Come, enjoy my tasty dice mechanics with hot baked stones!

[LizardLips]

Ralph, I really liked your idea of fatigue. I've tried to work some of that into my latest iteration of this mechanic with the pool of stones representing a character's endurance or morale.

Characters start with three colored stones: red, green, and blue representing attack, maneuver and defense respectively. They also have access to an infinite supply of white stones. Situational modifiers may increase the number of colored stones a character has in his pool. Actions are limited by the stone choice. Attacks must be initiated with a red stone, green does not allow attacks to be made, and blue can't attack but can return fire.

When a character makes a skill attempt, he chooses one of his colored stones. On his turn he reveals the stone and targets an opponent, who then reveals his stone if has not done so previously during the round. Stone colors are compared. Red (attack) beats green (maneuver), green beats blue (defense), and blue beats red. A character may choose to lay more than one stone, but all stones must be the same color. A skill attempt involves the character rolling a 1d6 under his relevant skill, with the number shown on the die being his success number if he succeeds. Each stone compared allows an additional die roll and for every stone that is compared and beats his opponent's stone the winner receives an extra die roll. The total success numbers of any dice that roll under the relevant skill are added together.

When stones are revealed, but before dice are rolled combatants may choose to reposition. A character who repositions aborts one or more stones, negating a chance to compare them to other stones, but for each stone aborted the character receives a –1 to the success numbers of any dice that are thrown during that round.

After comparing dice totals the winner captures any stones the loser had played that were not aborted and may convert them to a color of his choice. If a character can not play a colored stone (either by losing them to the enemy, or by choice) he plays a white stone. White stones always lose to colored stones, and generally are a signal that its time to retreat.

Example: A marine spies an alien hiding behind some rocks. Each party selects a stone. Initiative is rolled (or otherwise determined), with the marine losing to the alien. The alien goes first and places a blue defense stone. The marine had chosen to attack, hoping the alien would be trying to flee (with green or white stones). Seeing the alien preparing to defend the marine could continue his attack with a roll of two dice under his Fighting skill and the alien rolling three dice under its Fighting as well. Those odds don't look good, so the marine chooses to reposition, removing his stone from the table. He has already chosen to attack though so quickly snaps off a shot from his laser pistol. Since the alien does not have a stone to compare his blue stone to he doesn't receive an extra die for it  and so rolls only one. Likewise the marine rolls a single die as well, but will suffer a –1 penalty to any die successes he rolls. They each have a fighting score of 5 and each roll, the alien getting rolling a 6 (which is a failure), and the marine rolling a 4 (success), modified to a 3. The marine wins! For his victory he takes the alien's blue stone and decides to convert it to red.

On the next round the marine wins initiative. Hoping the alien's morale is wavering (out of blue stones) the marine puts his two red stones into the attack. The alien now reveals his stone and it's blue! The marine underestimated the alien's resources, but decides to follow through with his attempt since he's merely an example. The marine rolls 3 dice (one normal, one for each stone) and the alien rolls 4 (one normal, one for the stone, two for the blue beating both of the marine's stones). The marine's total turns out to be less than the alien's and he's killed in a hail of return fire since we're done using him as an example.

Does the selection of stones impart real tactical advantages now, or is it still random? I also want to start figuring out probabilities. I'm thinking of making rolls that exactly meet a characters skill explode. Thanks again for all the help.