I'd consider eliminating the opposed roll for luck. Instead, just have the player roll two d6's. One predetermined die, treated as a d2, decides if it was good(+) or bad(-) luck and the other die is the size of the modifier, so potential results from negative 6 to positive 6 with the notable exception of zero. (Or have doubles count as zero and the range becomes -5 to +5, but that probably does wonky things to the average result). It's worth noting the result distribution doesn't skew toward 7 like 2d6 would either which could be good or bad depending on what you want. The advantage here is with no math involved and no need for two people to roll and compare results you gain speed and simplicity. In my experience, the most valuable resource at a gaming table is time. Rolling dice is fun, but it's mostly fun because of the result of the roll. Eliminating unnecessary barriers between the roll and the result saves time and focuses time on the best parts of the game. That said, if players or game masters have ways of modifying the luck roll, then you probably need to keep it as you described. Applying modifiers to someone else's roll is always complicated. It's basically always better to modify your side of an opposed roll and just compare final results instead. Other than that, I wonder if getting half Heart on everything else makes Heart too strong. 10 heart and 5 each in the other two is the same as 10 in everything before skill bonuses. Alternatively you pick one specialization, max it out, and then put whatever is left over into Heart because it applies to your specialty and all your weaknesses simultaneously.
4 weeks ago
| 1
Jason Godwyn
TTRPG Idea:
What if you have 20 points to spend on 3 Attributes (Body, Mind, Heart) with 20 points to spend and every stat must be 1-10? Your three Skills can be anything from a pre-approved list and they add +2 to your Attribute when naturally involved in a roll. Also Body and Mind checks add half your Heart rounded down. So the guy with 6 Body and Melee Weapons as a skill and 4 Heart fights as good as someone with 10 Body and no Melee Weapons skill and 1 Heart. If you want to hack a computer and you have an INT of 10 and Heart of 6 and Hacking as a Skill you have a score of 15 plus your luck value.
The system when rolling uses 2d6 dice rolls for you and the DM, the difference between the highest and lowest roller becomes the luck value that benefits or harms the one attempting the roll. If you roll a 1 that only matters if your DM rolls higher, then the difference between his result and yours reduces the stat. Aside from that it's a hard pass-fail system, your stat is either good enough to do what is necessary or it's not. You either have the stat or you don't. Maybe I should go with a "tiered success" system instead where you're either good enough to do it, barely good enough to do it with negative complications and consequences, or not good enough to do it.
If you want to hack a computer and you have an INT of 10 and Heart of 6 and Hacking as a Skill you have a score of 15 plus your luck value. What is your luck value? You roll 2d6. Your DM rolls 2d6. Winner's value subtracted from loser's value halved rounding down is your bonus if your number is higher and your penalty if yours was lower. So in the worst case scenario where you roll a 2 and your DM rolls a 12, your luck value is -5 for this roll. Or at best, +5. Your possible results are 10-20.
4 weeks ago | [YT] | 1