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View Full Version : Original System Throw to Evade: A Roll to Dodge inspired and vary much WIP game



GorinichSerpant
2015-08-12, 12:58 AM
After recently joining a Roll to Dodge a idea came to my mind for a neat if peculiar dice mechanic, which I combined with another idea in my head about making a rpg similar to these (https://urlivewiki.com/wiki/Game_Rules) two (http://www.simplesystemrpg.com/). The idea of which is to keep things simple, reduce math and put character information onto cards. Ideally the game would have fairly simple to understand and play while having additional depth for those who want to dive deeper.

The dice mechanics are simple, roll a d10 and reference the table below to see if it succeeds or fails. Where it says “and…” you add something to the success or failure. For example you fail to climb the wall and you hit your head on the ground, or you manage to hit your opponent with a rock and you stun them. Where is says “but…” you succeed or fail but something else either bad or good happens to you. For example you manage to light a match but you light yourself on fire or you fail to calm down the bandit king but he slips up and tells you where the princess is imprisoned.



Fail and…
Fail
Fail
Fail
Fail but...
Suceed but...
Suceed
Suceed
Suceed
Suceed and…



But that’s not it there’s more! You can get special abilities that allow you to use a different tables in different situations. Let’s say there is a “Zealot” class/archetype/something, it gives you the ability to use the At Any Cost table when your action furthers the cause of a cult religion or sect of your choice. As shown below, while using the Zealot ability you're a more likely to succeed but also more likely to backfire.


Fail and…
Fail
Fail but...
Suceed but bridges are burned
Succeed but innocents are harmed
Suceed but you will suffer a personal loss because of this
Suceed
Suceed
Suceed
Suceed and…


In this system higher attributes allow you to roll multiple dice and pick the best result, like D&D 5e advantage/disadvantage mechanic. My gut feeling(people who know probability tell me how wrong my gut is) tells me that if more than 3 dice are rolled, failure becomes very improbable so each attribute would start at 1 with the max being 3 and the -3 as the minimal. When in the negatives roll the amount of die and pick the worst result.

At character creation each character gets a certain amount of points to spend on attributes and 3 class/archetype/whatever-I-end-up-calling-it to pick from a list. Each one could provide special abilities, allowances to use certain tables in certain situations, spheres of knowledge (thieves know the word on the street, nobles know court politics, wizards know things no one was meant to know, soldiers know tactics and weapons maintenance) and so forth. The things each class/archetype/yaddyadda would be printed on convenient cards for easy reference.

Before I went off to design the attributes, combat system and the class/[term needed] I think it would be wise to first have other sets of eyes look at my precious baby's core mechanics so I won't have to redesign all the things later down the line. Do you see any potential problems with the resolution mechanic and what genre, theme and tone do you think this would fit best?

Jormengand
2015-08-12, 10:16 AM
Go check that AIE (http://www.topsecretgames.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Alea-Iacta-Est.pdf) doesn't already do what you want it to (maybe you could have Zealot as your special ability at chargen?). But it's a neat idea, I'll grant that.


Do you see any potential problems with the resolution mechanic and what genre, theme and tone do you think this would fit best?

Very DM dependent, but that'll always be a problem with R2D/AIE type systems.

As for genre/theme/tone, I've used AIE for anything from steampunk horror to comedy space exploration. I think this would probably sell itself well on being able to do anything.