Edgewise
Legendary Pubber
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2017
- Messages
- 4,248
- Reaction score
- 7,962
It can't be just me, but when it comes to game design, the thing that really gets my head spinning is thinking of different kinds of resolution systems. You know, the generic dice mechanics for determining success or failure. Questions of simplicity, scaling and opposition are always forcing me to refine my ideas until I come up with The Perfect System...until I realize the glaring shortcomings. Like I said, it can't be just me.
Anyway, I have a new dice resolution mechanic that I'd like to get some opinions on. I'm shooting for a super rules-light system and this would be the core of it. If anyone also wants to use this thread to talk about their own resolution mechanics, I wouldn't be opposed to that as long as it's part of the conversation.
The core of this system are two D6 rolls. In the base case of an average person performing a challenging task, you roll 1d6 for resolution, and to the side you roll 1d6 as a "critical die." The latter comes into play only if the resolution die comes up a 1 or 6.
The results of the resolution die roll are very straightforward:
Anyway, the effect of the critical die is that if you roll 1 on the resolution die and 1 on the critical die, it's a critical failure, and if you roll 6 on the resolution die and 6 on the critical die, you get a critical success. These mean the usual thing: truly exceptional results.
Simple so far?
The last step is to account for, well, everything else, like skill, difficulty, opposition, etc. These come in the form of simple +/- modifiers. A character may have +2 Sword-Fighting, meaning that he's quite good at that. Tasks apply such modifiers based on difficulty, of course. And opposed tests are handled by rolling for one character, using the other character's traits as negative modifiers. Add up all relevant modifiers and you have an integer, usually within +/-3. This is the die modifier.
Whatever the absolute value of the modifier is, you roll that many more resolution dice. If the modifier was positive, you take the highest resolution die roll, and if it was negative, take the lowest.
There's one more detail. If a character has a positive mod, then a critical success happens if two or more of the dice come up 6, including the critical die. A critical failure only happens if all the dice (including the critical die) come up 1. The reverse is true for negative mods (i.e. two 1s is a critical failure, all 6's is a critical success).
That's it! I have a few ideas about where these mechanics are strong and where they are weak, but I'd like to hear feedback before putting a finger on the scale. Any suggested improvements will be given due consideration...thanks in advance!
Anyway, I have a new dice resolution mechanic that I'd like to get some opinions on. I'm shooting for a super rules-light system and this would be the core of it. If anyone also wants to use this thread to talk about their own resolution mechanics, I wouldn't be opposed to that as long as it's part of the conversation.
The core of this system are two D6 rolls. In the base case of an average person performing a challenging task, you roll 1d6 for resolution, and to the side you roll 1d6 as a "critical die." The latter comes into play only if the resolution die comes up a 1 or 6.
The results of the resolution die roll are very straightforward:
- Major Failure
- Failure
- Marginal Failure
- Marginal Success
- Success
- Major Success
Anyway, the effect of the critical die is that if you roll 1 on the resolution die and 1 on the critical die, it's a critical failure, and if you roll 6 on the resolution die and 6 on the critical die, you get a critical success. These mean the usual thing: truly exceptional results.
Simple so far?
The last step is to account for, well, everything else, like skill, difficulty, opposition, etc. These come in the form of simple +/- modifiers. A character may have +2 Sword-Fighting, meaning that he's quite good at that. Tasks apply such modifiers based on difficulty, of course. And opposed tests are handled by rolling for one character, using the other character's traits as negative modifiers. Add up all relevant modifiers and you have an integer, usually within +/-3. This is the die modifier.
Whatever the absolute value of the modifier is, you roll that many more resolution dice. If the modifier was positive, you take the highest resolution die roll, and if it was negative, take the lowest.
There's one more detail. If a character has a positive mod, then a critical success happens if two or more of the dice come up 6, including the critical die. A critical failure only happens if all the dice (including the critical die) come up 1. The reverse is true for negative mods (i.e. two 1s is a critical failure, all 6's is a critical success).
That's it! I have a few ideas about where these mechanics are strong and where they are weak, but I'd like to hear feedback before putting a finger on the scale. Any suggested improvements will be given due consideration...thanks in advance!