TheRPGSite

I'm working on, a homage to D&D, yes I know there are a LOT of them out there now, but I'm trying to make things very very simple.

The key elements of this are an interesting setting that still hits the D&D "mixed in a bag and poured out" feel.

A system where class and level are the important numbers, with stats as an element as well.

The basic goal is that if you take a Warrior class, your level in that class provides the main number that you use in play. So a Warrior 1, has a +1 to hit, +1 to damage, and +1 to Tactics, etc etc.

Of course there are problems with this such as:

Do you have to possess a Warrior class to be any good at combat?
What do clerics and rogues use their abilities for?

Classes are stackable to create special classes. Want to be a Paladin? You need to have Two Levels of Warrior and One of Cleric and then you can switch to Paladin and its bonuses stack with both cleric and warrior ones.

How do I handle Hit Points? Based on Race? Flat numbers for everyone, but modified by class?


The idea is of course to keep the "X but Y in Q cases" numbers down, and use as much straight addition to play so the mechanic is mostly 1d20+Class Level+Attribute


I've considered letting warriors get +1 a level to hit, and everyone else progressing more slowly, BUT I can see the appeal of using a system like BECM where mostly to hits are static for everyone as well, and perhaps warriors just get more HP and Damage. Alternately, Warriors might get Level+1, to hit, but that means they're no longer easy to look and say "Warrior Paths 5" so +5


Magic is also in contention, I can build a "build a spell from options, roll difficulty to cast' system that I started with, but I'm thinking to keep it D&D like to use the classic fire and forget method, but make total levels in Magic using classes your total spell levels. So a Level 4 Wizard can have 1 4th level spell, or 1 3rd and 1 First, or 2 2nd levels, or 4 first levels, and stack those up in a very simple yet elegant way. Of course with fewer spells over all, since you want to be reasonably effective, you'll end up wanting those spells to have a bit more oomph for those trade offs.


For the record this game will be FOR free, except as POD, and all the art, layout, etc will be my personal work. Mostly as a challenge to myself to do so.

My 2 cp would be:
*3.x multiclassing never quite worked, IMHO.
 
*Bonus = Level seems like a good idea. Instead of 'Warrior Level+1' you could always give the warriors an extra bonus elsewhere - say, a bonus to Strength that in turn gives them a to-hit bonus. I don't know if 1 point between rogues and fighters is enough, really.
 
*for hit points, personally I've always liked games which had [hit points = Con] though that not exactly D&Dish, and there are downsides (no easy to kill 1 HD monsters unless you abandon consistency).

Have you looked at Warrior Rogue Mage, which works in a similar minimal-stats concept? Or Barbarians of Lemuria, where you have multiple careers which come with their necessary skill penumbras baked-in (So kinda WFRP-lite)?

BoL does have more sub-attributes (Fighting styles - brawl, melee, ranged, dodge), but you could probably ditch those and just use stats and careers as your bases.

Because, what you basically have here isn't a class system, it's a very broad skill system.

I would ditch classes. Instead have previous professions like WFRP, so you'd have Former Soldier/Veteran, ex Priest, former Apprentice Mage, ex Thief. once a character is an adventurer they can then spend their hard earned experience/skills on whatever they want, albeit the cost might be prohibitive. If a former soldier turned adventurer decides he wants to learn how to cast magic, why not?

Ditch hit points, or split them up into Health (for bashing damage and fatigue purposes) and Body (for cuts and nasty bruises up to broken or severed limbs). Depending on who the game is aimed at, a gore splattered critical system made my players love MERP when they were firmly locked into BECMI and AD&D 1e at the time. I thought they'd never try anything else until I used the MERP system with Middle Earth filed off and replaced by BECMI Karameikos. They loved it, primarily because it ditched the cube o hit points thing with semi realistic wounds and bleeding. And tripping over unseen imaginary turtles or some such.

With regards Magic, it should be volatile, so that a roll is required for a spell to go off successfully. If the roll fails, the spell fizzles. If it fails really badly, something nasty happens. Likewise is the roll is decent, you may get better effect/duration/damage/range from it, but if you roll REALLY well it might be more than you bargained for (fireball suddenly going from 5m expected radius to 20m, for instance - watch out eyebrows!)

Depends on whether you're going for High Fantasy/Happy elves and magic shoppes or grim and perilous/chaos is all around us with everything and everyone looking like they need a wash or hose down.

Quote from: Silverlion;553954I'm working on, a homage to D&D, yes I know there are a LOT of them out there now, but I'm trying to make things very very simple.

The key elements of this are an interesting setting that still hits the D&D "mixed in a bag and poured out" feel.

A system where class and level are the important numbers, with stats as an element as well.

Quote from: APN;554081I would ditch classes...

Ditch hit points...

APN, while your preference seems to be for non-classes, I don't see how this would at all fit Silverlion's design goals.

If his intent is indeed as he stated, class is one of the key elements of his game system. Indeed, class is one of the key elements that makes D&D feel like D&D. Switch to a non-class system and you get Runequest or MERP something else entirely.

If you want Profession APN, get my game High Valor, where they're another trait set you can pick up along with any other.

It is indeed as finarvyn says, I explicitly want classes.


Bonus to strength is a neat idea, but the problem is compounded in a level based game (Tunnels & Trolls) where some heroes are WILDLY stronger beyond anyone else. (In that though it ended up being Wizards and Warriors.)

Bonus to damage is interesting, but what about a bonus simply to ignore more armor? A Level 1 fighter can ignore 1 point of armor. This makes their strikes do more damage since Armor absorbs/reduces damage.

Thanks Ladybird:  I've looked at Both WYRM, and BOL, but they're not really class based games. They're  more like skill driven games with classes as skills. That's alright, but its not what I would like to do; however, I will go read them again and see if I can draw anything from them, since it has been a little while. It is a GOOD suggestion, thank you.

Bloody Johnson:

What did you think didn't work in multiclassing? In this you change path and get the new paths abilities, but they don't stack with non-path classes. Of course path classes abilities stack and can override that rule.

A Paladin can stack Warrior/Cleric levels together for Paladin stuff (along with Paladin levels)

A Ranger can combine Warrior/Rogue (and Nature Cleric/Druid) if they so choose. Allowing them to be either the sneaky wilderness guy or the beast-friend guy, or whatever.

A Mage mixed with fighter and the race of Elf can become a Runeknight, while a Halfling can mix Rogue and Warrior to become a Harrier.

Combine the same path often enough? Unlkock bigger things. Sticking to Mage for 10 levels and you unlock Archmage, while Warriors can become Warlords, and so on...


Anyway I appreciate the feedback.

I think what I get from this is Warriors get Armor Piercing (and combat tricks), Rogues get Stealth Tricks, Clerics get Social Tricks, and Mages, Magic ones. On top of nominal class abilities.

I think, I'll have background skills--these are things like Secondary Skills in AD&D, or does that complicate things to much? I'm going to go with spell slots, but with Levels=Total slots, and a skill roll, albeit an easy one, to allow for Magic Tricks. (Like adding some Oomph to range, or a small bonus to damage, or sending a Magic Missile/Arcane Arrow around the corner.)

Hi Silverlion,

T&T attribute raises, with raises going on every level, is probably too much. I was thinking more like if someone takes Warrior as a class, they get a +2 to Strength, and that's it - more like Palladium than T&T.


On multiclassing, with D&D 3.0 multiclassing the multiclass characters were too weak - the worst case is probably the fighter/mage -it gives up half of its fighting ability and half of its spellcasting, but can only do one or the other at any given time, plus on top of that various scaling issues - monster ACs and spell resistance values are scaled to stop the full-class character. In general some of the classes multiclass OK (fighter and rogue for instance), but alot of them had unique shticks that didn't.
3.5s solution to this -  your 'paladin' class reminded me of that - was the prestige classes that let you do 2 things at once. So the fighter/wizard could take Eldritch Knight, the cleric/wizard Mystic Theurge and so on. They were OK - I've played a bunch of these - but I think they're a 'patch' on the basic system not working, and lead to having to design a different specialty class for every multiclass combination for it to be playable.

Apart from that, 3E has problems with 'front loading' - a couple of 3.0 classes also got redesigned in 3.5 due to the multiclass rules to prevent 1-level dips to grab all their powers - specifically Monk evasion got moved to L2, as did Ranger two weapon fighting. 'Tail wagging the dog' as they say.

Sorry about the rant...your system may work, it depends alot on the specifics.

Cheers,
BSJ

Not so much a rant. You didn't use enough caps or curse words. However, it is an interesting point.

In this the idea isn't giving up half, but gaining a different half to be flexible. A 2nd Level warrior is going to be better than  a 1/1, its just the nature of the thing, however the 1/1 has more varied options. Of course someone can go 1/1/1/1 and have all major paths, but they lose most of the benefits of simply going to level 4 fighter. Plus there aren't of "class" features, or class feature creep. A class does what it says on the tin, and that's about it. A warrior is good at fighting and surviving, a Cleric good at divine magic, community connections. Combining them is fine because the breadth you get is a loss in depth.

Its not like someone gets better hit points/saves/etc. They get a +1 Warrior benefit. Which isn't better than the +1 cleric benefit, just different. I think the problem with 3E+ was the number of class abilities packed into the class at the beginning, and that I'm trying to reduce.

Warrior Features would be:
Warrior Bonus HP Level+1
Warrior Armor Piercing Level
Warrior Armor Benefit Level
Fighting Trick Level

Cleric features wold be:
Cleric Bonus HP Level
Divine Magic Level
Religious Trick Level
Community/Social bonus Level

Wizard Features
Wizard bonus HP Level
Magic Level
Magic Tricks Level
Lore Bonus Level

Rogue Features
Rogue bonus HP Level
Rogue Stealth Level
Rogue Deception
Rogue Tricks Level


Of course the features for Ranger (Warrior 2/Rogue 1/Ranger 1) Would be?
Do I combine Warrior and Rogue and combine all levels for stackable things?
Do I only give them the Warrior+Ranger Level for Ranger stuff that matches and the
Rogue+Ranger level for Ranger stuff that relates to Rogue?


Something to think upon...

Reducing the number of class abilities at the beginning reduces or eliminates the front-loading problem, definitely.

Give extra flexibility at a cost of some power is fine, though its very hard to work out how much these things are worth. Leads to a lot of questions on how much a level 2 spell is better than a level 3 spell, how AC scales, how skills improve (i.e. whether your thief can expect to sneak past someone of the same level) and so on.

I'm thinking that lets say you've got a spell list like AD&D, I'll take two spells:

Magic Missile and Fireball.


A fifth level caster can cast either in this game, he may be able to cast both but--but he can apply up to 5 spell tricks to the effect. So a Magic Missile+5 tricks is awesome

A Fireball PLUS+2 tricks is MORE awesome.

Tricks I'm thinking are slightly buffed damage. (MM does 1d6+1 normally, but with a trick adds +1) another trick can give it longer range and so on. You still get the multiple missiles at the same rate.


While a Fireball does 5d6 Damage for a 5th level caster, BUT he has trwo tricks to add to that, one gives him 5d6+1 damage, another doubles its radius.

Alright Actions anyone can do:

Attack.
Dodge: Bonus for Rogues
Block/Parry: Bonus for Warriors
Inspire: Bonus for Clerics

Calm Fear: Bonus for Clerics
Intimidate: Bonus for Wizards

Move: Bonus for Martial Artist(?)

Hide: Bonus for Rogues.
Dirty Trick: Bonus for Rogues
Feint: Bonus for Rogues

Things anyone can do but no one has a bonus too.
Reload Weapon.
Aim
Sheathe Weapon
Tackle/Rush
Disarm
Trip
Called Shot


Anything else?

How should armor be handled, I was going with as a damage mitigator, but that has problems in  a game making certain weapons always optimal.

I was considering that perhaps a roll over the number to hit also acted as Armor Piercing to some extent (say 5+ on  a d20 roll) this also lets warriors really whack things since they can get a bonus to hit, plus natural skilled armor piercing.

The problem also goes to the effect of non-abstracted (too much) combat. Since each strike is one attack roll, and the same for defense. How do we handle clerics who are martial but not as martial as fighters?


I need a better name for "Tricks" I could call them Schtick, or "Feats", which fit the more classic use of the word, or Advantage.

I was trying to make armor reduce damage. It just doesn't work as well with high hit points, monsters all over the map, and random damage. The latter I'd like to keep so I'm thinking on this--it does add an additional roll to combat which is a pain, but its testable to see how much.

AC's become Armor Saves (You subtract the AC from 20.) The save works like so--you roll over the AS  and you ping the attack--no damage. (Its late so my number crunching might be off. If you have leather armor you've got to roll  a 19-20+ to defend with your armor and a 20 always ping.

Plate Mail AC 8 means you have to roll a 12 or higher. (May adjust saves to make em more useful.)

Armor Piercing increases this number against you.

With random roll damage and fixed Damage Absorption you've got a problem that pretty soon only high end damaging weapons are useful. With fixed damage you run into DA outstripping the weaponry.

What do you think?

Who me? :)
 
My 2c: I actually really like the mechanic of having a separate 'armour save', rather than armour absorbing damage, even though its an extra roll (Dragon Warriors does this, and I'm quite fond of it there; it uses a variable dice - d3 to about d10)
 
You can build some really nifty rules off it, e.g.
 
*have weapons that are high-damage/low-armour penetration instead of just having the best weapon be the one with the best damage.
 
*have weapons that need multiple bypass rolls (stuff like tridents, triple flails, or the awesomely cool African Throwing Knife).
 
*have weapon breakage/possible breakage occurring on a failed armour bypass, so you can distinguish between a dropped weapon fumble (1 on the attack roll) and a possible weapon break fumble (1 vs. armour).
 
*have different types of magical weapons e.g. magic swords that add a bonus to bypass armour ('sharpness'), or deal automatic damage regardless of bypass e.g. electrical damage regardless of bypass vs. metal armour (lightning-based weapons).
 
To keep number of rolls down, you might remove the damage roll and have a high bypass roll somehow give a bonus to damage.
The other potential issue is that if hitting someone requires both successfully hitting and bypassing armour, combat can get a bit whiffy (something I noticed a bit with Dragon Warriors; its fairly hard to successfully injure people).
 
 
Damage absorbtion is probably OK too, but works best when damage can open-end or get bonuses from high attack rolls so that puny weapons aren't completely useless. One thing it does do is let the warriors take more damage (by reducing damage taken), without necessarily having more Hit Points; it may be a good solution if for some reason everyone has fairly similar HPs (e.g. HP systems that are directly CON-based)
 
Thinking about your post really helped me clarify some thoughts here - so thanks muchly.

So what weapons have the best penetration values without going all 1E AD&D and making them work differently against armor?

Daggers/Stilettos
Warhammer (Classic Spike Warhammer, not Thor blunt)
Long Sword (Thrust)
Rapier
Spear

Those make sense to me.

We touched on this a bit on this in beejazz's recent thread, though more in reference to weapons vs. armour types and I think he's going with an absorption system in his game..
 
As I said there, I'm no expert. Perhaps one way to figure this might be to look at the best armour and see what works on that and what doesn't. Just off wikipedia:
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_armour
Condensing that a bit:
"Plate armour was virtually invulnerable to sword (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword) slashes. It also protects the wearer well against spear or pike thrusts and provides decent defence against blunt trauma...weak points could be exploited by weapons designed for the purpose such as poleaxes and halberds... Maces (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mace_(club)), war hammers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_hammer) and the hammer-heads of pollaxes (poleaxes) were used to inflict blunt trauma through armour...longbows and crossbows could pierce plate armour with a lucky shot."
 
Other than that:
 
*it does say 'sword slashes' - I suspect you may still be able to do something useful with stabbing, albeit awkwardly.
 
*I suspect pirate-y type weapons such as cutlasses and so on are popular in part because in ship-to-ship battles, few if any people are going to be wearing armour. Likewise, I imagine scimitars wouldn't have great penetration value [if only because a stabbing action might be more awkward), but in hot climates less armour as well. Rapiers I think came in when crossbows and firearms had made heavier armours more or less obsolete, which I suppose is a bit of a problem with the D&D trope where Rapier Guy and Longsword Guy are together in the same party.
 
*I have seen systems giving bypass bonuses to two-handed swords; Combat and Tactics in 2nd ed. for example gives them a +2 against armoured opponents.
 
k hope this helps...

Good stuff. I like the idea, I think I'll work on it and see what I can come up with, and keep it simple.

One of the problems is that some weapons hate plate and mail, but will turn someone in leather to a corpse real fast, of course this is simulated by the armor ping.

Still I'm trying to work out the math, there are a couple of ways of doing it and one looks better for the people in armor, but messes with the stat+level+d20 element (going roll under)

Which is better for "simulation" of D&D numerically, any ideas?

The basic idea is that Leather Armor is AC 7, and Plate and  mail is AC 3,

To ping on Leather armor you roll higher than a 7.
To ping on Plate and mail  you roll higher than a 3.

Armor Piercing is then added to the value. So a 5th level warrior (AP5) with a Club (NO Natural AP) hits an Orc in Leather (Tough Hide and Leather, total AC 4) The player rolls a 9 or higher to save against the damage. While the same warrior with a Long Sword (Average AP is 4) forces the ORC to roll and get a 13 or higher to save.

Does this make sense?

A bit hard to follow your post sorry - not sure if its roll under/roll over, or who rolls.

I'm gathering that:
*attacker succeeds on attack roll first ?
*defender rolls to see if armour blocks: d20+[opponent warrior level]+[armour piercing of weapon] vs. their armour rating, trying to roll under it?

Which looks awkward due to lots of people having to ask other people for modifiers before rolling, but I'm not sure if I've got it right.

I know the question comes probably a little too late, and I really don't want to come off as a killjoy bastard, but reading the OP, I do not understand why you are not using one of the multiple OGL variants of D&D (such as one of the multiple Swords & Wizardry variants out there if you want simplicity, or even building your own S&W variant from White Box, Core Rules or Complete) instead of building another game from scratch.

Do you have any particular reason?

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;555482Which looks awkward due to lots of people having to ask other people for modifiers before rolling, but I'm not sure if I've got it right.

Its problematic and I'm trying to make the math work. Let's see if I can simplify it.

All of this is roll over for the defender.


Level 5 Warrior with sword vs Level 3 Orc with club.

Warrior lands blow.

Orc (GM) rolls damage save. In this case their Armor Save value is Leather Armor+Hide (Value 4)

The base number is 20. We subtract the Armor Save (4) and the Orcs level (3) For a value of 13.

Now if this were a non-warrior type, the armor protects them on a roll of 13+


Since the PC is Warrior he gets his Warrior Level+Weapons AP value. In this case 5 (Level)+3 (Sword) means he has 8 increase to that roll. Pushing the Orcs armor to near uselessness. (The Orc needs a natural 20 to protect him.)


On the other hand. An Orc in plate armor has a base AS is 16 we subtract that from 20 and the orc has to roll a 4 or higher for Plate to bounce the attack. Modifying that by the Warriors bonuses means that he can still ping an attack on 13-20.(or 35% of the time against a well armed foe who is higher level.


Make a little more sense? Does the math work better this way. Remember, this is AFTER the person has already landed a strike on their armored foe. So we want it to be useful, but not too useful.

The same Orc (in Leather) attacking the warrior in Chain, would hit then the Warrior would need to roll  (20-15-5) would need a 10 or higher before the Orc's abilities are applied. The club has NO AP, but Orc counts as a Warrior, so he pushes that up to 13 for the Chain to protect him.



If the the Orc instead of a club had a warhammer (Ap 4) He'd make the Chain armor only ping his attack on a 18,19, or 20)

Quote from: Benoist;555495I know the question comes probably a little too late, and I really don't want to come off as a killjoy bastard, but reading the OP, I do not understand why you are not using one of the multiple OGL variants of D&D (such as one of the multiple Swords & Wizardry variants out there if you want simplicity, or even building your own S&W variant from White Box, Core Rules or Complete) instead of building another game from scratch.

Do you have any particular reason?

Complexity, vs simplicity. Lets be honest a Warrior, Mage, Rogue, Cleric all need a page or so description of their abilities, sometimes more.

In this case I'm trying to make the game so simple for everyone's class that it takes a paragraph to describe the classes abilities. (Mind you Magic, Combat, etc will be separate, but they typically are in clones.)

I also want to do a few things differently--such as the Class Paths, and Class stacking which isn't multi/dual classing in the traditional sense. Its stacking all "sensible" levels of a given path to let the person have an effectivness in the PATH, higher than the single class they're on right now.

In addition to that I may want to tweak magic a bit, to make Vancian, well, either truly Vancian, or more flexible, and possibly both.

I also want to keep some of the elegance of BECMI D&D, while keeping a streamlined rule-set.

Most D&D derivatives make level unimportant except to physical combat and ability "unlocks," I want class level to impact every roll that relates to a given class.

Example: An 8th Level Fighter gets +8 to Armor Penetration/Piercing, +8 to care for weapons, +8 for tactics/strategy,+8 for Leadership in war, and so on. Anything which basically relates to his class is done at his classes level.

Most games only use level as a marker for abstract "gimmies," in this case its the number we use for nearly everything (with perhaps exceptions for Movement Rates, and Hit points--even then 8th level warrior has 8HD.)

Want to Ambush a warrior? Beat his +8 Warrior Class bonus, Want to make him run away? +8 morale bonus...and so on and so forth.

Simplest math version:

You roll to strike your target. You get DC Number of Armor Class? You hit and puncture armor.

You roll within 5 less of the DC? You hit but fail to puncture armor, any secondary effects may still effect the target.


Same idea, simplest mechanics. Armor Penetration goes to 5 anymore than that and you'd have failed anyway to even strike the target.

No feedback? No ideas? :D

Quote from: Silverlion;556117No feedback? No ideas? :D

I'm still not sure if I've understood what your combat procedure is, so that's difficult.

From context, I'm now guessing you don't have an attack roll, just armour bypass ? (like D&D)?   (in which case I'd say its simple which is what you're aiming for, but much less awesome than having a separate bypass roll...).

It might be easier to comment on bits like this if the rules were written up as text excerpts rather than descriptions of ideas, if you're up to that stage.


Other than that, on the subject of classes, just wondering if you've ever considered the Talislanta model - where a class is a package of skills with bonus = level, but a character can also buy and improve skills individually.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;556164Other than that, on the subject of classes, just wondering if you've ever considered the Talislanta model - where a class is a package of skills with bonus = level, but a character can also buy and improve skills individually.

Not a bad idea, but I think it breaks the role of "Level" being the  the major important number, to keep things fast and easy to reference. I want a character sheet to be something like

Name: Tharik                   Class(es): Warrior 4/Rogue 2/Ranger 1  Total: 7
Alignment: Neutral Good
Str +1   Dex +2   Con +1  Int 0  Wis  +2  Cha +1      
Defense: 15  (Dex+Level+10)  Armor Save: 5 (Chainmail)     Hit Points: 38
Avoid: +5
Deny:  +2
Resist: +6

Sword (Strike: +8 AP: 5 )
Longbow (Strike: 9 AP: 6)
Gear: Armor, Sword, Bow, Etc.



Or something very close.

I'm going to take a break on the AC for now, I think I've got a solid idea for it but it needs testing of course.

What I'm working on now are the "Feat" rules, no not D&D3E Feats, but your classic Tunnels & Trolls stunts, "Roll under stat" to do something interesting type rules.


Feats come in different forms for the different classes.

Martial Classes get Combat Maneuvers which they can do to alter the flow of combat, and give them more imaginative options than "Hit, Dodge, Parry.." Examples: A fighter may knock a weapon from an opponents hand, lure them into overextending themselves, strike at an un-helmeted head to draw blood and blind their opponent some, cut arrows from the air, sweep several foes at once, and so on.

Magical classes get access to their feats in another way. Clerics get access to Inspirations, and Wizardly sorts access mysteries. These operate similarly and are feats that interact with a classes spellcasting abilities. A Spellcaster can: Tag a target with a spell sigil, or divine mark, which makes them easier to target by other characters. They use their spells in an un-intended manner such as using arcane arrow/magic missile to blow open a lock, or use Remove fear on a foe and then tricking them into stepping on to a trapped pit trigger. (Now that they're unafraid of it, they lose a bit of reasonable, trepidation.)

Rogue Feats, are similar to Martial ones, and called tricks (or sometimes dirty tricks.) They work by allowing the Rogue to use their maneuverability, deception, and back stab abilities in various ways. A Rogue may roll between a giants legs, and stab them from behind in the back of the thigh (getting critical damage.) A Rogue may feint at foe then fade back into hiding forcing them to pursue the Rogue above others, throw sand in an opponents face, cut the straps on an enemies pants, and otherwise make fighting the Rogue a painful proposition and embarrassing situation.

There is not a big list of these abilities. A GM should keep in mind that these are meant to allow a character on both sides of a fight to keep the fight interesting and change the battlefield in their teams favor, but in small and often limited ways.

A character can enact one of these feats per encounter, per level

I've played about for a while with house ruled D&D (Basic) with the idea that 'the more accurate you are, the more damage you do'.

Weapon damage dice aren't rolled, instead a weapon gives a bonus to damage, up to how accurate your strike was.

Example:

Fighter attacks an Orc (AC6) with a sword.

Let's say Fighter needs to roll more than 13 to hit on 1d20. For every point that she exceeds 13, regard it as 1 point of accuracy. Roll 16, that's 3 points of accuracy. Roll 19, that's 6 points of accuracy.

Match accuracy point for point with a damage bonus of 1 point from the weapon, up to the weapons maximum, as listed here:

(http://s8.postimage.org/czfg9nic5/damage_bonus.jpg)

The weapons that give the biggest damage bonuses require the character to be more accurate (because they are large weapons, and unwieldy). Another option will be to make the two handed weapon types slower (lose initiative) and reduce accuracy by 1 point, but inflict 2 points of damage per point of accuracy up to the maximum bonus. I've played around with a few options, including a critical hit style system.

If the accuracy exceeds the damage bonus, you 'max out' the weapon and could probably do with a bigger weapon if you're doing it regularly. For instance, a skilled warrior would easily 'max out' a dagger, and find they would be far better served by an Axe or Two handed sword.

In the example above, the Fighter attacks an Orc. She uses a sword and adds Strength (+2) to the Hit roll, getting a total of 17. She exceeds the target number by 4 points and adds 4 points from her Sword for a total of 8 damage.

One roll to hit and damage. Armour reduces damage, but you could inflict a minimum amount of damage equal to your strength bonus (if you have one) if the armour blocks it all, from bruising. I would base Armour (or Defence Class) on speed, intelligence, perception, skill, experience, size of foe and surprise (if any) so its easier to hit slower opponents.

A 20 'explodes' allowing you to roll and add another D20 to your hit roll. Let's say she rolled a 20, then rolled 8 on the next roll. She exceeds the target (roll 28+2 from Strength=30) by 17 points. She adds the maximum (+8) from the sword for 25 damage, chopping the Orcs head clean off in one stroke! She only wishes she could do that to the Dragon waiting at the end of the dungeon!

Having 20s explode could be the critical system (I'd planned a MERP style critical table with a roll bonus of the number of points you exceeded the weapons max by, and a table for each weapon).

With this, even a Thief with a dagger can inflict huge damage by plunging it into an eye, whilst a very skilled/high level Fighter could make a Dagger as deadly as a battle axe in the hands of a barely trained Orc.

Like everything else I do, still in the planning stages, buried somewhere in a pile of unfinished projects on my hard drive :)

Missile weapons are harder to hit with (range penalties) but multiply accuracy with very high maximum damage bonuses (though you'd have to be Robin Hood to max a bow out, or Bard the Bowman aiming at Smaug)

Any thoughts/opinions, ways to break this/improve it?