Hey everyone, I opened this account specifically because I'm looking for helpful input with a roleplaying game I'm designing. I'm going to keep this short as I know that nobody wants to read a huge block of text. I'll place the rules below and answer any question anyone has. This is in the early phases of development so I'm looking for some strong recommendations. Thanks in advance everyone!

CHANCE SPHERE

During character creation the characters Chance numbers are randomly determined and placed in the Chance Sphere. The chance sphere is what determines which numbers need to be rolled during a skill check on any specific difficulty. The sphere is split into Simple, Easy, Moderate, Hard, and Arduous. The characters 5 Chance Numbers are split across these spheres, with the easier spheres encompassing more numbers than the more difficult spheres. This means that while a difficulty of Easy will contain all 5 chance numbers, a Hard difficulty will only encompass the 2 numbers that are listed (Hard & Arduous.) Put simply: the higher the difficulty, the fewer numbers there are that are considered a success for the check.

EXAMPLE:

(SIMPLE:7) EASY:4) MODERATE: 5) HARD: 9) ARDUOUS: 2)

A Moderate chance role using this sphere would need to roll a 5, 9, or 2 in order to succeed.

SKILL TESTS

Skills tests are made when a character attempts to accomplish a task.
In order to make a test the character declares what action he wants to take
The Storyweaver then assigns a skill to the task, the player finds the skill on his sheet and rolls 1d10 for every level his character has in the skill, making note of each number he rolls individually. Penalties and Bonuses may alter the number of dice rolled, this will be noted by the Storyweaver before rolling.

The difficulty for the roll is determined by the Storyweaver and can range from Simple (climbing a knotted rope) to Arduous (climbing can almost entirely flat wall).

The player then compares the numbers rolled on his dice to the numbers shown in the difficulty sphere assigned by the Storyweaver.

The character succeeds at the task if at least ONE of the numbers from the corresponding Difficulty Sphere is shown on the dice.

If the character has no levels in the skill or has had his Chance Pool reduced to ZERO then the character can still attempt the check by making three arduous rolls back to back. These rolls are always made with a single die. This roll is called a Luck roll.

COMBAT

Combat begins with each character rolling initiative.

Initiative = 1d10 + Bonuses – Penalties.

Initiative is recorded and each character acts in order of highest initiative to lowest. This initiative stays for the rest of the combat.

MOVEMENT

Movement in Folklore is used in more of a narrative sense than in many other games. Characters do not have a number that determines how far they can move in a turn. Any character can move freely around the battlefield with worrying about actual distance. This allows for a more narrative experience with combat. The description that a Storyweaver gives for an area will have a strong impact on what the characters can do within that scene. It is important to keep in mind that just because there is no movements does not mean that there is no benefit to moving. Some areas described may provide penalties or benefits to characters that move into them.

Characters on the battlefield are marked as either Free or Engaged. A Free character is allowed to move around the area with no consequence other than it taking an action. An Engaged character is someone who is actively fighting an opponent in close combat.

EXAMPLE: Laucian has been tracking a group of poachers over the last week and has finally caught up with them.
The Storyweaver describes the scene to Laucian as he approaches,

“You catch up with the poachers midday as they're making they're way through a lush forest.
The poachers stay tight together as they move along a thin path through the woods as huge trees and brushes rise up on their left side. Off to the right you see a short meadow with a small pond some ways out.”

Laucian says, “ I'm going to try and take them out before they even know I'm here. I'll climb up the trees on the left and get ready to unleash an ambush.”

After a successful Athletics (climb) check, Laucian is among the trees and the Storyweaver announces that the trees will provide him a +1 to his Stealth (hide) checks as long as he remains there. Laucian hides within the greenery and waits to unleash his arrows.

Engaging & Disengaging

Free characters have the option to Engage with any other character on the field. This represents the character moving over to and starting close combat with someone else on the field. Being Engaged with a character is often the only way to deal damage with melee weapons and also limits the opponents action choices. Some actions, if used while Engaged, will allow enemies to make free attacks against you.

A character that is already Engaged may choose to leave the engagement by Disengaging. This action allows for the character to become Free again, but also allows any characters in the engagement to make an attack on them.

A character can protect himself while Disengaging by treating it as though it was an extra action for each enemy he is Engaged with, minus the number of allies in the engagement. The more a character is overwhelmed by his enemies the more difficult it is to escape unharmed. A character may choose to only protect himself from some (but not all) of the enemies in the engagement, that way he can avoid the most dangerous attacks.
An engagement can contain any number of characters. It is simply a representation of a close quarters skirmish. As a result is it possible for every combatant on the field to be part of a single engagement.

EXAMPLE: Laucian has launched his ambush on the poachers below and already put one to death with an arrow, giving away his position in the trees.

Realizing that they'll never win this fight at a distance the leader of the poachers decides to get up close and personal. The leader declares that he is going to engage Laucian. The Storyweaver rolls an Athletics (climb) check which lets the head poacher successfully scale the tree and Engage Laucian.

Now that the Laucian is Engaged it would be unwise to fire an arrow or he would grant the head poacher a free attack. Instead he decides to spend an action to Disengage so that he can continue making attack at a distance.

DEFENDING

By default each of the characters defenses (Block, Dodge, Parry) are set to Simple. An acting character can improves their any of their defenses by making the corresponding check during their turn.

Defensive Skill (Block, Parry, or Dodge) vs Chosen Difficulty

A successful check sets the relevant defense to the corresponding difficulty until the characters next turn.

EXAMPLE: Taldus wants to make sure he's prepared for his opponents upcoming attack. His opponent has been using attacks that mostly target Block so he wants to focus on that defense. Taldus makes a Block roll against the Hard difficulty (6,8) with a Block Skill of 3. He rolls 3, 6, and 7. He succeeds on his Block check and his Block defense is increased to Hard until his next turn.

RANGE

Range in folklore has been simplified to help speed up combat. Technique and attacks have no numerical range listed, instead stating whether the target must be engaged or free. Some attacks and techniques will allow you to select multiple targets or may allow you to target either or both engaged and free targets.

ATTACKING

The first step in making an attack is declaring a target that is within range. Once your target is declared you simply make an attack roll by rolling a number of d10s equal to the attacking skill. The difficulty of the roll is determined by the defense of the target. The skill or technique being used will state which defense should be targeted. If there is no defense listed then the defender chooses which skill (Block, Dodge, Parry) to use.

Attacking Skill vs Targets Defense (Block, Dodge, Parry)

EXAMPLE: Grett is attacking an enraged bear. Grett declares his attack on the bear and decides to use a normal attack. The bear's highest defense is Dodge and so it decides to defend using it's Dodge defense of Easy. Grett rolls 2d10 against his Easy sphere (1 & 5) and rolls 7 and 8. This means that the bear has successfully dodged his attack and takes no damage.

DAMAGE

On a successful attack the defender is dealt damage by the attacker. The amount of damage determined by the combing the damage of the weapon, technique, and any relevant traits. It is possible for damage to be reduced by certain armors, techniques, and traits of the defender. The resulting damage is subtracted from the health of the defender.

(Weapon + Technique + Traits) – (Armor +Technique + Traits) = Damage Taken

MULTIPLE ACTIONS

Each turn the acting character may take as many actions as they want. Each action increases the difficulty of ALL actions that turn by one step. This is true even for actions that do not require checks themselves, such as drawing a weapon. If any action being taken requires an Arduous check (after adjustments) then no more actions may be taken that turn. Each check is made and failed individually, so it is possible to succeed on some of the actions and fail on others in the same turn

This allows for characters to combine offensive, defensive, and utility actions in a single turn. Of course the more actions you take, the less you can focus on each action. As characters increase in power, it will become easier for them to combine multiple actions for powerful combos in combat. Though no matter how skilled you are, the most difficult acts require a certain amount of focus in order to be successful.

EXAMPLE: Renfell has found himself up against several foes and needs to deal out some damage while still protecting himself. He decided to take three actions on his turn: Increasing his Dodge defense, making an attack on the nearest foe, and making an additional attack afterward.

Renfell declares his action and the Storyweaver announces that they'll be defending with Parry (Simple). Renfell wants to increase his Dodge defense to Moderate which would makes his individual checks before adjustments, Moderate, Simple, Simple. Since he is taking two additional actions in his turn all of the difficulties are adjusted by two spheres making his final checks: Arduous, Moderate, Moderate.

TECHNIQUES

Some techniques require multiple checks to be made in order to gain an additional benefit. What the specific benefit is and what actions need to be made in what order are determined by the technique. If any of the action in a technique fail then the technique also fails and the benefit cannot be gained. The individual actions still succeed, but there is no additional benefit.

EXAMPLE: Nurn Chauncy is facing an enemy who has a particular weakness to fire. Nurn doesn't know any powerful fire spells to help deal with the enemy, but does know a fire technique. He decides to use his “Phoenix Fist” technique, which all add the fire element to his attack, increase it's damage by 1, and targets the Dodge defense. In order to complete the technique he must succeed on the following actions: Unarmed, Fire. Nurn announces his technique succeeds at both actions, even with their adjusted difficulty, and throws a mighty punch that unleashes flames onto his unsuspecting foe.

Welcome to the forum!

Hi. OK...I have to say the Chance Sphere seems like a bad idea. Basically, having each difficulty level as one number on d10 is equivalent to just having a Target Number of [11-difficulty level], except with the extra steps around assigning which number is what and adjusting difficulties.
I could vaguely imagine some sort of elaboration that makes it-nonidentical and so theoretically useful - like a character getting an ability that assigns multiple chance numbers to a difficulty - but its still probably a bit cumbersome anyway, sorry. Its pretty common to think you need a new core mechanic to build a new game, but its really not necessary - if an idea's good, someone's almost certainly used it already. There's still quite a bit possible in elaborating design, beyond that most basic level.

The rest of it seems generally OK - the engage rules look fairly good. Multiple actions can also be tricky, though, in similar systems you can often attack twice with a penalty and still (as a result of getting two rolls) have a higher overall chance of hitting. I think as currently goes, a character should always choose extra attacks, unless the opponent's to hit difficulty is Hard or Arduous.