"Roll and Keep" modifications for Physical, Social and Mental Tasks

[lev_lafayette]

I've introduced into my current L5R game different resolution methds for Physical, Social and Mental Tasks whilst keeping the same mechanics. Comments appreciated.

(nota bene: This is x-posted from rpg.net, but they'e not so hot on design issues.. I thought here would be a good place to bounce off ideas, even if it isn't an indie game per se..)

In the standard rules they use a skill plus stat "roll and keep" to get a target number. Thus the Horseriding skill and the Agility stat have a value are rolled together as a pool of dice. The total number of dice in Agility are kept to sum against the target number
of difficulty.

So Horseriding 3 plus Agility 2 equals 5 dice, keep the best 2.

As a house rule I've reversed the system for most Mental Acts (knowledges rather than skills), with the exception being matters of pure logic.

So the capacity to speak Mandarin is the Knowledge plus the Stat (Int) and keep the Knowledge dice. Being smart doesn't mean you're fluent in Mandarin, but it sure helps work out what they're saying to the best of your knowledge!

So Mandarin 3 plus Intelligence 2 equals 5 dice, keep the best 3.

Finally for social actions (Relationships) I'm also thinking of a house rule where the "keep" dice is *independent* of character's ability! So an Ainu in Japan gets a normal 2 dice in most experiences - a character's Etiquette and (Social) Awareness scores determine how many dice they roll, but they only keep the best 2 (this could be modified if they establish a personal friendship etc).

So a character with Etiquette 2 and Awareness 2 would roll 4 dice, keep the best 2.

So Skills, Knowledges and Relationships are determined differently, but with the same scale and the same general mechanics.

I'd be happier still when I whack this into a FUDGE/FATE-like system with variable randomness. L5R's d10 open-ended nature can be pretty chaotic.

[EmpyreanDreamer]

lev_Lafayette,

I considered doing something similar with my sci-fi version of the 7thSea rules (which shares dice mechanics with L5R, but with slightly different Trait/Skill systems). So keep in mind that my suggestions here are from the perspective of running a 'Sci-Fi Swashbuckling game' instead of a Tokugawa-era 'esque game.

It's logical that for certain tasks, skill is more important that natural ability. Someone without knowledge of Nuclear Physics should NOT be designing nuclear powerplants! In a gritty or realistic game/setting, it would be appropriate for the GM to say 'No' when a player wants to do something their character has no Skill on their character sheet for.

However, we're on The Forge here, so lets consider the metagaming angle. Is saying 'No' any fun? For the GM or the Player? For 7thSea, it defeats the Adventurous Swashbuckling feel that's intended. While L5R has a somewhat different feel than 7thSea, making Skills more important would still significantly change the feel of the game...

Consider Vincent's Admonition: "Every moment of play, roll dice or say "yes."" Instead of saying 'No,' give the characters a tough roll. In my experience, the best roleplaying memories are of what players and their characters accomplished or tried to accomplish, not what they were told they could not do. Give them a high target number: They'll either fail and try something else, or succeed and have a great story.

What I decided (for my house rules) was that if a character was attempting something they didn't have a Skill in, they would roll their Trait dice as normal, but the 10's become Zeroes (0), and thus could never explode. This makes it possible for characters to have Skills of 0 ranks, which allows them a base Trait roll without penalty.

As for Social rolls, L5R characters have a stat (Station?) associated with one's social position and power; why not use that as your 'Trait' and roll dice equal to Attribute+Skill? This makes it painfully obvious that lower castes and outsiders have very little influence in Rokugan society.

Anyway, my 2 cents...
-Drew

[lev_lafayette]

Yes, the 7th Sea mechanics are pretty much the same from what I understand.

I know it's not a popular opinion, least of all here, but I disagree with Vincent's Admonition. I have a very strong simulationist mindset and when the GM says "yes" or the dice rolls give an totally implausible result I come out in hives. Well, maybe not quite that bad..

*nods* for Social Rolls; I'll double check.

Thanks for your comments.