playing as kaiju (if you can believe it), proposed by Arkos over at Tome of Dreams. Some parts were quite a challenge, but it's the kind of challenge that you really want to rise up to, and I can only hope that I did a good job.

Skullcrawler by Dope Pope

Titans: gargantuan forms of incredible power. Easily as large as two houses, more powerful than any human but slow in their enormity. Titans have titanic vigor and deal 1d6 titanic damage with their attacks, each of which is six times normal vigor or damage. Normal damage is not counted against a titan unless a single attack deals more than six damage, but both the titan and their human-scale opponent hit automatically. Making equipment or items for titans is impossible outside of a large city or somewhere with similar manufacturing potential, and all items cost 100 times as much money. Titans move along titan tiles, each of which is 30 meters square, but can only act on every third round in combat.

Titan suits: what we might think of as 'mecha,' each needs a human crew piloting it in order to fight effectively. At minimum a pilot is required, but works best along with a gunner and engineer, often with room for secondary pilots, gunners, and engineers as needed. Each pilot can spend their turn either moving or turning, and gunners can only target enemies roughly in front of the suit. When titanic weapons are fired, the gunners must spend a turn reloading them, unless they have a secondary gunner to reload immediately as they fire, and each weapon requires gunners manning it. Engineers can field repair damaged systems, one per round. After the battle, vigor and system damage must be repaired properly for 25 gold each.

quasi medieval wooden mech by Lukasz Dudasz

Kaiju: independent titanic monsters. They must seek out huge quantities of food at a relatively slow rate thanks to their large, slow metabolism. They only need food once a week, but are sated by no less than 100 times what a human would eat in a day (generally 20 gold worth of food, or another giant monster). In melee combat against another kaiju they must use combat stances.

Kaiju

Each level requires 10 times the normal amount of exp
Stat bonus: +1 maximum Megaton

Starting skill: builder, climber, or survivalist

Level 1: a titanic monster!, only one thing can stop it!
Level 2: it's heading towards..., there on its back!
Level 3: its mouth is opening...
Level 4: strangest of all..., it's so... powerful!

A titanic monster!: your huge body has titanic vigor, and your claws, teeth, enormous fists, a casually lifted vehicle, or however else you choose to attack, deals 1d6 titanic damage.

Only one thing can stop it!: the sight of your weakness will halt you in your tracks, allowing only an attack or movement per turn while it is near. If it can damage you, take an extra die of damage.

1. Fire
2. Water
3. Beauty
4. Daylight
5. Blood
6. Wood

There on its back!: choose a set of limbs or protrusions, adding new mobility options. 

1. Expansive wings: they unfurl like the sails of a massive ship, blotting out the sun as they carry you beyond the earthly plane.
2. Myriad legs: pulling aside dirt or sand, allowing you to travel underground through any soft earth.
3. Translucent fins: along with gills, allowing you to travel freely underwater.
4. Loping arms: bending down around your body, able to propel you twice as fast as other titans.
5. Gelatinous bones: compress your body down to fit through any space two horses could fit in. While compressed you cannot fight properly.
6. Shimmering eggsac: consume one Megaton to place eggs where you are. They have 1 titanic vigor, but as long as they aren't destroyed and you don't place new eggs elsewhere, you can evaporate into dust, hatching fully formed from the eggs in an instant.

Squid Kaiju Baby by Roger Gerzner

It's heading towards...: determine what source will power your preternatural might. Each time you find a great enough source, gain one Megaton. You can spend your turn to consume one Megaton and heal 1d6 of your titanic vigor.

1. Magical energy: a legendary artifact or order of lesser mages.
2. Lightning: a lightning bolt, or an alchemical engine like unto a modern power plant.
3. Heat: a few blacksmith forges or a flow of lava.
4. The adoration of children: spend a day catering to a group of children.
5. Blood: a village worth of people, or a herd of large animals.
6. Gold: 60 gold coins, or two kilograms of gold.

Its mouth is opening...: consume one Megaton to use a breath attack on your turn.

1. Incendiary tongue: heat like the fires of hell blast from your maw, spilling out into a cone up to 90 meters away, dealing 2d6 titanic damage.
2. Hyperborean breath: your exhalations frost over all before you, up to 60 meters away, dealing 1d6 titanic damage. Anything that would be killed by this damage is instead magically frozen, protected by ice unless shattered or thawed. 
3. Voice of the storm: a bolt of lightning cracks forth from your throat, darting into one target of any size up to 120 meters away for 2d6 titanic damage.
4. Venomous belch: cough noxious clouds over the puny creatures below, filling a 90 meter square area centered around you with poisonous gas for 1d6 rounds, dealing 1 titanic damage to anything in it each round except yourself.
5. Crystal seed teeth: gnash and spit teeth about, sprouting great crystal trees that impede and fill up to three tiles adjacent to you.
6. Frenzy brood: spit out tiny young, 1d6 monsters with 1 titanic vigor each, which deal 1 titanic damage with their attacks. They are as small as horses, and will die after 6 times 1d6 rounds.

Godzilla vs Kong fan art - Nuclear Breath by Jonathan Opgenhaffen

Strangest of all...: select one final mutation, either from the list below or from either previous list.

1. Immortal conception: a week after being killed, consume all Megatons to give birth to an infant kaiju who is helpless for a month. It can move and eat if food is provided for it, and after the month it will grow back to its previous size, one level lower. Each Megaton absorbed in this state hastens maturation by a week.
2. Axe scales: anything touching your skin takes 1 titanic damage.
3. Living mountain: consume one Megaton to wreathe your body in impenetrable stone, gaining +3 titanic defense for ten rounds. Normal sized attacks will be unable to damage you at all during this time.
4. Lifebringer: consume one Megaton to send out a cloud of healing spores, healing every living thing within 100 meters for 1 titanic vigor.
5. Neural link: take a weapon or limb from a defeated titan and attach it to your body. It will last for 1d6 days or unless destroyed in some other way, and you can use it as freely as the original host could.
6. Explosive growth: consume one Megaton to double in size for 1d6 rounds. While in this state, you occupy an extra tile and deal +2 titanic damage with normal attacks.

It's so... powerful!: consume one Megaton before picking a combat stance. If this attack hits, it will deal 3d6 titanic damage.

Enemy Kaiju

Night of Silk
A circus once used tents inhabited by spirits to make their travel easier. They brought on more of these spirits, easing their way and filling the nights with whimsical shows of floating lanterns, dancing dresses, and nervous but exotic beasts. The spirits started to collect more spirits, more tents and decorations that could dance with them, until they had swallowed up their mortal stewards and drifted into the sky, captivating one audience after another.

Shirintu the Blight
A dragon captured by a wartorn kingdom. She was cursed, mutated, and enchanted to create the ultimate war beast, but inevitably shattered her bonds and destroyed her longtime tormentors. Her breath is cursed green flame flecked with shards of red glass, and her body is speckled with venomous pustules and red needles.

Grulputh
A god of goblins, or godlin. It is a gibbering, spaztic, conniving coward, and it is taller than a windmill. Somehow this sickly green menace always manages to hide its huge body, and sees fit to rob peasants and leave huge traps hidden in the woods.

Other participants

Arkos at Tome of Dreams: https://tomeofdreams.blogspot.com/2020/03/kaiju-challenge-gigantes.html?m=1
The Byzantine at Espharel: https://espharel.blogspot.com/2020/02/osr-kaiju-rules-and-class-kaijui-barely.html
deus ex parabola at Numbers Aren't Real: https://as-they-must.blogspot.com/2020/02/giant-monster-i-hardly-know-ster-glog.html
Lexi at A Blasted, Cratered Land: https://crateredland.blogspot.com/2020/03/giant-robots-deserve-giant-monsters.html

Combat, weapons, and health in Skies Below

To those just joining, Skies Below is the working title for my personal RPG project. Combat isn't the central focus or quite as emphasized as it tends to be in some of the more popular RPGs, but it is still pretty important in a medieval setting and I like to have a good tactical fight every now and then.

Battle by Faraz Shanyar

Vigor is the measure of a character's ability to keep on fighting, generally avoid major injury be it due to physical stamina, morale, or even luck. When damage has reduced a character's vigor to zero, that character is worn out, and the next damage they take will cause a Wound. When characters rest for an hour long meal break and eat at least one ration, their vigor is restored to full. Likewise when they sleep for eight hours, and they can drink alcohol to restore 1d6 vigor in a round.

A wounded character cannot regain vigor until they've healed, which takes one week per wound. If a wounded character takes damage, they must roll 1d6. If the result is higher than their number of wounds, they survive and take a wound. If the result is equal to or lower than their number of wounds, they become fatally wounded. A fatally wounded character can die right away, or within the week if the player wishes, but the character won't be able to continue adventuring consistently while dying.

Carrying the Wounded by Dominik Mayer

Each round of combat takes ten seconds, and melee combatants have three stances to choose from; fast, parry, and feint. Much like rock paper scissors, fast stance is beaten by parry stance, parry is beaten by feint, and feint stance is beaten by fast stance. If your stance is beaten by your opponent's, you take full damage. If your stance matches your opponent's, each take 1 damage plus attack bonuses. A character can only use feint stance with a weapon they are proficient with, and can use parry stance with any weapon.

Animals or creatures of similar mental capacity can either pounce or dig in, which are analogous to a fast stance or parry stance respectively. An animal trained specifically in combat can feint, as can creatures with human-level intelligence.

There are four categories of melee weapons: light weapons, mass weapons, balanced weapons, and reach weapons. Light weapons are generally small, one-handed ones like daggers, knuckles, or a small cudgel. A mass weapon could be a mace, hammer, or axe which can be wielded in one hand. Balanced weapons include swords, spears, and other weapons that are generally longer but can be used either one handed or two handed, and have a more even balance along their length. Reach weapons include greatswords, poleaxes, and most other polearms, and can only be used with both hands.

                               | attack | defense | armor piercing |
Light weapon:         |    +1   |     +1     |           +1          |
Mass weapon:        |    +1   |     +1     |           +2          |
Balanced weapon:  |   +2    |    +2      |          +1           |
Reach weapon:      |   +2    |    +2      |          +2           |

Viking Axe by Adam Dudley

Light weapon damage uses the lower result of 2d6, one handed mass or balanced weapons deal 1d6, and two handed weapons deal the higher result of 2d6. While wielding a mass or balanced weapon, a light weapon in the offhand grants +1 attack and armor piercing. With a shield, the character can choose to block instead of attacking, increasing their defense by the lower result of 2d6 with a small shield, or 1d6 with a large shield.

Ranged attacks use the a skill check each round. For thrown weapons such as knives, darts, or a sling, the launcher skill is rolled. For bows, the archer skill is used, and for crossbows or firearms the shooter skill. For a particularly difficult shot, such as trying to hit someone hiding in underbrush or out of range, the skill check is twice as hard.

A successful unarmed attack deals one damage plus attack bonus. With special unarmed training, an unarmed character can enter parry stance against unarmed enemies. With unarmed mastery, an unarmed character can enter parry stance against armed opponents.

Xiu Yin Chen by Mario Wibisono

Armor increases defense, +1 for gambeson or other light armor, +2 for chain or other medium armor, and +3 for plate or other heavy armor. If the character wears heavy armor all day, they become strained, and heavy armor takes one minute to put on with help.

Varangian by Sergei Gereev

There are five movement choices in a round. Closing distance, creating distance, maintaining distance, racing to a target, and holding ground. When making one of these actions against a foe, such as racing against someone, maintaining distance against a fleeing opponent, or holding ground against someone trying to get past your character, each roll 1d20 and add their speed bonuses, whoever rolls higher wins.

These rules may seem a bit unfocused, but in general it's designed to focus on melee combat and create a reasonably realistic, tactical, and streamlined experience. Lots of this was inspired by https://spellsandsteel.blogspot.com/ so check out that blog if you want some really interesting real-world data related to weapons, travel, equipment, and other information relevant to a medieval fantasy type game. Sorry I missed a post, for those that noticed.

Articorpus Suprultima: magical mecha and more

The temple of a conquering god, built up and shaped into a titanic body for its divine spirit to inhabit through the hands of the faithful crew. A coven of witches weaving life into their shared home, granting it gargantuan legs and sharp fangs. The necromancer lords of old burst from their crypts, crafting a bone behemoth of the ancient dead to scour the lands. An insect god from another world approaches the party and requests their assistance, neural pathways open and inviting, in protecting this world that it might at last live in peace.



Each magical mecha has at least three available positions: pilot, gunner, and engineer. On their turn, the pilot can either move the mecha or turn it up to 180 degrees, or activate special movement abilities like wings or drills, the gunner can either fire or reload one of the weapons, and the engineer can repair one system or recover the hull by one. Weapons can only fire at targets in a semicircle in front of the mech, unless they hit all adjacent. Movement system with speed higher than 1 can only move in a straight line, and cannot move less than their full speed. Multiple crew can work at each station, but there's no benefit beyond two pilots or two gunners to a weapon. Crew can move to other stations, but it takes one round if they were piloting or gunning.

Attacks hit automatically, dealing one hull damage and disabling one system as determined by 1d6. When Hull reaches 0, the mech is damaged beyond use. Each movement system and weapon has an equal chance of being hit (a mech with more than six systems would be excessively powerful). Whenever a mech is hit, the crew add their mech's instability to the impact of the attack, and try to roll that number or higher on 1d6. If they fail, their mech is turned by the attack to face, away from the attacker.

These craft are massive, similar in size to an upright castle. Any attack from one will completely obliterate a human-scale target, up to creatures like dragons or kraken which can manage survive one hit and deal some damage back. Any attack less than a dragon's fire or a siege weapon will deal no damage to any mecha, but invaders can attack the crew.

Baba Yaga Hut by AlcoholicHamster

1. WALKING TEMPLE
Exiled priests of Roaz built a new home and named it Virth, thus giving life to a new conquering god and granting it full form in a humanoid shell of gilded marble.
Hull: 6
Instability: 2
Storm Ballista: 10 range, 1 impact
Angelswarm Wings: 2 speed flight, +4 clumsiness
Inverted steeples: 1 speed walk

2. COVEN BEAST
Some say the oldest magics are the greatest, and the glimmering teeth and claws bursting from a home built by hand incuse a testament of such claims into the ground with every step.
Hull: 4
Instability: 1
Claws of the Moon: 2 range, 3 impact
Fangs of the Stars: 1 range, 0 impact, always targets movement system
Great Beast's Legs: 1 speed crawl, if not used, -1 clumsiness for one round

3. WAR THESIS OF WIZARDRY
As the kingdom of Waylet found itself more and more deeply embroiled in war the monarch put equal pressure on the wizards to develop more powerful magics.
Hull: 8
Instability: 3
Ultrastaff: 5 range, 2 impact, roll two systems and choose which takes damage
Wheels of Progress: 1 speed roll

4. GRAZIAX FROM ZHELL
Wayward god-prince of a distant, unimaginable divine realm fleeing from a devourer of worlds. It seeks the aid of intrepid pilots to enter its body in a symbiosis that is apparently common in its home realm.
Hull: 6
Instability: 2
Acidic Outpour: 3 range, 1 impact, can hit two adjacent targets
Grand Pincers: 1 range, -6 impact, no system damage but can latch on and move with target (can let go at any time)
Catapult Legs: 4 speed leap, takes two turns to leap

5. BONEGRAVE MAUSOLEUM
Lich lords from the ancient days, long thought defeated and slain, have merely been building their strength in quiet crypts. Now they unleash power and death gathered through the ages, meaning to take back the lands of the living.
Hull: 5
Instability: 3
Necrotic Megascythe: 3 range, 2 impact, any human-scale creatures in range are killed and raised as undead
Countless Femurs: 1 speed crawl

6. DREAM LORD
Slumbering deep in the sea since perhaps before the first human flesh imagined its own existence, it has been awakened by wild cultists whom it consumes and takes counsel from in their eternal sleep.
Hull: 10
Instability: 5
Awakening Star: 6 range, 0 impact, target's crew make Will saves or become incapacitated by nightmares for a turn
Voidwind Wings: 1 speed flight, even in space
Slithering City: 1 speed swim
Eats mortals, who make a Will save to become trapped in its dreams and then die. If successful, they become a new crew member.

7. FORGEMASTER'S MOUNT
Built by ancient dwarves with tonnes of the finest steel, over generations of master craftswork. The explosive powders are a wonder to alchemists, who insist that the wizards have it all wrong with their 'mountain magic' theories.
Hull: 7
Instability: 4
Ancestor's Hammer: 1 range, 2 impact
Mountainfire Sling: 6 range, 3 impact, 2 hull damage, five shots per battle
Short legs: 1 speed walk
Inverted Volcano: 5 speed leap, one use per battle

8. KRASCHKUL THE THUNDER
An ancient hero of the giants, perhaps the oldest still living and the only one to ever have a full suit of plate mail forged for him, as well as a blade that could be called a broadsword. Those legends have left out how dull of mind he is, having been secretly guided to most of his heroism by hidden human passengers.
Hull: 5
Instability: 2
Sword of Kraschkul: 1 range, 3 impact
Giant's Roar: 1 system damage to all adjacent mecha
Charging Storm: 3 speed run, takes 2 rounds to charge, 1 hull damage to one target in path

The Boat by Salvador Dali

9. THE YELLOW STAR
Something of a moving palace made to be as comfortable as possible, ultimately with many concessions in terms of combat ability. Commissioned from golemancers of the Yellow City by its wealthiest slugmen, it is a polished stone giant with huge decorative topaz eyes.
Hull: 13
Instability: 2
Major Mass Flare: lights fuses at the start of the turn, looking like a weapon charging up. At the start of the next turn, shoots a huge array of fireworks up into the air in a stupendous but harmless display
Avalanche Slam: 1 range, 3 impact
Ponderous Steps: 1 speed walk
Contains an opium lounge full of silk pillows, and a delightfully stocked tea cabinet. Crew get +1 against mecha abilities that affect them.

10. GYS SILVER MANTIS
An oddly-shaped craft ridden by pirates from across worlds, its shoulders sport metallic sails and crystalline cannons protrude around the waist.
Hull: 5
Instability: 3
Aether Cannons: 4 range, 2 impact
Boarding Hooks: 1 range, -6 impact, allows the Astral Mallard's crew to board the enemy
Luminary Sails: 2 speed flight in astral currents
Port and Starboard: 2 speed sail

11. BIRIGX THE PUNISHED
The whipping post of all hell, a great hulking demon whose skull has been wrenched open and whose innards have been carved out. There are greater demons of equal magnitude, but they do not answer to summons and Birigx is not given a choice.
Hull: 4
Instability: 1
Mass Trident: 5 range, 2 impact
Cataclysmic Dismissal: hits all adjacent, 3 impact, 2 hull damage, kills Birigx crew and sends him back to hell.
Tattered Wings: 1 speed flight
Cloven Hooves: 2 speed run

12. CHARIOT COLOSSUS
Once in an empire long past, the land's greatest engineer determined to make a more powerful chariot. They succeeded, and kept on succeeding until they had created this gleaming tower of a warrior with lumber and bronze.
Hull: 7
Instability: 2
Rain of Bronze: 3 range, 1 impact
Greatest Pike: 2 range, 3 impact
Wheeled Basis: 2 speed roll

Done as part of the GLOG mech/robot rules challenge. Other participants:
https://slugsandsilver.blogspot.com/2019/10/yoon-suin-glog-clockwork-golem-player.html
https://nuclearharuspex.blogspot.com/2019/10/mech-rules_5.html
https://octarinetinted.wordpress.com/2019/10/04/mantle/
https://oblidisideryptch.blogspot.com/2019/10/ezcocotli.html
https://crateredland.blogspot.com/2019/10/having-mechs-on-first-date.html

Proficiency

My weapon types are copied directly from Spells & Steel, seen here: https://spellsandsteel.blogspot.com/2012/09/weapon-behaviour-simplifying.html
As a HEMA practitioner (or former practitioner), he has some excellent insights into weapon behavior and combat mechanics, and I would highly recommend the blog if you have as much interest in this stuff as I do.

I will restate the weapon types here in my own words:
Light weapons: dagger, knuckles, kama, katar, cudgel, etc. Possibly whips as well.
Balanced weapons: arming sword, long sword, spear, bo staff, etc.
Mass weapons: axe, mace, flail (if you decide to include them), hammer, etc.
Reach weapons: poleaxe/polehammer, greatsword, etc.

The general jist of it is pretty easy to understand. For damage, it will always be dealt in increments of d6. Light weapons deal the lower of 2d6, and other weapons will deal 1d6 if one handed, or the higher of 2d6 if two handed. Strength bonus is always added

Everyone is proficient with light weapons, with possible exceptions for particularly exotic ones, and combat trained classes get proficiency with all melee weapons and armor. They can choose to exchange one melee proficiency for one rank in a ranged skill. Combat capable classes get one choice of melee or ranged proficiency, and one choice of armor or shield proficiency.

If wielding a weapon that you are not proficient with, you cannot parry or feint with it. Each character can have one personal weapon to become proficient with, after they have dealt damage with it to three different foes. This only applies to that specific weapon, not other weapons of its type, and if they decide to become personally proficient with a new weapon, they are no longer proficient with the previous one.

Unarmed attacks deal 1 damage plus strength bonus by default. With martial arts training, you can parry unarmed attacks while unarmed, and deal the lower of 2d6. With martial arts mastery, you can parry weapons while unarmed, and deal the higher of 2d6.

For ranged weapons, I would have two skills; archery and throwing. Each range increment incurs cumulative a penalty of -1, and trick shots require a difficult check. Range increments would generally differ depending on the weapon. Perhaps a third skill such as 'firing' for crossbows and guns, but these would be rare and expensive, unavailable for a new character.

Skies Below

The current working title for my homebrew game is Skies Below. And of course, I've thought of a new combat system for it. My goal with designing a combat system is for it to be logical, simple, and dynamic.
This one includes three main attack options; press the attack, parry and counter, or feint and follow through. These work similar to rock-paper-scissors, except that while anyone can press, you can only parry with a weapon, and only combatants with training can feint. Additionally, anyone with a shield can block, increasing their defenses for the round.
If your attack beats your opponent's, you deal 1d6 damage modified by weapon type, plus strength modifier, and reduced by their defense. If you pick the same attack as your opponent's, you deal 1 damage plus your strength modifier, reduced by their defense.
Beasts and other unintelligent combatants can lunge (as press), or latch on (as parry), and typically cannot feint.
This system works well because the attack choice can essentially replace the attack roll, though it doesn't include provision for critical attacks. That's the main thing I want to consider in the future. For ranged combat, it's simply going to be a skill, either archery or throwing.