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View Full Version : Original System Would like feedback in a some mechanics I'm working with: d20, under rolls and Risus



Black Barth
2017-03-20, 01:59 PM
Hello again,

Been reading Risus recently and since I'm still quite a fan of using the good old d20, I've been tinkering about some mechanics and would like to have some input about it if possible. Mind you that the text is not final and english is not my main language, so sorry about the grammar in advance.


Attributes [01-20]
You have 40 points to spend between the attributes; none can be lower than 2, neither higher than 12.

Physical - How you affect and react to the world physically with your body and your actions.
Magical - How you affect and react to the world magically with your powers and abilities.
Mental - How you affect and react to the world mentally by using your intellect and senses.
Social - How you affect and react to the world socially by how you present yourself and interact with others.


Skills
TBD

Mechanics:
Roll d20 under the value of the appropriated Attribute+ appropriate skill, only players will roll the dice. Due to how Risk works (it gets harder the closer you are of winning) will be worthy to sacrifice higher values for obtaining higher Risk (or victory!) in a single roll.

During a Conflict, each success will apply a Risk penalty to all rolls, while each failure will either reduce the Risk value (and penalty) or provide a Defeat point which will provide a temporary Revenge bonus for a single turn. Special abilities may reduce that penalty temporarily for a single roll or turn, or extend the duration of the Revenge bonus.
Rolling 1-2 is always a success, while 19-20 is always a failure. Rolling 1 is a Critical Success, which may advance Risk one additional level, while 20 is always a Critical Failure, removing one additional Risk point or providing one additional Defeat point.


Risk/Revenge Table
Tier 1 = -2/+2
Tier 2 = -4/+4
Tier 3 = -6/+6
Tier 4 = -8/+8
Tier 5 = Victory/Defeat

If at any moment during the Conflict any attribute become equal or lesser than zero, that unit have been defeated, and is out of combat. The amount of hits required to defeat an opponent will be based on his Challenge Rate and will never be above 5 (but may require additional rules to be defeated such as obtaining Risk 5 and then hitting beholder eye, beheading the medusa or giving that last speech about mercy that change the king's heart).

When you possess any value above 18 you may preemptively discard additional points to guarantee a degree of success based upon the reduction you apply to you roll. This bonus will only apply if the roll succeed upon the new value rolled (-5 for a bonus risk, -10 for 2 up to -15 for 3 bonus risks, for a total of 4 Risks in one single blow).

Some situations where there is no risk involved and the Attribute + Skill (or just one of the two) is quite enough to solve the situation, no rolls shall be required.
Some situations will just ask for a single Attribute or Skill roll to solve it with an appropriate penalty based on the opposition level, challenge, attributes, etc.
The rules above are only used when there is two or more sides in a clear dispute for something and both sides have equal or similar strengths and abilities to do so.
A low level poet trying to ask the King to give him his daughter hand is not a conflict. Is a failure.
An experienced bard wanderer doing the same may just be a single Attribute or Skill roll, or even an automatic success.


Additional Notes:
Considering attributes + skills, if the player is not trying to be a "jack of all trades", most characters will start with something between 15-16 (which will be 75-80% natural chance of success) and most challenges will be defeated after Risk 1 or Risk 2 while a great challenge (something like an end boss, or the last challenge of the adventure to solve the great mystery) probably will require Risk 2 and special conditions (Giving them a 60% chance of success).
My idea would be to try to emulate this kind of balance during all ranges of game play, but with artificial mechanics (players may have an 80% chance of success, but since getting Risk slowly is very dangerous, they may sacrifice their chances in order to score higher Risks and end the challenge faster).
Currently Risk penalties seems enough but I'm considering include some preemptive temporary penalty, something like "surprise turn" in order to make some conflicts start a bit harder, get easier, then progress getting harder and harder.

The idea probably would be that Risk 1-2 will be the Lv1-10 Range, the Risk 3-4, would be a Lv11-20 Range, while Risk 5 would be for epic challenges and final challenges of a campaign.

What do you guys think?