Quote from: Azraele;1006316So don't be shy, show us what you got

About to edit the original post with the base game mechanics (Super late. I got distracted and forgot for a while until I got some notifications of other people commenting).

Quote from: Davycannonhound;1017780Yeah sure, whatcha got?

Just some background, I've extensively played with 1d20 (e.g. D&D et al), 1d100 (e.g. CoC, Bushido, RuneQuest, etc), 2D6 (e.g. Traveller), 3D6 (e.g. TFT),  2D10 (my own), d6 dice pools, etc. games.  Started with early war games like Blitzkreig, then a slew from the late '70s and early '80s, much Squad Leader, and many SPI space games, old time miniature games like Chainmail and others.  Still extensively board game.   Of course computer games from the original Fallout, many a CRPG, but not any MMOs.

My RPG system preference has really come full-circle.  My current home system is a type of a very simple d6 dice pool, no exploding dice, that was inspired by two games (1) Alien Frontiers (a great board game); and (2) Atomic Highway (an RPG).    Alien Frontiers I find to be a blast, and one of the mechanical keys to that (which could port to RPGs) was the fun with the dice.  You get a certain number of d6 (there are ways to get more) and you combine the rolls in certain ways and place them (it is kind of a worker placement type mechanic) to do actions.  There are various ways to alter the numbers on the die, which is a strategy to pursue.

In any event, to me, the fun was in the choices you have to make and the fun in physically manipulating and placing the dice.  Your dice are both a game mechanic and a game token.


Atomic Highway got me to like simple dice pools (which I came to realize that early war games are a form of such mechanics).  I'd played with the d10 versions, exploding die versions, and the add together the pool versions...definitively not for me.   Atomic Highway had it pretty simple, roll a number of dice equal to a controlling attribute, add skill to raise dice, a 6 is a success and a 1 a failure.    The ease of play, the ease of monster and vehicle design, and the verisimilitude (especially in a Mad Max type car chase battle -this from a guy who played tons of Car Wars) convinced me to explore this much more.

What came out of this was something similar to my love of Alien Frontiers, say you got 2 successes, you get to chose how you apply them.  Do you apply both to attack, both to defense, one to attack and one to defense, if driving to you apply any to moving etc.  Choice, strategy, you die are your token for keeping track of your choice, and wicked, wicked fast.  I like this more than an attack roll, a parry roll, etc. Also built in degree of success, right in front of your face, instead of I beat my number by 4 so I get a critical or some such.  


A computer game informed my ideas on character progression/improvement/leveling.  Dungeon Siege was the game, and I found how it handled improvement (leveling) addictive.  You basically improve skills slowly through use but you also leveled with respect to HP etc. based on xp; found how they balanced out certain aspects of it meant you were always close to improving one area.  That is, instead of jumps across all skills/abilities which you see with step leveling, individual skills would improve between leveling up for HP etc.  So a more constant, but smaller, stream of improvement.  It really was all about positive reinforcement and reward mechanisms.

I liked it so incorporated that into my home system where instead of leveling and then your skills all improve; you improve your skills in the order you see fit (by spending xp) and once a certain group of them all reach certain values you get you "level-up" get more HP etc.

Quote from: Xanther;1018003Just some background, I've extensively played with 1d20 (e.g. D&D et al), 1d100 (e.g. CoC, Bushido, RuneQuest, etc), 2D6 (e.g. Traveller), 3D6 (e.g. TFT),  2D10 (my own), d6 dice pools, etc. games.  Started with early war games like Blitzkreig, then a slew from the late '70s and early '80s, much Squad Leader, and many SPI space games, old time miniature games like Chainmail and others.  Still extensively board game.   Of course computer games from the original Fallout, many a CRPG, but not any MMOs.

My RPG system preference has really come full-circle.  My current home system is a type of a very simple d6 dice pool, no exploding dice, that was inspired by two games (1) Alien Frontiers (a great board game); and (2) Atomic Highway (an RPG).    Alien Frontiers I find to be a blast, and one of the mechanical keys to that (which could port to RPGs) was the fun with the dice.  You get a certain number of d6 (there are ways to get more) and you combine the rolls in certain ways and place them (it is kind of a worker placement type mechanic) to do actions.  There are various ways to alter the numbers on the die, which is a strategy to pursue.

In any event, to me, the fun was in the choices you have to make and the fun in physically manipulating and placing the dice.  Your dice are both a game mechanic and a game token.


Atomic Highway got me to like simple dice pools (which I came to realize that early war games are a form of such mechanics).  I'd played with the d10 versions, exploding die versions, and the add together the pool versions...definitively not for me.   Atomic Highway had it pretty simple, roll a number of dice equal to a controlling attribute, add skill to raise dice, a 6 is a success and a 1 a failure.    The ease of play, the ease of monster and vehicle design, and the verisimilitude (especially in a Mad Max type car chase battle -this from a guy who played tons of Car Wars) convinced me to explore this much more.

What came out of this was something similar to my love of Alien Frontiers, say you got 2 successes, you get to chose how you apply them.  Do you apply both to attack, both to defense, one to attack and one to defense, if driving to you apply any to moving etc.  Choice, strategy, you die are your token for keeping track of your choice, and wicked, wicked fast.  I like this more than an attack roll, a parry roll, etc. Also built in degree of success, right in front of your face, instead of I beat my number by 4 so I get a critical or some such.  


A computer game informed my ideas on character progression/improvement/leveling.  Dungeon Siege was the game, and I found how it handled improvement (leveling) addictive.  You basically improve skills slowly through use but you also leveled with respect to HP etc. based on xp; found how they balanced out certain aspects of it meant you were always close to improving one area.  That is, instead of jumps across all skills/abilities which you see with step leveling, individual skills would improve between leveling up for HP etc.  So a more constant, but smaller, stream of improvement.  It really was all about positive reinforcement and reward mechanisms.

I liked it so incorporated that into my home system where instead of leveling and then your skills all improve; you improve your skills in the order you see fit (by spending xp) and once a certain group of them all reach certain values you get you "level-up" get more HP etc.

Quite a lot of information! A lot for me to dig through in depth. There might be some ideas I can pull from for my own system.

Speaking of my own system, I updated the main post with my baseline mechanics. Let me know what you think.