I have been thinking far too much about this lately (RPG mechanics etc), but lets suppose I really wanted a very simple, generic rolling system that could be applied to nearly any situation, even one where a game develops itself, what direction would I go?

The minimum requirements of said system would be;

• Ease of math

• Open ended, or relatively so

• scale-ability

• story telling components

• accessibility (no weird dice, no weird mechanics)

There are plenty to pick from, but here are the likely contenders;

D6 dice pool.

The multi d6, 4+ to pass pool has become popular in more recent times. Many RPG’s and more than a few wargames have adopted this for it’s natural “squishiness” and flexibility. Based on a simple 50/50 chance, there are a few novel ways to apply it;

• A total of successes (4+), easy at a glance and special dice are available. This is compared to a required number, with excess or a short fall used to indicate complications.

• A total value of success/fail values (4-5 =1, 6 = 2, 1 = -1 or fumble). Harder to add up quickly without painting out dice spots, it does add story telling aspects. Help can be applied as each 6 = +1.

2d6 + stat and skill mods (basically any two).

The venerable bell curve solution favoured by early d20 haters (me included) found in most of the Traveller and the new Iron Kingdoms games, but surprisingly few others.

The spread of 2d6 is a little thin, making 3d6 enticing for higher powered games (and an option for higher powered elements of normal games), but adds math again and the 2d6 range mirrors realism. If super level powers were needed then the addition of more dice (as well as skills and abilities for stability), then scaling would be relatively easy, but weak vs strong opponent upsets not so likely.

So;

• 2d6 as a base. 36 discreet combinations with a strong curve and two ends that will come up often enough to be considered a real possibility.

• Natural 2 fails always, natural 12 passes with conditions if at all possible (i.e. test-able).

• 8+ to pass an unmodified test or vs an opposed roll.

• -/+ mods for abilities or skills (and help?) that max out at 5 for normals.

• -/+ opponents ability also possible

• -/+ mod for task difficulty usually in 1-6 range (up to 20 with supers). Most will be +/- 1-3.

• The 11 number spread, heavily curved, likely limits the useful range of very high power, so no Supermen here, not that system, but maybe Batman or Captain America?

• More d6 or higher mods for super or non human creatures (Gorilla strength)

• Doubles are critical successes/failures, (triples etc even more so). This is 1 in 6, but a simple chart assigns actual effects scaled to likelihood.

• Doubling/halving the task value with the roll changes advantage, time etc.

Basic % system

An old friend, never fully realised, using a simple d100 system. This one can be used to simply lift what ever is needed from my many d100 books. Most use the 2x stat system, many have crit systems etc, this is just a simplification of the mechanics, using the rules from the systems as needed.

• Base is 2 x stats + skill level for a 0 (untrained) to 99% range.

• Increasing skills is easy early, getting increasing hard further up.

• Double values are crit pass/fails with a sliding scale of severity.

• Coloured dice assigned for task difficulty (3 blue, 2 blue, blue/red, 2 red, 3 red etc). Blue dice are assigned as wanted (easier), red assigned worst way possible (harder), with red+blue (average) set as 10’s and 1’s.

DoT System

This one is already a favourite from my home grown Supers game (table top miniatures, not RPG).

The basics are;

• The number of dice = the strength/resilience/power of the test roll

• The type of dice = the skill/accuracy/speed (d4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16 & 20 used).

• The test (unless a set value and number of successes, is opposed with the winner (highest roll and/or highest quantity of the highest rolled value) wins by the number of successful dice (effect).

So 3d12 is more skilful, but weaker than 6d10. If the d12 test wins it will likely have less effect, while the d10 potentially has more strength of effect, but cannot roll as high, so may be outmanoeuvred. This allowed me to have fast, skilled supers (Antman small 2d20) take on strong, less adroit ones (The Hulk 10d8) with similar effect. It can also be applied when anything with variation is tested such as movement (resilience/speed) or even groups of mooks, who are treated as one figure, losing one figure/dice per “hit”.

Big issue is breaking one of the main rules, accessibility (lots of weird dice), but things can be worked out.

Any of the above can work and i will likely use all of them at one time or another.

Next time, characteristics.