In the system I am writing, everything is opposed die rolls. Your "Skill Attribute" is a d4, d6, d8, d10, or d12. You get a bonus if a skill is within a Career background. You have one specific skill/action that uses a d20. The opposed difficultly is similarly a d4, d6, d8, d10, or d12.

If the active (attacking) roller meets or beats the inactive (defender), the active roller wins.

Quote from: Tod13;932795In the system I am writing, everything is opposed die rolls. Your "Skill Attribute" is a d4, d6, d8, d10, or d12. You get a bonus if a skill is within a Career background. You have one specific skill/action that uses a d20. The opposed difficultly is similarly a d4, d6, d8, d10, or d12.

If the active (attacking) roller meets or beats the inactive (defender), the active roller wins.

Thats the system Fable uses.

Quote from: TristramEvans;932797Thats the system Fable uses.

Interesting. I'd never heard of it before. It took me quite some time to find it via Google, which might explain why I'd never heard of it.

I dislike the "make up your own attributes" system and the cost points for creating characters seem needlessly complex. But I'll read over it in more detail later. :cool:

I actually really like how Xd20 does things. The stats work almost like THAC0; the lower the stat, the better your skill, and your stat is the target number to make or beat. Talk about cutting right through the bullshit.

Quote from: RPGPundit;932745So, the most common methods seem to be:
-roll-under ability score checks
-D20-style roll+bonus vs Difficulty Number
-1d6 method (in the style of LotFP)

Which is your favorite (of those, or others used in some OSR game)?  Which do you really dislike, if any?

Least favorite -- grafted on percentile systems even in AD&D
 
 D20 /Dif its fine in modern games, it works but i don't like the variability of the role system. I would use it in a hacked  Castles and Crusades though

I'm fine with  LotFP style though its not great on stealth checks

Best of all is "roll under stat" like AD&D and Beyond the Wall uses . It works for most skills pretty well and the way stealth is handled (an alertness penalty) works fine for me

Quote from: 5 Stone Games;932808Least favorite -- grafted on percentile systems even in AD&D

You mean that whack grafted-on d20 combat system on the beautiful percentile system that is AD&D?

Quote from: RPGPundit;932745So, the most common methods seem to be:
-roll-under ability score checks
-D20-style roll+bonus vs Difficulty Number
-1d6 method (in the style of LotFP)

Which is your favorite (of those, or others used in some OSR game)?  Which do you really dislike, if any?

As a TFT/GURPS player, I like (and am very very used to) 3d6 roll-under with modifiers and occasional use of more dice (like 5d6 for something much  more difficult, or sometimes 3d6 + 1d10 / 10  for more precision). I like the bell-curve effect, and am very comfortable with what the various ability scores and rolls are like.

I tend to dislike single-die rolls unless precision isn't needed. Sometimes some things make perfect sense to determine with a single d2 through d20, but not if it involves precision or gradual skill improvement or steep difficulty or rare chances, because there isn't enough grain. Even 1d20 means the smallest interval is 5%, to the most certainty is 95% and the smallest chance is 5%, which is pretty common, so if you want things to be rarer or more certain than that, you can't unless you add a confirmation roll or effect table or something (which is completely acceptable to me, but then it is a multi-die roll, just the first die may usually make the later dice not needed, which is fine).

Similar with open-ended die-rolls that start with one die - those can be cool, and allow for extreme unlikely severe effects, which I like, but it can want a bunch of analysis to figure out what the actual odds are really like.

I also like to have various modifiers and contests between stats, so it makes various factors meaningful and it feels like when two characters go against each other, they're both involved. (I'm willing/happy to roll 36d vs. attack skill for the attacker to see how good his attack is, and then 3d6 versus defense skill for the defender to see if he can avoid getting hurt.) One reason I stopped playing TFT was the simple roll only against the attacker's skill to see whether the defender was hit or not - it started to feel too much like an error that the defender's ability wasn't taken into account.)

I prefer Die + Skill + Modifiers vs. Difficulty.

As long as:

1) Difficulty values are standardized across all subsystems.
2) The Skill-system isn't some tacked-on outlier to the other conventions of the system
3) You only roll if it matters.

Quote from: tenbones;932909I prefer Die + Skill + Modifiers vs. Difficulty.

As long as:

1) Difficulty values are standardized across all subsystems.
2) The Skill-system isn't some tacked-on outlier to the other conventions of the system
3) You only roll if it matters.

What is your thought on my system? I'm not trying to convert you. I'm treating you as a focus group, to see if you run in horror.

As a short recap, my system is: dieSizeA + skill + modifiers vs dieSizeB
The size relationship between dieSizeA and dieSizeB determines the difficulty.
It isn't tacked on, since all rolls use this same system. There are no other rolls.

I published mine, basically d20 style, 1d20+attribute bonus+skill bonus.

However my attribute bonuses are a lot less generous 12 to 14 is +1, 15 to 17 is +2, 18 to 20 is +3, and so on.
The minuses are 6 to 8 is -1, 3 to 5 is -2.

The biggest change I did, and the one that the designers of D&D 5e seem to have adopted for their own use, is a rule where every character can attempt any skill just some are better at certain skills than others. Because of that I call them abilities not skills.

The base chance of success of 15. Adjust by 5 up or down by difficulty. Additional modifiers would be imposed in +4, +2, 0, -2, or -4 increments. However since D&D 5e release I just go with advantage or disadvantage.

I find it interesting that some systems have the standard single d20 for combat rolls while skill rolls use multiple dice for a bell curve. I don't know if it is an intentional design, but it is interesting that you get more chaotic, swingy results from combat, but tend to get more more conservative results when simply using a skill.

Quote from: RPGPundit;932745So, the most common methods seem to be:
-roll-under ability score checks
-D20-style roll+bonus vs Difficulty Number
-1d6 method (in the style of LotFP)

Which is your favorite (of those, or others used in some OSR game)?

Roll under ability score, if and only if the roll-under is done on Xd6, with X being a number between 2 and 6 depending on difficulty:).

QuoteWhich do you really dislike, if any?

The other two you listed, sorry!
I make exception for the d6 method being acceptable if the game is d6-based, like the Chainmail-inspired Five Ancient Kingdoms, Spellcraft and Swordplay, Crimson Blades, Epees et Sorcellerie, and Champions of ZED;).

I roll 2d6 and use my judgement for any additions or subtractions based on character level and how they described what they're trying to do. A 9 or better is a solid success, a 6 to 8 may be a complication or no effect depending on the situation, a 4 or 5 or maybe 6 depending on situation is probably a comic failure but you can try again, a 3 means complication, failure, and injury, and a 2 is the worst thing that can happen.  Depending on the precautions you take, the "worst thing that can happen" will vary.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;932925I roll 2d6 and use my judgement for any additions or subtractions based on character level and how they described what they're trying to do. A 9 or better is a solid success, a 6 to 8 may be a complication or no effect depending on the situation, a 4 or 5 or maybe 6 depending on situation is probably a comic failure but you can try again, a 3 means complication, failure, and injury, and a 2 is the worst thing that can happen.  Depending on the precautions you take, the "worst thing that can happen" will vary.

Gronan, I know this is going to give some people fits, but that's more or less Apocalypse/Dungeon World, except your system is more detailed;).

Quote from: AsenRG;932949
Gronan, I know this is going to give some people fits, but that's more or less Apocalypse/Dungeon World, except your system is more detailed;).

DungeonWorld is basically old school D&D with incredibly elaborate  training wheels affixed.