1KM1KT Free RPG Community

It's been a long time since I've posted here. I have moved and had some weird occurrences in my personal life. But I have been chugging away at my game, and the Word document is getting hefty.

However, recently my design changed. With the actual release of D&D Next's initial public play-test, I realized something important about my game. My game had more in common with Japanese console RPGs. So I decided, to turn this project into a Japanese-style TRPG.

Japanese TRPGs (Table-talk Role Playing Game, named to distinguish them from console RPGs) are fascinating to me. They all started off as their own versions of D&D. Traveller was the first game translated into Japanese in 1984, and then the following year, D&D, in 1985. Polyhedral dice are REALLY difficult to find in Japan, especially in the rural areas, so many Japanese started writing houserules to make use of d6s, which they have had for hundreds of years. Many of them became extensive, and got published. The top 3 Japanese RPGs are either D&D itself, or a domestic fantasy game.

Japanese games have some really cool inovations independent of Western design; but they also have much in common with U.S. games from the late '80s- early '90s. Indie-style games are practically non-existant, with weird exceptions like the Maid RPG.

The basic Japanese mechanic, used in many of their games, revolves around rolling 2d6 and adding a value (with a widely varied range, anywhere from 0-50 or higher for high-level play) to that outcome, with 2 being a critical or automatic failure, and 12 being a critical or automatic success. Its simple, it's fast, and your training & natural ability heavily outweighs chance.

It's also a little boring, and predictable. There are games that break from this approach, but this formula fits several of the Japanese games I am familiar with. I want to mess with the formula.

There are two Japanese games I can find information on that differ from this formula. Arianrhod starts with a base of two dice, then adds in dice for skills and modifiers. Tenra Bansho Zero uses dice from your attributes and any dice coming up the same value as your skill (which ranges 1-5) is a success (so if you have a stat at 4, and a skill of 2, any dice that come up a 1 or 2 count as a success, and anything higher is a failure. Sixes are always a failure.

My original idea was to use the basic mechanics from Silhouette Core (for those of you who don't know, you roll a number of dice equal to your skill rating, 1-10, with most people topping out at 5, take the single highest value, and add an additional value from your attributes, usually a +1 or +2) and modify it. Howver, now I think I want to marry the method from Arianrhod with a modification of Tenra, and add in a form of the Wild die from the old WEG's d6 system.

The following is the basic mechanical idea.

The basic rules for this system utilize multiple six-sided dice, used to form dice pools. Each Player is allowed to roll two dice, referred to as the base die-pool, for any task, whether they are trained in the skill associated with a task or not. Any exceptions to this rule are noted explicitly in those cases.

In addition to the two base dice allowed for every roll, an extra d6 is added. This die should be of a different size or color, or if preferred, rolled by the GM or another player. This die is called the Wild Die, as it introduces a radical element to the die pool. In general when reading the wild die, you ignore any value other than a 1 or a 6. Any time the wild die comes up showing a 1, something has happened to complicate the action. You remove it from the pool, and also remove the highest die showing in the pool. If multiple dice are showing the same high value, you should remove just one. On a 6, your action has managed to succeed in a spectacular fashion. You may now count the die towards a success twice. GMs wishing to give such rolls more narrative weight are encouraged to do so by describing how the action was complicated or why it was so spectacular.

Training in a skill allows you to add dice to this initial pool, 1 die for each rank you have in the skill, rated 1-5. These additional dice in your pool are referred to as Skill dice. Once you have finalized how many dice reside in your pool, (Base + Wild + Skill = total dice pool) you roll them, looking for any dice that come up as a 6. The level of your skill also modifies this value; each skill level subtracts 1 from the number needed to count the die towards a success. So if you have a Skill of 2, you add two dice to your pool and need a 4 or better to succeed on the roll. Base or Skill dice that turn up 1 are called Opportunities, and are removed from your die pool. Base or Skill dice that come up 6 are called Surges, and give you one shift towards success. Dice that come up showing a 2-5 count as shifts if they match or exceed your Skill modifier, but are not considered Surges (these are used to fuel special abilities).

The bonuses from your attributes (generally a +1 or +2) add to the total number of shifts from your roll (provided that you have at least one Shift from your dice). This total is then compared to an opposing roll or to a fixed difficulty as shown on the following table.

The Difficulty is the base number of Shifts needed to succeed at a task, with the default being 1, and running up to 10.


Thoughts would be appreciated, and anyone who knows how to get the page Any Dice to work for them has my deepest thanks if they could plug this into the calculators and link it up.

Thanks in advance.

Due to feedback on this forum and one other, I have changed the wording to be more clear. That is one of the reasons I posted the rule in the first place, was to get it more solidly nailed down without confusing anyone.

Here is the new, (hopefully) clearer bit of rules.

The basic rules for this system utilize multiple six-sided dice, used to form dice pools. Each Player is allowed to roll two dice, referred to as the base die-pool, for any task, whether they are trained in the skill associated with a task or not. Any exceptions to this rule are noted explicitly in those cases.

Training in a skill allows you to add dice to this initial pool, 1 die for each rank you have in the skill, rated 1-5. Once you have finalized how many dice reside in your pool, (Base [2] + Skill[1-5] = total dice pool[3-8]) you roll them, looking for any dice that come up as a 6. The level of your skill also modifies the number on the die you are looking for; each skill level subtracts 1 from the number needed to count the die towards a success. So if you have a Skill of 2, you add two dice to your pool and need a 4 or better to succeed on the roll. Base or Skill dice that turn up 1 are removed from your die pool (this is done to exempt them from any re-rolls allowed by other rules). Dice that come up showing a 2-6 count towards success if they match or exceed your Skill modifier.

The bonuses from your attributes (usually +1 or +2) add to the total number of degrees of success from your roll (provided that you have at least one from your dice). This total is then compared to an opposing roll or to a fixed Difficulty.

The Difficulty is the base number of dice counted as successes needed to achieve a given task, with the default being 1, and can go as high as 10.

Some of the more situational rules needed to be excised from the core so that the basic rule was easier to grasp. However, they are important, and as you have asked about them, and their functionality, I will explain them further, and provide and example. I'm going to do break the post up, though, to make it more digestible.

As I mentioned in the last post, Base or Skill dice that turn up 1 are removed from your dice to eliminate them from re-rolls. These 1s are called Opportunities. This is a modification of a mechanic from the new Marvel Heroic Roleplaying game.

In MHR, Opportunities are a resource the Watcher (GM) can use to ramp up the overall tension of the scene by making players rolls more difficult, as well as a mechanic to give the players tokens to affect their dice rolls, similar to FATE. They are negotiated. when you have an opportunity, you announce it, and the watcher can decide if they want to purchase your opportunity or not. Players are given a chance to purchase the watcher's opportunities, as well. They help add tactile moments to the game. I am doing something similar.

Dice that come up showing a 2-6 count towards success if they match or exceed your Skill modifier. However, 6s are a special case; I call them Surges. I wanted to have an inverse mechanic for Opportunities, without having something completely out of control like a dice-explosion mechanic.

Surges are what fuel most of your special abilities in my system. You keep track of Surges earned, and use them to unleash your characters various powers, including some re-rolling mechanisms., and players use Surges to buy GM opportunities. This is to represent, for instance, a warrior letting his guard down, or slipping on loose gravel, etc., at just the wrong moment, and his opponent taking advantage of the opportunity.

Shifts were poorly placed. I was calling successes on the dice "shifts" to avoid the poor grammar/misnomer of having success on the dice, but still failing the roll. The idea was that each die that came up in your favor "shifts" you toward success. I think I am just going to refer to them as degrees of success, or something similar.

Next up, some examples of the system in use.

You have some interesting ideas here, though I'm not sure what they would apply to. While apparently there is a lot going on during the roll, it seems manageable. My bigger concern is working with modifiers and genre. Skill raises ability exponentially because it both adds more chances and lowers the target number.

On one hand, this system heavily rewards specialization and competence. However resolution is rather slow since you have multiple steps - winnow out ones, count sixes, note GM resources, compare numbers. And what does the GM do to alter difficulty - require more success, reduce dice, change target number? Therefore, it doesn't seem to apply to fast action like movies or anime yet the characters are too good for a low-level realistic game.

Some of this reminds me of the - check out the free version available in "Nemesis".

Did you drop the wild die mechanic? Its not in your restatement.

Someone is at the door, I'll need to review this more later. Good Luck.

For this example, I am going to use the example of Zariel, a spy, cad, and ne'er-do-well. He is sneaking into a keep in the dead of night.

First, he needs to scale the walls. After looking over the Attributes, and skills, needed to do this, the GM decides this will be an Athletics test, modified by Zariel's Fitness score, as climbing freestyle is very hard on the body. the GM decides this is tricky, but the keep has numerous hand and footholds, so he sets the Difficulty (number of degrees of success needed to achieve his task) at a 3.

Zariel's Athletics is a 3, and his Fitness is +2. He adds 3 dice to the base dice for all tasks for 5 dice total, and rolls them, looking for (6-3=3) 3s or better on his roll. He rolls a 1 (opportunity, and removed), 3, 5, 3,and 5, for a total of 4 degrees of success, modified further by his +2 Fitness to 6. Zariel dominates the task with an excess of 3 degrees of success left over. He ascends the wall with grace and speed, climbing in a short period of time due to his stunning performance.

At the top of the wall, as he is about to pull himself up and over the crenelations, a guard walks past. Zariel needs to go unnoticed to complete his task. The GM decides Zariel's player needs to roll Stealth modified by Build to hang in silence while the guard shambles past, opposed by the guard's Perception, modified by Observation, to notice the man hanging from the wall by his fingertips.

Zariel is an expert at Stealth, with a skill rating of 4; his Build is +1. He rolls a 6 (surge), 5, 4, 4, 3 and a 2 for a total of 7 degrees of success.

Impressive, but the guard gets to roll, too. The guard isn't very wary at the moment, but he wasn't put here for nothing. He has a Perception of 3, and an Observation of +3. He rolls 6,6,6,and two 1s, which are removed. He has a total of 6.

Unbeknown to the player, the GM had rolled the Wild die when his character was climbing to the top of the wall. It had no effect on his climbing roll (it came up a 2). But the die came up a 6 during this contested roll, modifying all dice that come up that value. Each die matching the Wild die counts twice for all effects. the player adds 1 more degree of success, getting 8 degrees of success total. But the guard had three 6s. This translates into 6 degrees of success before adding in his Observation, for 9 degrees of success, beating Zariel by 2. The GM informs Zariel that the guard was staring at the exact spot where his hand reached over the top of the wall, and is aware of his presence.

Things are exciting now. Zariel is hanging from the wall, with 2 surges stored up, while the guard has 6 (again, the wild die modifies all effects). Combat is likely to occur. Zariel's player also might try to salvage the situation by activating the Guard's two Opportunities, removing some successes from his pool, or gaining them as dice on his next roll, but the GM might decide to activate his one opportunity, as well. The rest is behind the curtain.

I hope this gives you a good illustration of the process at work.

My concern with dice pool mechanics is that it can be a little difficult for the player to judge the chance of a success. It comes from not being particularly familiar with dice pools. As CA points out, your system is workable but I feel it might get very complicated when you start adding modifiers for weapons, or are in more complicated scenarios such as facing multiple foes. For a GM playing off the cuff (those that play free RPGs tend to be that way, include me), it might be difficult to understand how to best apply modifiers as they have so many options here.

Let's look at each piece of the mechanic in turn and what it might mean to a GM playing off the cuff (all right, me)

0. GM sets a difficulty number, which is the number of success you need to get.

1. Roll two dice, number of 6s are a success.

2. Using a skill?
Each level adds a new die.
This makes it more likely to do damage but in a nice linear way. Each extra dice you add just gives you one more 16% chance shot at getting a success. Typical dice pool mechanic, nice and easy to understand.

Each level reduces the target number by one.
This is a wild ride! Rather than every new die been 16%, it now increases with each die: 16%, 33%, 50%, 66%, 83%. So as a GM, I have a PC with a skill of 2 and a PC with a skill of 3, should be pretty close together? Not at all as one has 4 rolls shots at 50% and the other has 5 at 66%. So, how many successes should I make it so that it's possible and challenging? I'm writing this down now and it's tricky to see, I wouldn't have that feel off the cuff.

2. Using an attribute?
Automatic successes is way more powerful than adding loads of dice.

Another weird facet of this system is that super hard stuff is only ever super easy for tough characters. For example:

Ninja character. Attribute in being quite or light footed gives a +2. Skill in Stealth 5. The character is maxed out - rolling 7 dice with 2 automatic successes. I set a task with difficulty 8. Pretty hard. The player rolls 7 dice and only fails when rolling a 1. That's pretty easy! The usual answer would be to power down the character but if we do that then the player isn't going to be able roll enough dice to get the successes they need.

The more I think about it, the more I would lose the reduction in target number. The exponential is too powerful!

The die mechanic does have problems. It is based on my d10 Destiny Engine where your skill only ranges from one to five, and so only ever gets your die value down to a 5, so you can still fail. I'm pondering some changes, and I will post them in a day or two.

Ponder away! Helping ponderations (is that even a word?) is what we're here for!