New System Ideas: The Chalkboard Phase

[Xeviat]

I've reached a point where Xev20 is no longer progressing. So, instead, I'm going to start working on my own system from the ground up. Here's some conceptual ideas I've been working on.

As always, I've wanted to have 8 ability scores: 4 physical, 4 mental. These will tie into my elemental system and my chakra system. The new way I'm thinking of handling ability scores is with dice, not specifically numbers. Ability scores will range from d4s to d12s. In keeping with fairness, I'd like PCs to be built with the same array (though maybe there would be a point buy system), and i noticed that a standard set of dice has all the dice I'd need; 1d4, 4d6, 1d8, 1d10, 1d12. 1d6 would be considered the "average" score, so heroes have 3 above average stats and only 1 below average stat. The dice would explode on a max roll, giving a bonus that's weighted slightly towards the smaller dice (who would explode more). The averages look like this:

1d4*; Mean: 3.33; Deviation: 2.79; Max: ∞ (44 after 10) (explode increase: +0.83)
1d6*; Mean: 4.20; Deviation: 3.26; Max: ∞ (66 after 10) (explode increase: +0.7)
1d8*; Mean: 5.14; Deviation: 3.8; Max: ∞ (88 after 10) (explode increase: +0.64)
1d10*; Mean: 6.11; Deviation: 4.36; Max: ∞ (110 after 10) (explode increase: +0.61)
1d12*; Mean: 7.09; Deviation: 4.93; Max: ∞ (132 after 10) (explode increase: +0.59)
1d20*; Mean: 11.05; Deviation: 7.22; Max: ∞ (220 after 10) (explode increase: +0.55)
1d20; Mean: 10.5; Deviation: 5.77; Max: 20

Where's the 1d20 come in? It would be your Æther die, filling the place of Hero Points and Action Points in other systems (It likely won't explode, but I put up the stats on it exploding anyway to show that it wasn't a huge jump).

My idea is to not have a target number system of rolls and DCs. Instead, all conflict resolution will work with an "HP" mechanic, totaling cumulative rolls until success is achieved. In combat, for instance, it's pretty easy to hit someone with a weapon who is just standing there unarmored. It is their action to avoid the attack that will play into determining success or failure. A 1 will be considered a failure, so lower ability scores fail more often.

This system will be made more dynamic with things like roll threasholds (a very difficult lock requires rolls of 4 or higher to achieve any progress, and may have 20 HP, so a minimum of 5 rounds is requires to open it), timers (X number of successes before Y failures or the task becomes impossible, suitable for social challenges or things like jamming locks or setting off traps), and opposing reactions (an agile character may try to dodge, and a shield wearer may try to block).

Items may add additional dice or may just add static bonuses; I'd need to look into that.

This is the biggest change for me. A skill based system simply feels right, even though it's a little harder to balance. The way I'll help GMs keep the game balanced is players, and npcs and monsters, will have a descriptive Challenge Rating. The rating will be determined by looking at their best offensive attacks and their defenses. Think of it as similar to Power Level in Mutants and Masterminds, but instead of it existing as a cap on attributes (with trade offs), it is simply a score determined after a character is built. GMs will be able to look at other scores to help them determine how challenging things should be.

Skills will be broken up into 3 categories: Combat, Expertise, and Magic. Combat skills are weapon skills, Blocking, Armor, and the like. Expertises would be things as far reaching as Athletics to Knowledges. Magic would be the 4/5 (or maybe 8/9) elements. At certain threasholds of skill levels, abilities are learned. These abilities are largely universal, and are there to encourage diversification alongside a character's specialty. For instance, at Skill rank X in weapon skills, a new weapon technique is learned. A weapon technique learned with Axes can be used with Axes or with Swords, so even a Swordmaster has a reason to want to learn how to use Axes.

Skills will likely have an increasing cost formula, making specialization expensive, but hopefully still rewarding.

I really like the idea of physical things to deal with. A player's dice represent their ability scores. Poker chips could represent their point pools. It's very easy to visualize, and doesn't require so much erasing and writing. Standard poker chips come in 5 colors: White, Red, Green, Blue, and Black.

Red are obviously your HP, WP, or whatever I decide to call them. They are your meat points. HP damage will be actual physical wounds in this system. Having 1 HP of damage will add some sort of penalty, but nothing too extreme (I like slowly sloping death spirals, not steep ones).

The other 4 pools are your Vitality Points, Expertise Points, Mana Points, and Æther Points. Vitality Points are the primary tool of Warriors. Expertise Points are the primary tool of Experts, and Mana Points are the primary tool of Mages (yes, I am bothered that Warrior starts with a W and not a V; warriors tend to have more Wound points, so there). My thought is that everyone has some amount of each. Characters will gain a minor bonus from having a pool at full, and will get a penalty for having a pool at zero. It's a magical world, and lets say everyone has 1 Mana Point and can do things like activate magic items with it (turning on a magical lamp, for instance). Keeping that MP in reserve may give a character a small bonus against magical attacks. Having 0 MP may make them more vulnerable to magical attacks. Vitality Points are easier to envision: when your Vitality is full, you're wide awake and ready for action; when it's tapped out, you're exhausted.

Vitality Points regenerate on their own whenever they aren't actively used. They are used for things like Power Attacks, running, and absorbing hits. Remember earlier when I said success is assumed? If you attack someone, and they're able to react, they can spend Vitality Points to turn a hit into a graze, taking VP damage instead of HP damage. This Reaction action could extend into other systems, showing why you don't want to be ganged up on (if you only have one reaction, fighting two people could be dangerous).

Expertise Points regenerate automatically at the start of your turn. They're different from other points, as they represent a character's focus. One can only split their focus up too much, and if you split it fully (spending all your Expertise Points), you may be vulnerable to unforeseen events (you no longer have EP to power reactions, for instance, like expertly blocking, dodging, or parrying).

Mana Points regenerate actively, requiring an action to recover them. A warrior could alternate between Power Attack and a standard Attack and continually regenerate VP, while a mage would have to spend an action doing nothing (gathering mana) in order to regenerate points. Because both VP and MP can be used to mitigate HP damage (MP typically is used after a wound to heal, VP is used to avoid a wound), they can be considered roughly equal.

Æther points start at 1, and they'd be awarded for certain things. I also like the idea of letting players spend their ÆP for other characters.

Initiative is often a static number that you roll once and don't worry about. Outside the first round of combat, it doesn't matter. Some systems have you roll initiative every round, and may even give you a bonus for going first. A simple idea would be to have initiative rolled every round, then have actions declared lowest to highest; if you're fast, you can tell what your opponent is going to do first and react accordingly. But that system might be too difficult, and would require a very tactical battle system. Not a bad idea, but I was thinking something else.

Rather than initiative just determining order, what if initiative was a resource (yes, I'm aware, adding another resource; I could move the ÆP to simply be your d20s, and have you turn your d20 over to your GM when you spend it)? A character can spend initiative to gain an advantage; a fast character gets the drop on a slower character. This could even explain what is going on in a cinematic duel; both swordsmen, gunslingers, mages, whatever, are staring each other down, spending actions to bank initiative, trying to ensure they have more initiative than the other. When the slower person acts, the fast person reacts, likely readying a parry, thus making either less willing to commit to an attack (until a leaf falls and breaks their concentration).

This could possibly extend to Expertise Points, becoming a mechanic for them. I'm still not sure. I just like the idea of players spending their initiative to gain bonuses, and thus having turn order move around some.

Class levels won't specifically determine power, they'll simply be ways of giving out benefits. I really like the idea of there simply being 3 classes: Warrior, Expert, and Mage (notice how the first letters all kind of look like 3s?). Different combinations could unlock different subclasses. I'd like standard characters to start out with 3 levels, so they could be a 3, 2/1, or 1/1/1, offering 7 class combinations to start off with. Playing with 1 or 2 levels could exist for apprentice playing, and by starting at 3rd level there's an easy floor for weaker things (there I go, talking as if level determines power; apparently I'm still waffling on that. I could easily see having all of a character's combat power coming from their levels, while their skills simply power diversity and options ... I like that).

Magic is everywhere in this system, but most of it is subtle. Higher powered Warriors and Experts are inherrently magical, helping to explain the fantastical things they can do (wrestle a dragon, balance on the head of a pin, charm a hoard of mice ...). Players can choose to keep their characters more realistic by not picking up Mage levels, but the world still explains what they can do as magic. This is less a system thing as it is a descriptive thing, but it illustrates the scope I'd like for high level abilities.

Any thoughts?

[sparkletwist]

Interesting. One thing I would suggest quite strongly is that if you are going to have exploding dice, to have the maximum value be N-1+explode, rather than N+explode. For example, rolling a 6 on a d6 gives 5+explode, rather than 6+explode. Otherwise, you get into weird situations where it's impossible to actually roll a 6 on a d6 (because a 5 is a 5 but a 6+explode means the result will be at least 7) and that can do strange things to the probabilities and the other math.

I'm a little shaky on the math in general already, actually. One problem with using dice as your stats is the variance rises quickly, meaning that the better you are at something, the less consistent your performance is. Your average does go up, so you're always getting better, but the chance of abject failure always remains no matter how skilled you are. This can lead to some pretty swingy outcomes when dealing with highly skilled characters trying to attack a challenge requiring a large cumulative total. Maybe your points system can be used to help players mitigate this, I don't know.

I'm not a fan of mechanics based on "X successes before Y failures" in general. That's the same thing that made 4e skill challenges so nonfunctional, because it encourages players whose chances of success aren't optimal to not even try anything... and that's no fun. I could see it fitting the theme for certain social challenges, like, you don't open your mouth talking to the king unless you're sure you have something worthwhile to say-- but I think those players that are quiet should still have something else to do, like the possibility of giving bonuses to the guy who is actually trying to generate successes.

I also worry there may be a few too many resources to track, but it might work better with little piles of poker chips that you can clearly see than it does in my mind at this moment. Numenera seems to do fine, but that only has three main pools. The idea that they all regenerate at different times adds depth to the resource management game, but I worry it might add too much complexity, like, maybe it would work better if your power points are a class feature tied into the kind of stuff your class does, so players who don't want to juggle that many different color chips can play a simpler single-class character with just one pool of power points.

A big +1 on "Everyone is Magical." Down with fighters sucking!

[Polycarp]

I'm not a fan of exploding dice because the probabilities seem wonky to me when you get to the exploding "tail" of the curve.  If I'm rolling a d12 and sparkletwist is rolling a d10, I'm much more likely to hit a DC of 10 (like 25% versus 10%), but our chances of hitting a DC of 12 are less than a percentage point apart (assuming you do what sparkle suggested and subtract 1 from each exploding dice to prevent gaps).  In d20 systems, DCs grow at a regular rate - each +1 increase decreases your chance of getting it by 5% until it exceeds your range entirely - but with exploding dice, the actual amount that "+1 DC" changes the difficulty of the action varies dramatically based on the DC and the dice.  A DC that goes from 7 to 8 will only slightly change things for the d6 user but will cut the d8 user's chances in half.

Otherwise, I agree with pretty much everything sparkletwist said.

[Xeviat]

Since my conflict resolution doesn't require the rolling of a particular number, I'm less worried about the inability of a d6 to roll a 6; they still have a 1/6 chance of rolling better than 6. But it's something I'll keep in mind. The same thing could prevent the stats from falling into a weird situation. The largest difference we have is between the d4 and the d12. d4 averages 3.33 in this system, and the d12 averages 7.9. The d4 has a higher chance of rolling 3, 2, and 1 than the d12 does. Yes, as you get more skilled, you have a larger variance, but I think that will be good for this system; since success isn't generally "roll higher than X", rolling a 2 on a d12 isn't the end of the world (though I still feel like 1s should always be wasted actions).

As for X before Y checks, those wouldn't generally be for group checks, for the very reason you said. They'd be for things like disarming traps or opening locks, or even situations that literally have a timer. You don't want every thing in the game to be achievable given any amount of time; there has to be consequences for failure. As for giving everyone something to do in every challenge, that's definite. I want to design all encounters/challenges, and offer tips on designing them, like combat; if one player sits out of a combat because they suck at it, it only hurts the player.

As for points, I can see where the idea of tying resources to the classes could work. If you don't want to deal with MP, you don't pick up Mage levels. But I'd definitely like to try it out with everyone starting with 1 of each at some point in testing, simply because I do like the idea of a nitty gritty tactical game. As a Warrior will have little use for their MP, they'll usually just hold their 1 point in reserve to get its bonus; even if they spend it, since you have to consciously decide to regain it, it shouldn't be too hard to manage. Your AEP are handed to you by the GM, so managing that is easy. Your EP regenerate at the start of the round, so you may simply have a sheet of effects that you place your EP on, and reallocate them at the start of your turn (you could even leave them where they are, and only deal with how many you're holding in reserve for reactions). My idea for VP regeneration does seem difficult to track, though; X/round seems to be the easier way, rather than having to track when you do or don't use it. HP are simple; you spend them when you get hit, and you regain them when you heal.

With the resource system so indepth, it's really going to be a game of resource management. I'll very much pare them down if they aren't fun to manage. But they do allow for different advanced classes to operate differently. A berserker could have their VP sapped every turn while they rage, while a swordmaster may be encouraged to hold onto them.

[Xeviat]

I'm not a fan of exploding dice because the probabilities seem wonky to me when you get to the exploding "tail" of the curve.  If I'm rolling a d12 and sparkletwist is rolling a d10, I'm much more likely to hit a DC of 10 (like 25% versus 10%), but our chances of hitting a DC of 12 are less than a percentage point apart (assuming you do what sparkle suggested and subtract 1 from each exploding dice to prevent gaps).  In d20 systems, DCs grow at a regular rate - each +1 increase decreases your chance of getting it by 5% until it exceeds your range entirely - but with exploding dice, the actual amount that "+1 DC" changes the difficulty of the action varies dramatically based on the DC and the dice.  A DC that goes from 7 to 8 will only slightly change things for the d6 user but will cut the d8 user's chances in half.

Again, there are no DCs. There may be threshold mechanics on certain actions (an agile warrior may automatically dodge all rolls of 3 or lower, for instance, instead of just rolls of 1), but those are going to be rare. There are no DCs, everything is cumulative in nature working towards a cumulative target number, like HP. It is like the variety between a 1d4+2 vs. a 1d8; same average (not counting explosions), different ranges. If the bonuses that exist in the system are sufficiently high enough, then the differences between a d4 and a d12 may be less noticable.

[Polycarp]

Again, there are no DCs. There may be threshold mechanics on certain actions (an agile warrior may automatically dodge all rolls of 3 or lower, for instance, instead of just rolls of 1), but those are going to be rare. There are no DCs, everything is cumulative in nature working towards a cumulative target number, like HP. It is like the variety between a 1d4+2 vs. a 1d8; same average (not counting explosions), different ranges. If the bonuses that exist in the system are sufficiently high enough, then the differences between a d4 and a d12 may be less noticable.

There are no "DCs" as such, but if some mook (or any challenge) has "HP" of 9, it's basically a DC 9 check to take it down/solve the challenge in one turn, correct?  I guess it depends substantially on what challenges actually look like in practice - if an encounter/problem is going to have a big pile of HP, die explosions are going to be uncommon enough that it's probably not an issue, but if encounter/problems have potentially small numbers of HP then that may matter a lot more.  I suppose it depends on the speed you're going for, particularly for combat; with no examples it's hard for me to visualize exactly how this plays out.

[Xeviat]

I'm hoping to go for at least 4 rounds of combat for "fair challenges", so there won't be a whole lot of things that are meant to be done in a single roll. Sufficiently lower level opponents may have so little HP that they could be killed in one hit. Lets say a low level opponent has 8 hp. Here's the odds of taking them out with one hit with a raw roll without any modifiers:

d4: 6.25%
d6: 13.89%
d8: 12.50% ...
d10: 30%
d12: 41%

I see what you're saying. The d6 has a 16.66% chance of rolling a 6, then an 83.33 chance of rolling a 2 or better (thus, 13.89).

So, either I'll need to not have too many numbers so low, or the explosions will have to have a -1 (which would make it so they couldn't explode endlessly, if there's a -1 on each explosion).

[sparkletwist]

So, either I'll need to not have too many numbers so low, or the explosions will have to have a -1 (which would make it so they couldn't explode endlessly, if there's a -1 on each explosion).

You can still explode endlessly, because every "maximum value" is still an explosion.

The 6 possibilities for a d6 are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 5+explosion. So let's say you roll a 5+explosion. That means you roll again, getting a result that, after adding the previous 5, is either 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, or 10+explosion. And so on.

[Xeviat]

What should I be doing first to get building? Fiddle with statistics for conflict resolution, or should I just build a simple character and a simple monster and see how they work (since skill use is going to work the same)?