Here is a brief storytelling mechanic I've been kicking around.
    Attribute + Attribute + Competence + Focus + Tool

The players roll dice to get success.
Success are decided per die.
result of 4 is one success, 8 is two success, and 12 is three success

Characters have the basic six attributes.
Might, Agility, Mind, Cunning, Presence, Conviction
Each ranked with a die(d4 d6 ....)
Task  require two attributes that are most useful.
example: melee strike (might/1d8 & agility/1d6) result 3,4 = 1 success

Competence is a area of common skills that may or may not have a die rank.
Combat, Athletics, Persuasion .....
These are added to relevant task.
example: swimming (might/1d8 & agility/1d6 & athletics/1d8) result 4,5,8 = 4 success

Focus is specific skill that may have a ranked
Pistols, Intimidation.....
These are also added to a specifc task.
example: Intimidation (presence/1d8 & might/1d6 & persuasion/1d8 & intimidation/1d6) result 4,5,2,4 = 3 success

Tool used by the character also has a rank. Weapons also have dmg per success values.
swords, med kits,
Any time the tool is used roll its rank.
example: shooting a pistol (agility/1d6 & cunning/1d8 & combat/1d8 & pistols/1d6 & revolver/1d6)
result 4,5,8,2,4 = 5 success

Does this look like anything else that's out there?

I don't think it matters if looks like anything else out there or if its been done before, unless you want to jaw about it with somebody who's been down the same road. Saying that, I haven't seen anything like this.

Seems kind of neat to me.

Have you done any work on the probabilities? With five dice to roll you're going to get some fairly steep bell curves.

What do the number of successes mean? Do you need to get a fixed number of successes to come out on top? Does somebody roll for an opponent if its a contest? How do characters fail? Do the answers to these questions explain why you call it a story telling mechanic rather than an action resolution system?

Bert

Simple note: You could also total all the dice, then divide by 4. This adds weight to each additional die as even if they roll a 1, the totalk result is that much closer to another success. This needs careful consideration on the value of any extra dice beyond the basic two.

Counting the fours is faster though - especially when you roll lots of dice - and with this system you'll certainly end up rolling lots of dice before long!

Bert wrote:
I don't think it matters if looks like anything else out there or if its been done before, unless you want to jaw about it with somebody who's been down the same road. Saying that, I haven't seen anything like this.

Seems kind of neat to me.

Have you done any work on the probabilities? With five dice to roll you're going to get some fairly steep bell curves.

What do the number of successes mean? Do you need to get a fixed number of successes to come out on top? Does somebody roll for an opponent if its a contest? How do characters fail? Do the answers to these questions explain why you call it a story telling mechanic rather than an action resolution system?

Bert

Keep at it. Its interesting.

I like the way you break an action down into the different factors. Nice, clean and simple. Presumably the step die scale is d4, d6, d8, d10, d12? That gives the counting multiples of 4 a very nice aesthetic.

You give a combat example and mention damage. How are you working damage? Is a point of damage deducted from a hit point total or something similar, or does the damage indicate a level of description (with fixed penalties) promoting good story telling, or something else entirely?

Bert

Bert wrote:
Keep at it. Its interesting.

I like the way you break an action down into the different factors. Nice, clean and simple. Presumably the step die scale is d4, d6, d8, d10, d12? That gives the counting multiples of 4 a very nice aesthetic.

You give a combat example and mention damage. How are you working damage? Is a point of damage deducted from a hit point total or something similar, or does the damage indicate a level of description (with fixed penalties) promoting good story telling, or something else entirely?

Bert

Although I agree with a previous poster that you shouldn't really worry if it's been done..

Have you checked out Savage Worlds? Sounds vaguely similar, to me.

Hmm. I don't know much about Savage Worlds, but I do know it uses a step die mechanic - as is the case here. I think you roll 1 die , re-rolling maximum results and adding and compare to a difficulty score. Thats one die. Knight is using multiple step dice for compound effect.

The Window is another example of a game that makes good use of the step die mechanic, and its pretty cool - but again, you only roll one die. Earthdawn is another game that uses a step die mechanic (d4,d6, d8, d10, d12, 2d6, 1d8+1d6 etc.), but while you may roll multiple dice the number seldom goes above 2 and is based on a single compound ability level.

Knight has replaced compound addition of ability scores leading to a single step die with compound effect based on multiple step dice. I've not seen that before.

There's also the fact that Knight is counting multiples of 4 instead of adding face values. Its a bit like the standard dice pool mechanic of counting results above a certain level as a success. Like Burning Wheel, where you roll d6's and count all results of 4 or more as a success. But in this system a single die can give you more than one success, depending on how good you are.

Its a funky hybrid of dice pool and step die mechanics.

My problem is I can't get my head around the probabilities, and my math isn't up to doing anything about it.

Bert

ShallowThoughts wrote:
Although I agree with a previous poster that you shouldn't really worry if it's been done..

Have you checked out Savage Worlds? Sounds vaguely similar, to me.

Wordman has posted a topic called "what do you want to know about probabilities".

He might be able to help you get a feel for the probabilities in your system. It would give you some insight into how your game would function in play. All I can manage is to figure out how likely a result of less than 2 is for a given set of dice. The number of permutations stops me from going any further.

Bert

CKNIGHT wrote:
Does this look like anything else that's out there?

I quickly crunched the probablilites, and they work out just fine.

Die Avg successes
d4 ¼ (3x0 + 1x1 / 4)
d6 ½ (3x0 + 3x1 / 6)
d8 ¾ (3x0 + 4x1 + 1x2 / 8)
d10 1 (3x0 + 4x1 + 3x2 / 10)
d12 1 ¼ (3x0 + 4x1 + 4x2 + 1x3 / 12)

So, each die step, on average, gives 1/4 of a success. If you have a d6, d6, d8, d4, and a d10, they should add up to (2/4 + 2/4 + 3/4 + 1/4 + 1 =) 3 successes on average.

The system looks clean, fresh, and pretty balanced. I'd like to see the mechanics for buying attributes and skills, though.

Thanks for reference Skeletor,

Quick crunch also appreciated,Chrono

Well, my post seems to have been answered.
I'll be working on theme and setting now.
I will post a power 19 and a character generation after a few test plays.

Thanks again builders and shapers.

CKnight