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I was looking to get some feedback on the basics mechanics for a homebrew RPG I'm developing.

Most checks will take the form of skill dice + attribute bonus + misc. modifier. Your dice can explode. This happens on a result of 6 (for poor, average, and trained skills) or 5 or 6 (for Elite Skills). When a dice explodes, you roll it again and add the results together. A die can explode multiple times. Attributes add a flat bonus to your checks. Average Skills roll 5d6, trained and elite skills roll 6d6, and poor skills roll 4d6

Example: Timmy rolls an Trained skill check (6d6). He rolls 6,5,4,3,2,1 (total=21). Since he rolled a six, he gets to reroll that dice. He rolls a 4, for a total of 25. If this was his Elite Skill (rather than a trained skill) then he would have been able to reroll two dice

If your highest two dice (including rerolls) beats the target difficulty, then you have scored a critical success.

Skills:
Inept 4d6
Average 5d6
Trained 6d6
Elite 6d6 RR
Master 7d6 RR
Grandmaster 8d6 RR
Epic 9d6 RR


Attributes
Poor -2
Average 0
Adept +2
Heroic +4
Mighty +6
Preternatural +8
Deific +10


To create a character, pick one Heroic attribute, one poor and 5 Adept attributes, with no more than three of your trained attributes being in the same category. Likewise, pick one elite, one poor and 5 trained skills in both the major and minor categories.

You can also reduce two attributes to poor to raise another attribute to trained. You still must have no more than three trained attributes in either category.

Physical:
Strength
Reflexes
Dexterity
Endurance
Athleticism


Mental:
Charisma
Guile
Intellect
Willpower
Intuition

Fortune


Some thoughts:

1)Is 5d6 too much? I like the idea of skills and attributes working in different ways, but with smaller numbers of dice, the jump between average and trained skills is just too much. The only things I worry about with using that many dice is a) the amount of times it takes to add the numbers and B)weighting numerical bonuses too much.

2) I really like the idea of expanding the reroll range on elite skills because it helps more at higher difficulties (i.e. it doesn't totally prevent you from failing at say difficulty 20 (which is average) but it doubles your chances of making a difficulty 30 check.)

3) Attributes have roughly half the effect the skills do. I like this because it emphasizes skills, which are more focused than attributes and so should have a greater effect.

Probability of Success Chart (20 is average, 25 is hard, 30 is very hard, 15 is easy.)

Difficulty 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
4d6 4.6 5.6 6.9 8.3 10.1 12.2 14.6 17.3 20.6 24.4 28.7 33.6 39 44.7 50.9 57.6 65.6 71.8 78.9 85.3 90.6
5d6 12.4 14.7 17.3 20.2 23.5 27.3 31.4 36.1 41.1 46.4 52.1 58 64 70.1 76.1 81.8 86.8 91.1 94.4 96.8 98.4
6d6 26 29.7 33.7 38.1 42.8 47.8 53 58.3 63.7 69.1 74.4 79.5 84.2 88.3 91.8 94.6 96.7 98.1 99 99.5 99.8
6d6* 50.1 54.4 57.9 61.5 65.1 68.7 72.2 75.6 78.9 82.1 85.1 87.8 90.3 92.5 94.3 95.9 98.3 98.4 99.1 99.5

* indicates expanded reroll

Hi, welcome to 1KM1KT

It looks like you've figured out a functional range of skills, the question I have is, is it fun or frustrating? This depends on the story. If a normal roll is "I'm going to grab that wooden chair and hit him with it." then it might be pretty slow. If each roll is intended to do great things "I'm going to flip over his head, grab the chair and then bust it over his head" it's probably worth it.

The only real way of ferreting this out is to 1, play a short game with it and 2, set up ten rolls at each skill level start a stopwatch, see how long it takes you. Remember that players will not be rushing, they'll take their time. Now think about that time as gone in a game.

Larger efforts of adding dice together means there needs to be more result from each roll to keep things moving.

So what would you think of anyof these alternate systems:

1)You roll one die for your attribute and one for your skill, but only the skill die can explode. You pick the values the same way (1 poor, 5 trained, 1 elite with the rest average). These correspond to 1d4,1d6,1d8, and 1d10 i.e. a poor skill with a poor attribute would roll 2d4.

2)Alternatively, make it so that dice cannot explode except in your elite skill, which explode only on a six.

3) Make it so that instead of attributes apply a numeric bonus, give you a special ability (i.e. if you have the strong attribute you can reroll a damage check once per encounter). I have something similar to this already, where you get an ability based on your Heroic Attribute. However, I also want to have a trait system where you get a certain number of trait points and can buy traits (kind of like feats in D&D) with those points, and I feel like having two systems like that would be redundant.

I don't really know, what kind of feeling are you going for? What story are you applying this to? Most die mechanics "work" in that they apply a range of possibilities. As long as they are consistent, as simple as possible and fit the feeling that the game is trying to imbue.

Hello and welcome! I am with Onix on this one. The mechanic is fine - it has reasonable probability with a little crunch. If you're only producing a system then that's all the comment we can really give. However, if you're building it for a specific game then we need to know what your goals are. I'd like to see a concept for the game, that way I can help say whether it will be appropriate for your game. to help define a concept you might find handy.