Okay, here are my first thoughts. Please feel free to make suggestions, I am not married to anything at this point.

My intitial desire is to create a d6 die pool system with some resource management as well. Influenced somewhat by DERPG and MURPG.

Base Design:

– Characters have Traits and Talents.

– Traits can be genre-specific, however there are always only three of them. As a generic example we will use Mind, Body and Spirit.

– Characters have X points to divide among the three traits. There must be at least one point in each Trait.

– Characters have X points to spend for Talents. There are genre-specific lists of Talents for a character, however any Talent not listed may be created.

– Talents are rated from 1-6. If a character does not have the required Talent for a task (or need additional points), then they may “burn” Trait point(s) in order to attempt (more on this later).

– Tasks are actions which use Talents. Tests are actions which use Traits.

For Tasks, roll d6 equal to current pool of Talent points. The result on each d6 you roll counts as: 1 = 0 success; 2-5 = 1 success; 6 = 2 successes

If the character has a current Talent pool equal to or greater than the TN, then success can be automatic. However, no possible bonuses or XP will be given (more on this later).

The # of successes or failures immediately replenishes/diminishes the Talent pool on a 2-for-1 basis. Example: Character spends 4 points of Computer Talent and roll 4d6. The TN is 5. They roll 4, 6, 6, 2 which is 6. They get immediately get 2 points back in the Computer Talent. Since they rolled two 6s they have 4 additional successes. One of 6s can be used to bring the Computer Talent pool back up to 4 (2 successes for rolling a 6) and the other 6 can be placed into a Confidence or Trust Pool to be used later.

If the Task is successful, as a bonus, any die with a 6 can be either be put into a Confidence pool that they can use later; or put into a Trust pool that other PCs can use; or keep the 2 successes and use immediately.

If a character fails and the number of d6 with a 1 are greater than the failure amount then a serious mishap has occurred.

Characters receive XP only when they FAIL in attempting a Task. In a failed Task attempt, each d6 with a 1 will count as one XP

– For Tests, roll d6 equal to Trait points. Total score vs Threshold is required. For every 3 points below the Threshold then the Trait score is reduced by 1 (not sure of resolution for success at this point).

Trait points are always totaled. Example: A player wants to “Burn” 1 Trait point when attempting the same Task using their Computer Talent. They spend 4 in their Talent and roll 4d6.  They roll 4, 6, 6, 2 which is 6.  Now they Burn the Trait point and roll a 4. This is added to make a total score of 10.
Trait Points which are burned are permanently lost, however they can be refreshed by spending a Doom point. All characters begin the game with 12 Doom points. Once they reach zero, they have met their final fate and are removed from the game.

Tests such as Sanity or Trauma require players to roll a d6 for each point of a Trait that they have. Example: 3 points in Mind are rolled and totaled against a Sanity Test. Threshhold for the Test is 12. The player rolls a 5, 1, 4 for a total of 10. They fail by 1 margin (1 for every 3 points). Their Trait score is temporarily reduced by 1 and suffer any other consequences. A player can go insane, be corrupted or possibly die if any of their Trait scores are reduced to zero.

So please give me some feedback. Thanks!

Do you plan to have any limitation except 'the GM says no' on people generating arbitrary numbers of very easy rolls, in order to top off a Talent pool?

How does one bootstrap a talent back into being useful if the pool is exhausted? Looks like it takes a Doom point.

You have a very sharp success/failure cutoff; expect players to take one look at something with a difficulty higher than their current talent pool size, and back away from it. (Or, possibly, try it for the xp, then replenish their pool by doing something easy.)

To be honest, it feels like you want a Karma based system, with resources, and with tokens to move around, rather than dice. I have Nobilis on the brain right now, so that's where I'd start thinking about it. YMMV.

Unless you are playing a campaign with a known limited lifespan, I'd expect people to be rather unhappy about spending Doom points, and to never do so.

What do you hope to accomplish with Tests? They appear to allow the GM to put half the party into a death-spiral, and leave the other half untouched, depending how they split their 'stats'. Why is this a good thing? Why do you not, at least, allow the use of resources to prevent this, making it into an interesting choice, rather than a GM-fiat loss of character control?

I assume the Confidence pool lets you roll one or more extra D6 with rolls you want to. Does it work on Tests? How will you stop the players 'charging it up' on minor stuff, and walking around with a full one at all times? Is it limited in size?

You are mechanically rewarding people for making lots of rolls. Is that your intention?

Tom,

Thanks a bunch on the response.

Tom wrote: Do you plan to have any limitation except 'the GM says no' on people generating arbitrary numbers of very easy rolls, in order to top off a Talent pool?

Tom wrote: How does one bootstrap a talent back into being useful if the pool is exhausted? Looks like it takes a Doom point.

Tom wrote: You have a very sharp success/failure cutoff; expect players to take one look at something with a difficulty higher than their current talent pool size, and back away from it. (Or, possibly, try it for the xp, then replenish their pool by doing something easy.)

Tom wrote: To be honest, it feels like you want a Karma based system, with resources, and with tokens to move around, rather than dice. I have Nobilis on the brain right now, so that's where I'd start thinking about it. YMMV.

Tom wrote: Unless you are playing a campaign with a known limited lifespan, I'd expect people to be rather unhappy about spending Doom points, and to never do so.

Tom wrote: What do you hope to accomplish with Tests? They appear to allow the GM to put half the party into a death-spiral, and leave the other half untouched, depending how they split their 'stats'. Why is this a good thing? Why do you not, at least, allow the use of resources to prevent this, making it into an interesting choice, rather than a GM-fiat loss of character control?

Tom wrote: I assume the Confidence pool lets you roll one or more extra D6 with rolls you want to.

Tom wrote: Does it work on Tests? How will you stop the players 'charging it up' on minor stuff, and walking around with a full one at all times? Is it limited in size?

Tom wrote: You are mechanically rewarding people for making lots of rolls. Is that your intention?