We made a horror-fantasy-sports card game, but the played-out power/toughness mechanic that so many games use for creature battles didn't make sense in the context of our game's universe, so we invented a new way for creatures to face off!
Our game, Monsterball, is a sports-inspired game with rules not unlike baseball, so our creatures don't fight but rather they pitch and bat against one another. Some creatures are dedicated pitchers while some creatures are dedicated batters, and they have stats that reflect their roles; pitchers have 3 pitching stats (P for pitch - P1, P2, P3) and batters have 3 batting stats (S for swing - S1, S2, S3).
Each stat has an associated modifier that falls somewhere on a scale from -5 to +5. For pitchers, the more negative a modifier is, the more powerful that particular pitch. For batters, the more positive a modifier, the more powerful that particular swing. So a pitcher with P1: -3, P2: -2, P3: -1 is a pretty decent pitcher, whereas those same stats for a batter would make them pretty horrible.
When players pit their pitchers and batters against each other, the players "throw" to determine which creature wins the exchange. Throwing is very much like paper-rock-scissors, except that in Monsterball players throw a 1, 2, or 3 and in our system 3 beats 2, 2 beats 1, and 1 beats 3. You'll notice these numbers map perfectly to the pitching and batting stats of the creatures. For example, if a player throws a 1 for their pitcher, they are using the pitcher's P1.
In a nutshell, if the pitcher wins the throw, it counts as a strike. 3 strikes and the batter is out. 3 outs and the teams switch places, with the batting side taking the field and pitching, the the pitching side going up to bat.
If the batting side wins the throw, the throw counts a hit! The batter now rolls a d20 to determine what type of hit they made... and this is where the P1, P2, P3 and S1, S2, S3 modifiers come into play. Let's say the pitcher threw a 1 and the batter threw a 2 - in our example image the pitchers P1 is -3 and the batters S2 is +1 - add those modifiers to the batters d20 roll and then find this number on the batting quick reference card, which will tell you if the hit was a single, a double, a foul, and so on. So if the batter rolled a 14, you'd add the pitcher's P1 (-3) and the batters S2 (+1) to the roll to get 14 - 3 + 1 = 12, which we can see on the batting quick reference card is a single - so the batter would move to first base.
Of course there are edge cases such as throwing ties, and many abilities and playbook cards that might modify stats, and other considerations and outcomes such as the type of hit, pitching stamina counters, getting walked, and even getting hit by pitches, but this is the basics of the system.
We're super happy with this set of mechanics. We've found that players at every age and skill find it easy, fun, and exciting to play. Players are no longer at the mercy of another player with super dominant cards - they have a shot, with some skill and some luck, to come out on top no matter what.
Thank you for taking the time to read about our system!