My Homebrew Roleplaying Game (Work-in-Progress, PEACH)

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

Inspired by This Article (http://saurondor.blogspot.ca/2013/01/d-needs-entirely-new-set-of-rules.html).

Until a good name can be found, this project will be referred to as FHG (Fantasy Heartbreaker Game). When I come up with something better, I will do a find-and-replace and change it.

Inspired by This Article.

Until a good name can be found, this project will be referred to as FHG (Fantasy Heartbreaker Game). When I come up with something better, I will do a find-and-replace and change it.

FHG is my attempt to take the premise and fundamental aspects of Dungeons & Dragons, and rebuild them from the ground up, creating a better and more flexible game. A “distillation”, if you will. It is a work in progress, incomplete and full of bugs. It is my hope that you will help me make it into something great.

FHG tries to accomplish the following ...

A smooth learning curve, fast play, and easy preparation for players and Game Masters.
A high level of internal consistency.
Enough flexibility to work with any genre of fantasy (that involves people stabbing one another), and to be as simple or detailed as the group wants.
A sense of wonder, creativity, and fun.
Gameplay that feels like a conversation, and is truly collaborative.
Incorporation of “the three pillars” wherever possible. Three classes, three groups of skills, ect.


Currently, I have over 3,000 words written, and an almost complete framework.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1amjGPx_9yn32dwGr2SzqQ_8YoO7SygIi_mYNUd9n4ds/edit#

[Yakk]

If you are rolling a fixed number of dice, then adding them up, and comparing them to a target number, you are wasting your time.

Graph a CDF of your system, with "roll X or over" horizontally. Scale the horizontal by the standard deviation of your die roll. Fix the 50% point.

Compare against boring 1d20.

The graphs only differ to any significant degree at the far ends.

Or, another way of looking at it, take your system, and make the modifiers +/-3 instead of +/-2, and in game play the game will be identical.

If you are bothering to roll multiple dice, do something with them besides adding them up. Look for pairs. Have individual 6s (or 1s) mean something. Maybe make runs do something. Anything besides add them up.

There is a bell curve, but the integral of a bell curve is much flatter than a bell curve, and "roll X or over" is in effect integrating the bell curve. You gain very, very little by adding up the dice.

Ie: Imagine if your bonus/penalties meant you rolled more or fewer dice. A +2 bonus means you roll 5d6 and take the best 3. A -2 penalty means you roll 5d6 and take the worst 3. This makes the die pool do something besides an exercise in relatively meaningless basic arithmetic.

Should bonuses and penalties cancel, or do you do both? Ie, suppose you have 2 advantage and 2 disadvantage dice. Maybe you roll 7d6, and drop the 2 highest and 2 lowest!

Next, once you have such an idea, attack it statistically. How big of an impact is rolling an extra die and dropping the low one? Dropping the high one?