My original concept of using 2d6 for Union States of Americo has changes since reading the forums.

I think now I have developed a better system.

The dice and mechanics are based around the numbers 6 and 12, using up to 12d6.

The attributes are on a scale of 1- 6 and are as follows:
1. Health
2. Strength
3. Dexterity
4. Reaction
5. Mind
6. Intelligence
7. Education
8. Perception
9. Soul
10. Charisma
11. Creation
12. Reputation

Each attribute has 12 associated skills, except for Health, Mind, Soul, and Reputation.

Health has 12 associated hit locations (head, torso, hands, feet, etc.),

Mind has a gauge of 1-12 from sane to insanity.

Soul has a guage of 1-12 to track karma (the means to improve your charcter and other bonus feats)

Reputation has the 12 regions listed underneath. Each region has a guage from -6 to 6 to track infamy or fame in each different location.

The other attributes are pretty standard and self explainitory.

The skills are also fairly standard (jumping, woodworking, flintlocks, sail ship, ride animal, etc...)

The skills are on a scale of 1-6 as well. Each point represents 1d6 to roll, with a set target number of 6. This means that a character with 1 point in jumping has one dice to accomplish a feat where a character with 6 points has six dice to accomplish the feat.

Opposed rolls are handled the same way. Characters roll their appropriate dice with target numbers of six, who ever gets more successes wins.

This target number may seem high, but I used that to add in an element of pressure versus taking ones time. If a charcter concentrates (aims, studys without distraction, or other positive modifiers) they can start adding in dice from their attribute.

Example: A character with Flintlocks 3 has one 3 dice to roll when shooting at a bullseye IF they just draw and shoot. If they take the extra time (one turn=one extra dice) they can add in dice from the associated attribute. Therefore, someone with flintlocks 3 and perception 3 can concentrate (for 3 turns) and roll 6 dice opposed to 3.

In the mad rush of combat, however, the time to concentrate may not be allowed. You may possibly be able to aim for one turn in combat, but not for three. If you are struck or distracted in any other way, you lose all of your concentration, starting over with just your basic skills.

Craft skills work a similar way. There is a huge difference between trying to assemble a wooden shield in 3 days and another in 3 hours. By taking ones time, they can greatly increase the number of dice available to succeed.

Critical failures occur on the result of all ones. All dice must roll up 1 to critically fail, even in the case of just once dice. I hate games where a novice and an expert both roll a d20 and have the same percentage chance of criticall failing. It makes sense to me that someone who barely knows how to use a whip might pop themselves in the face while someone who is a master would never let it happen. A character with 6d6 will rarely roll all ones.

However, this works in the opposite manner of critical successes, so there are no critical successes. In the case of rolling a 6 with one dice, thats good enough for the untrained idgit. If someone rolls all 6's with 6 dice, the results will be so fantastic, it doesnt need the word "critical" to make it any more spectacular. With this mechanic, I have done away with the idea that some average joe can pick up a broadsword and "acciddentally" lob it into a dragons heart and kill it (which i think is ludicrous.)

Combat turns are determined by rolling reaction dice. All the dice are rolled and saved. Whoever got a six goes first, but someone with a five and a two can give up both dice to go before them. Someone with a five, a two and a one can give up three dice and go before them. In this way, slower characters have a chance to go first, but faster characters are left with more actions. If a faster character feels so inclined, he can give up 5 or 6 dice to ensure they take the first action.

Weapons either do 1, 2, 3, or 4 points of damage. Each hit location has a certain number of wounds they can take. Head has two, while torso has 4. A weapon doing 2 points of damage (a mace) could crack a skull, but only do middle-class damage to a torso. A sledge hammer (4 points of damage) would crush a ribcage or a head.

When a strike is successful, 2d6 are rolled to determine hit location. Then, the attacker can move the hit location up or down based on how mnay successes they received. So if they got 3 successes and rolled a 4 (striking someone in the arm) the 3 successes allow them to move the strike 3 times. They can move it to 1 (head) or 7 (right hand.) This way they can kill or maim, depending on what would be most appropriate. This also assists the concentration part, adding dice from the attribute. Concentrate = more dice = more successes = better hit location.

Once a body part is out of points, it is crippled. Crippling a head or torso kills the character.

Armor is either light or heavy and subtracts either 1 or 2 wounds from a successful attack.

I think I have covered most of the essentials of the mechanics. Please tell me what would work, wouldnt work, what sounds good and what sucks.

Are the mechanics too complex? I tried to make them more realistic; combat is designed to be a last resort, because odds are many people will die. I'm not much for combat where everyone stands in a circle and shoots till someone is dead. This system encourages people to take cover when the S hits the fan.

(That reminds me, positive or negative modifiers either add or subtract dice to the skill rolls.)

Do several paragraphs (roughly half of what you've written so far) on combat match your goal? Which I believe is:

Combat goes on the back burner (to be used occasionally) while political interration, exploration and survival are the main focus.

I provided the combat rules to give everyone a better idea of the machanics involved. Whether combat is the main focus or not is entirely up to the GM.

In most roleplaying systems, combat is the most involved part, which is why i explained it in the most detail. Exploration and diplomacy doesn have quite as many details and mechanics and shouldnt take to muct to figure out from the mechanics i posted.

What I'm looking for here is opinions of if this system mechanic seems simple enough, or if it too complex. I would aslo like to know if someone notices any flaws. I just want to know if these are good mechanics, not if these mechanics contradict what I said about the focus of combat. Let me know what you think about the rules.

RPunkG wrote: I provided the combat rules to give everyone a better idea of the machanics involved. Whether combat is the main focus or not is entirely up to the GM.

In most roleplaying systems, combat is the most involved part, which is why i explained it in the most detail. Exploration and diplomacy doesn have quite as many details and mechanics and shouldnt take to muct to figure out from the mechanics i posted.

What I'm looking for here is opinions of if this system mechanic seems simple enough, or if it too complex. I would aslo like to know if someone notices any flaws. I just want to know if these are good mechanics, not if these mechanics contradict what I said about the focus of combat. Let me know what you think about the rules.

because i wanted to try my hand at creating my own system.

RPunkG wrote: because i wanted to try my hand at creating my own system.

because i work a night job with nothing else to do; this keeps me sane and eats up my senseless freetime

RPunkG wrote: because i work a night job with nothing else to do; this keeps me sane and eats up my senseless freetime

hahahaha dude, my career advisor died 2 years ago. just tell me what u think of the mechanics

RPunkG wrote: hahahaha dude, my career advisor died 2 years ago. just tell me what u think of the mechanics

The mechanics remind me of WW Storyteller

As such, they've got all the flaws of that system

I counted: attribute, skill, attribute+skill (after taking time), hit location, reputation (broken), weapon damage & armour protection.

Too high a target number, which rewards play to win behaviour from players, and causes other players to become defeatist or negative sum.

The biggest flaw is the no goal or generic nature of the system

which doesn't match your desired goal, as far as I can see.

Comments:

1. All around the dice-pool is a pretty well rounded idea--but how do you handle difficulty beyond 1 in 6? If I want to scale a sheer wall vs. climb a gothic building facade? One is easier than the other (maybe I missed this).

2. I don't know how unarmed (both trained and untrained) combat will work. Does a normal punch do 0? 1? Does a karate blow do 2? If so then the world's most powerful handgun (3?) isn't that much better than a heavy punch.

3. Over all it's a pretty deadly system, I think. I think there will be some issues with heavily armored riot troops (2pts of armor will stop what? An assault rifle round? A rocket launcher?) I suspect that none of that is really the focus of the game so it probably doesn't matter if an APC can suck up a LAW rocket or not.

4.Do skills add to stats? If I have a skill like, say Karate, of 2 and a Dexterity of 4 do I roll 6d to hit?

-Marco

how do you handle difficulty beyond 1 in 6? If I want to scale a sheer wall vs. climb a gothic building facade

Does a normal punch do 0? 1? Does a karate blow do 2?

heavily armored riot troops (2pts of armor will stop what? An assault rifle round? A rocket launcher?)

Do skills add to stats? If I have a skill like, say Karate, of 2 and a Dexterity of 4 do I roll 6d to hit?

Andrew Martin wrote: The biggest flaw is the no goal or generic nature of the system; which doesn't match your desired goal, as far as I can see.

This might clear up the weapon damage/armor mechanics

weapons damage
1 point (fist, knife, sling)
2 points (brass knuckes, mace, short sword, bow, flintlocks)
3 points (karake blow, spiked mace, broadsword, shotguns, X-bow)
4 points (sledge hammer, gigantic sword, double barrel shotgun, heavy x-bow)

5 points (reserved for non-conventional weapons) Train wreck, falling boulder, getting hit by a pirate ship
6 points (to the point of instant-death circumstances) Falling from the grand canyon, caught in a rockslide, attacks by a MoMo

armor protection
0 points (clothes)
1 point (leather armor)
2 points (metal armor)

3 points (reserved for non conventional armors) exceptional quality metal armor
4 points (reserved for Ancient armors) Ancient Military Armor

Exploration will be based mainly around maps and GM creativity, but to get back to my "goal" here are some exploration rules

Traditional mapworking = Target 6

clearly defined roads or train tracks = +1d6
thick, repetitious jungle = -1d6

Maps sell on a scale cased on frequency of travel or previous ignorance of the land, along with detail. Where a black and white map of the outskirts of a city would fetch maybe an ounce of oil, a color detailed map of the Land of Cannibals would go for a fortune. (However, they would expect authenticity.)

Maps are a huge commodity, without them travel by animal or on foot is impossible.

This is all accomplished with the cartography skill.

Paper costs 1 copper.
Black ink costs 1 silver per oz.
Colored inks cost 1 gold per oz.

Politics are also roleplayed out between the Gm and the players. Political skills can either be rolled, or the GM can play NPCs according to how they might react to such a skilled character.

Economy works like such:
10 copper = 1 silver (know where this is going?)
10 silver = 1 gold
1 gold = 1 quart of oil
10 gold = 1 green gold (a newly discovered precious metal)

All coins are minted in the Nation of Oil Co and represent a certain amount of oil.