Donjon... using Fudge dice!

Okay, I have a weird idea.

I really love Donjon, but the dice pool mechanic turns me away. I want something simpler. So, I'm thinking of using Fudge dice instead of a d20 pool.

A standard roll would be to roll 4 fudge dice against a GM-set difficulty, or against an opposed roll by an NPC.

- Tie: no progress, contest continues next round
- Win: degree of success = number of successes
- Lose: degree of failure = number of failures

Successes are interpreted exactly as in Donjon... N successes lets you either state N facts, or take +N to your next action. (Althought this being Fudge, it might make more sense to take +(N/2) to your next roll.)

Difficulties are similar to Donjon, adding the Donjon level to a GM set difficulty.

0 = Easy
1 = Average
2 = Hard
3 = Extreme

Now obviously this compresses the scale quite a bit, and the Donjon Level is going to have a large effect on difficulty. If converting a published adventure (like in the Donjon rules), divide Donjon level by 2.

Character creation: Instead of allocating 20 dice, allocate 10 trait levels. Investing one level gets you a trait at 1, etc. No trait may exceed character level + 2

0 = Nonexistent
1 = Poor
2 = Mediocre
3 = Fair (maximum at 1st level)
4 = Good (maximum at 2nd level)
5 = Great (maximum at 3rd level)
6 = Superb (maximum at 4th level)
7 = Heroic (maximum at 5th level)
8 = Legendary
9 = Legendary+

(You can skip the adjectives; this is just for reference for those familiar with Fudge.)

Advancement: Each character level you may distribute 2 trait levels.

EXAMPLE: Brak is a second level character on Donjon level 2, trying track an ogre on a stone floor. His skill at Finding Stuff is 4, and the GM decides this is a Hard task -- 4. Brak rolls +1 on his fudge dice, for a result of 5, and gets to state one fact. If this had been an easy task, he'd get to state 3 facts.

Again, this compresses things a LOT. Donjons and characters will be limited to about 5 levels instead of 20, so this is more suited to one-off games. One level will mean a LOT more than it will in regular Donjon, perhaps being equal to 3 or 4 levels, because the the dice give a roughly +20% boost with each +1.

You have a roughly 60% chance to roll +0 or better, so for character level N on donjon level N, a player has an 80% chance at an easy task, a 60% chance at an average task, and a 40% chance at a hard task. Of course successes are what really count here. This variant will produce fewer successes on a typical unopposed roll, but potentially as many as 5 or more successes on an opposed roll -- for example, in combat. For this reason it may be good to make ALL rolls opposed.

Anyway, thanks to Clinton for a great game, and apologies for butchering it! And I'm looking for comments. Why won't this work? Where is it likely to hit a snag?

Mike