Game: Quantum Rift

Quantum Rift is a simple turn based tactics game that quickly escalates in complexity as the fight spans out across up to three separate game boards representing alternate realities.

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Top Level Overview:

(refined in the proper rules page)

Turn-based combat.
On their turn, players may make two actions. Typically moving a unit and attacking with it.

Doing something is mandatory

Attacks have a %chance to miss that varies depending on the unit being attacked, and from what side that unit is being attacked from. (see unit list below) A D20 is rolled to resolve.
When a unit attacks or is attacked, after seeing the results the owner may declare a "Quantum Rift".

Each player can only do this once per game.
A second board is created that is an exact copy of the current one, with the exception that the opposite outcome of that attack takes place.

Ex: If an Archer attacked a Knight and killed it, the Knight's owner could declare a Quantum Rift. A new board is created where the attack missed and the Knight still lives.

Once a unit has been used, it has a recovery period of one turn. (The same unit can't be used twice in a row)

Unless you only have one unit left on a board. Then you may use it every turn, even if you have units remaining on other boards.
New units generated from a Quantum Rift are not subject to the cool down of the units they are replicated from.

If a unit ends its turn attacking, it must face the direction it attacked.

If a unit ends its turn moving, it may face any direction the player desires.

Units cannot move diagonally. Similarly, line of sight and range cannot be calculated diagonally.

For the purposes of dodge chance, diagonals default to a unit's better stat.

Ex. The two diagonals in front of a unit count as a frontal attack, two diagonals behind a unit count as side attacks.

Typically the addition of randomness to a game mitigates player skill in favor of divine whimsy. However, by making head on attacks less likely to hit than those from the side or behind, players can still display skill in attempting to out maneuver each other on the game board by flanking. Additionally, some amount of random chance ensures that no piece is ever truly safe, or that no desperate attack is absolutely doomed to failure.

Revision 6 Notes:

Quantum Rifts may only be used defensively to rescue a slain unit.

Allowing aggressive use lead to ensuring a double victory if used on an opponents last or second to last man.
Maybe should be allowed if you manage to almost win anyway without a rift.

New Character figures (yay!) that actually look (gasp!) like the units they represent.
Riftwalk introduced for the new "Rift Blade" and "Rift Totem" units.
Character Cards have been introduced as a more visually intuitive form of a rules sheet.

Still need a pass from a proper artist.

Rewrote the general rules a bit. Still need to figure out how to condense it a lot more.

Rift Totem now has Riftwalk 2, as opposed to a Rift Blades Riftwalk 1.
Rift Totem currently makes knights incredibly hard to kill at a 15% increase in dodge chance. Continuing to play with the number.
Should ranged attacks from a diagonal be shooters choice of side? This issue only affects archers, and would allow players to side step and backstab warriors easier. On one hand would make archers a lot more powerful, and able to pull off some silliness, on the other would remove a lot of confusion and clunkiness regarding diagonal rules. Would be more intuitive.

Attackers choice of side is too powerful. Breaks game.
Perhaps it splits the defense difference? Warriors would have 70% front diagonal defense, 45% back diagonal defense, etc.

Having eight dodge stats instead of 4 is too much for many players. Visually clutters character card.

New Units in workshop:

Special Units: (mutually exclusive units that you may only have one of, replacing the mage)

Rift Blade: Melee unit. May move 2 squares and attack, or 3 without attacking. Rift Blades have the same defense statistics as a mage. Riftwalk: Instead of making either an attack or a move action, the Rift Blade may teleport to the same square on an adjacent board.

Ex.: Instead of attacking, the Rift Blade moves two spaces, then Riftwalks to the middle board. Or instead of moving, the Rift Blade Riftwalks to the top game board and attacks an adjacent unit.
The Rift Blade is a very unique unit in that he can teleport to other boards and attack, allowing him to ambush opponents that aren't careful. By doing this a Rift Blade can apply pressure across multiple boards at once.
Rift Blades can be replicated by Quantum Rifts, leading to a small army of dimension hopping reinforcements. A strategic opponent will wait to use their Quantum Rift until there is an opportunity to use it without doubling your Rift Blade army.
On the flip side, Rift Blades have very poor defense, and its potential is wasted if it is destroyed before it can be replicated.

Rift Totem: Has no attack, and cannot move. Passively grants all allied units on it's game board a 10% bonus to attack and dodge rolls. If Rift Totem is destroyed, all allied units on it's game board receive a -10% bonus to attack and dodge rolls. Riftwalk: Instead of making either an attack or a move action, the Rift Blade may teleport to the same square on an adjacent board. Rift Totem is not replicated during a Quantum Rift. Same Defense scores as a mage.

The idea here is to create a stationary unit that becomes a high priority target for your opponent to take out quickly. Any board where the totem exists gets a significant (but not absolute) advantage over an opponent's army, but if your opponent can get to it, it very well might backfire.
There's also a fair amount of strategy around Totem placement once other boards are in play. Do you want it on a board where you have an advantage so that you can finish your opponent faster and mitigate the power of a unit's last stand? Do you need it on a board you're loosing to try and turn the tide? It takes a full turn to bring the Totem to the middle, 3 turns to hop across two boards. Can you spare the time? Can you protect it once it arrives?
An effective opponent will zone out the spot that a Totem might appear in to stop you from bringing it to a given board.

Others in ideation:

Shield bearers: Have incredibly high defense stats, but take a 5-10% penalty to successful attacks.

Random Idea Jar:

Replace rolling altogether with cards a la Battle Rats

Each player gets a hand of cards labeled 1-10. (1-20 to simulate a d20, but I think that would go on a bit too long.)
Whenever an attack is made, both players place one of these cards face down, then simultaneously reveal.
The character’s armor is then added to the card played. If the offense total is higher, the attack hits.

Armor is a static boost based on the current percentages written out.
ex: Hitting a warrior from the side is a 50/50 shot. Therefore neither the defense nor the offense get a bonus. Both players pick one card face down, then reveal.
Ex 2: Attacking a warrior from the front yields a 20% chance of success as current. In this version, that means the defense gets +8 (if using a 10 card system, +16 in 20) to whatever card they select face down.
Ex 3: Attacking a warrior from behind grants a 70% chance to hit, so the offense gets to add +7 to his attack.

Once a card is played, it is discarded face up so that it is visible, and cannot be played again until all other cards in hand are played.
This creates a dynamic where the math behind the strategic combat is unchanged, but removes the random component of rolling dice for every attack, as well as adds strategic counter play options to the board.

Players are more in control of when they want to push their advantage on the board state, but aren’t guarenteed their plans will work.

Bidding war minigame. Each player has a hand of cards that can add +5% or +10% to an encounter when played. Cards can be played at any time before a roll regardless of if you are attacking or defending to modify the possible outcome. Hand is limited, but refreshes and grows whenever a Quantum Rift occurs.

Each player effectively has a limited means to boost their likeliness to succeed or foil their opponent without resorting to a Quantum Rift by stacking the probability. When this happens, the other player may reply in kind and get into a bidding war, or allow it and save their cards for use in a later battle.
I'm thinking hands should grow in size and power as more boards are generated. At first, each player only has three or four 5% cards in their hand, but after the first quantum rift it is refreshed and each player draws two new 10% cards. They both now have more influence to toss around both boards. After the third board comes into play both players draw two new cards, a 15% and a 20%. Or some such.

Terrain: Decals for the clear game board spaces to emulate different terrains.

Mountains = +10% defense, Plains = +10% attack, Swamp = -1 movement penalty, etc.

Hexgrid: Perhaps the game would function better on a hex grid type board instead of a typical Chess square. It would certainly clear up some unintuitive issues around how diagonals work. On the other hand I'm really happy with how units move and interact as things are. We'll have to test it and see how it goes.
Roll Battle: Instead of letting the aggressor roll to see if he's hit or missed, have both players roll against each other.

"Try it with 2d20 (1 for each player) wherein the attacker has to beat the defender’s roll. If you never give any special attack bonuses to any pieces, this does not alter the chances, but it might alter the fun. I think opponents might enjoy rolling against each other (the defender will have perceived [not real] agency in the win/loss). This also leaves the option for special pieces that have increased attack rolls."

I agree that having both players be active in every fight would make the game more directly competitive and engaging, but I'm having a bit of a hard time wrapping my mind around how to include two die rolls with varying defenses without making combat more complicated and number crunchy. This is where my lack of RP experience is probably constraining my toolbox of ideas.
As it is, I like the simplicity. After all, the end goal is to make this a mobile game where the random number generation is all handled discretely. But I'm totally open to any brain-dead simple (easy to do over and over when fight breaks out without getting grueling) way to pit player rolls against each other.