ITT: We Design a system from the ground up

How about we say three basic attributes: Mind, Body, and Presence, with subsets of each. Body is for Strength, Toughness, and Dexterity. Mind is for knowledge, and Magic, and resolve. While Presence is Persuasiveness, intimidation, and Leadership

Sounds like the system that new kickstarter game, Red Markets, was using.

2d10, one red one black. You succeed when the black one rolls higher, aka
result = black - red

That's retarded

>d20 or 3d6 are much better

3d12m master race

>3d12
You're insane

Nah, you've got d10's like in OP's pic related, you just designate the 10's dice for the initial roll, and the 1's for subtracting. Or you just have two different colored d10s.

Before deciding on attributes, decide on the kind of theme the game should be.

Making a specific theme then catering the system to it will result in something more coherent rather than something trying to do it all.

How about a game focused more on Social combat than actual combat?

or we could always make another Jojo System

>Design a system from the ground up

This is why most homebrews suck. You need to design from the top down

>picking dice system and other mechanics before deciding what the goal of the game is
Awful

I'm all for a Dieselpunk Exploration system. One that actually rewards players for Discovery and Exploration rather than killing shit.

But the goal of every game is fun

>We're going to make it system neutral, unless someone suggests a kickass idea that we decide to focus the game around

This, we need to figure out the intention of the game first

I guess we just spitball ideas for that

I had an idea for an Intrigue/combat setting where only Necromantic magic existed. You basically had different branches of necromancy, from Fleshcraft, to Animation, to Necrotic Energy Manipulation, to Life Aura/Blood Magic.

>3d12 insane

Nah.

Comparing the size of numbers is faster than actually doing math. Humans aren't calculators.
eg 5 < 6 < 11, you can do that subconsciously

middle 3dX is faster than summing 3dX, and subtraction of two numbers is even slower for most people than addition of 3.

You solve a quadratic equation for casting spells, since every spell has a positive and negative outcome and quadratics have both a positive and negative outcome. Use Intelligence for A, Wisdom for B, and the spell's special Spell Modifier Number in the spellbook compendium for C.

Also, magic exists in a triangle, with Light>Dark>Wild>Light

Light purges darkness, Darkness consumes Wild, and Wild is too chaotic for Light to strike. We need to turn this into Trigonometry somehow with Sine, Cosine, and Tangent (And the secret 3 occult magics Ethereal, Demonic, and Flesh Magic represented by Secant, Cosecant and Cotangent) but I have no idea how to implement this.

The speed you run at is decided by die rolls, but modified by a standard deviation of how fast you ran on all previous sprints, so you're like a racehorse in vegas only running as fast as your average running speed plus how lucky you are that day. If you're lucky all the time you get faster but if you roll like ass all the time you are slower.

Lastly, We solve damage from kinetic missile attacks (like hurls rocks or arrows) with actual physics, deciding on the acceleration of gravity in this setting and how many joules of force it would have when striking at target, minus its force dampening characteristics.

You could probably just make that with AD&D

I second the cop system

Instead of HP you have durability of your bullet proof vest, otherwise a single shot/stab wound or whatever down you

Stats could be:
Fitness
Greed
Smarts
Badness
Goodness

Fitness would determine stuff like running distance/carry weight. Bomb disposal guys have high fitness because of the heavy suit they need to wear.
Greed would be a stat that dynamically changed based on actions you take. Accepting bribes raises it, and makes it harder to pass a bribe check in the future
Smarts is well, how smart you are
Goodness/Badness determine whether youre a good cop or a bad cop, again they can dynamically change like greed does

>the intention of the game first

I don't think we even really need a setting, just a focus on content.

Melee, guns, magic, etc?

Systems that use multiple dice are a giant pain to balance because you almost never roll the higher numbers

...

Eh, 3d6 and d20 systems both have been around for quite some time, and 20's in a d20 are pretty rare.

Rolled 2, 5, 3, 2 = 12 (4d6)

Rolled 6, 3, 4, 6 = 19 (4d6)

5% is a lot better than .5%

Dice pools disagree with you

Rolled 3, 1, 1, 1 = 6 (4d6)

Yeah but a real probability curve is better than a flat curve for balancing.

+bonus stacking in d20 was horrible because of this. Each bonus was as valuable as the prior. A dice curve actually has diminishing returns on bonus stacking.

Do you mean like opposed rolls from a pool of dice? Because that's entirely different

Rolled 5, 4, 2, 2 = 13 (4d6)

Everyone shut the fuck up about dice pools, none of you have even played with a dice system other than d20. No one cares. Lets design a system.

Rolled 2, 3, 6, 3 = 14 (4d6)

Rolled 3, 2, 3, 3 = 11 (4d6)

I had an idea for a Drug system.

You have three drugs. One basically lets you shift your form, mold your flesh, but it reduced your cellular cohesion, eventually causing your body to rot.

The next caused you to hallucinate, but your hallucinations became real within a certain radius. It eventually caused Schizophrenia.

The last basically made you invincible, and stupidly strong, at the cost of Motor and mental control.

You basically play as a bunch of Users who're trying to escape cops, kill rival gangs, or find out who's distributing these drugs.

Rolled 6, 6, 4, 5 = 21 (4d6)

pretty interesting concept

>and 20's in a d20
Depends, it's a 5% chance with all things equal, but most (cheap) dice have an inherent lopsidedness with the large weight given to 1s and 20s as they are on opposite faces. Using these dice you can gain a few more percent, putting you anywhere in the 5% to 10% range in the worst cases.

What if we combine these ideas? You choose between a couple factions and the campaign tales a different focus each time.

If you're a cop, you're trying to bust gangs and distributers. The issue is that you're fighting monsters who can turn their flesh into weapons, are insanely tough to beat, or kill you with their Hallucinations.

If you're a User, you're dealing with substances that work as double-edged swords.

And if you're a Distributor, you're trying to make money and evade detection, so it's Intrigue all the way up.

Then we get into the Dirty Cop, Vigilante, and Mole aspects of the game, where you're acting as double agents and such.

This could work. Actually, it'd be pretty fun.

WELCOME TO THE CHRONOCLISM, WHERE TRAVELERS FROM THE FUTURE HAVE CONQUERED THE ANCIENT WORLD WITH ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY

The core theme of the game is that people from our near future have gone back thousands of years, using guns, bombs, and even some robotics to establish empires over heathen societies.

>Guns are like super high level spells
>Robots are like dragons
>Fuel, ammunition and batteries are super precious because they can't be imported from the future easily

You play as an adventurer in this world, possibly hoping to destroy or work for the New Godkings.

> universal
Uh Oh...

Maybe you should start with something smaller and more focused... Otherwise you'll end up with a mess like GURPS...

Why not just roll ten fudge dice?
I mean, the d6's marked {-,-,0,0,+,+}

>1d10-1d10
It's shit.
Use dicepools with card deck instead.

It took me about 5 tries at reading it but once it clicked I decided I liked it and saved it for later. It's basically just throw a green d10 and a red d10 then subtract the red die from the green die. The result is a triangular distribution with a mean, median, and mode of 0 occuring 10% of the time and -9 and +9 each happening 1% of the time. anydice.com/program/93ca

This is actually rather useful. Cheers to OP, even if the game falls apart that was a pretty good contribution.

Not sure if bounded accuracy is necessary because of the shape of the outcome curve. A +1 will turn a fail into a null 9% of the time and a null into a +1 10% of the time, but it will only turn a +8 into a +9 2% of the time.

Pretty much exactly.

I am monitoring this thread for dice mechanics.

>You solve a quadratic equation for casting spells, since every spell has a positive and negative outcome and quadratics have both a positive and negative outcome. Use Intelligence for A, Wisdom for B, and the spell's special Spell Modifier Number in the spellbook compendium for C.

The only addition/difference i would do here is that the Primary Magic Attribute is A, the Spell Modifier is B and the secondary attribute is C.
You roll 1d6-1d4 for X

X = 1d6-1d4
Y = [Int-Mod]*X2 + [Spell-Mod]*X + [Wis-Mod]

Actually, yeah, Props to OP for coming up with this. His wording was shit, but the actual math behind this actually makes for a pretty sound system... one that defines degrees of success in a fairly self evident manner, is realistic in terms of roll percentage, and best of all, it doesn't break down until you manage to get a +18 on a roll

I'm guessing you used from -5 to +5?

the fuck is this graph? can't be just dicepool with modifier since it would just move the curve left or right, and not change the whole probability

If everyone talking dice mechanics, I'm working on a rules light modification to Dungeon World without the D&D baggage or the forced AW structure. Classless, easily customizable, etc.

The idea is to have a list of basic "moves" or "skills" that you have to replace stats: combat (fighting experience), physique (strength/agility), dexterity, constitution (endurance/mental fortitude), discipline, intuition, and charisma. Each has a "harried" and a "clean" threshold.

When you roll you roll one d20. Above your harried threshold for the skill you succeed with partial success, above you clean threshold you have the full success. The choice in skill sets the harried threshold and the GM picks the clean threshold that makes sense for that check.

The roll also can be adjusted to a difficulty. Easy rolls add +2 to the d20, very easy rolls add +6. Hard rolls add -2, formidable adds -6, and Herculean adds -12. Anything easier or harder than that means you shouldn't be rolling at all. If you roll above a 20 it is a critical success, if you roll below a 1 it is a fumble, rolling 20 is always a clean success and rolling a 1 is always a failure.

The GM side mostly works the same, making moves based on the skill result. Players gain experience as they adventure which can be used to improve the basic skill thresholds or learn new skills: combat styles, thievery skills, magic casting, etc. They also use XP to advance those new skills they learn. On top of learning skills there will be talent trees based on a background choice, you can also gain access to new talent trees as you play.

I'm not sure how I want to handle attributes such as HP or mana or whatever. I think I will use metacurrencies to both power talents and allow for automatic success on a single roll. I also want to only allow a "death blow" to a creature on a critical hit, and combat successes are used to create advantages to allow for critical hits.

I don't know, it's all pretty early still.

1d6-1d6. Same deal as with OP'S mechanic, just less granular.

I have an idea for a game based on such classics as Solarbabies and Prayer of the Rollerboys. The different roller sports that the PC can use to commit crimes with each have a different die associated with them. The two highest numbers on the die are totally bodacious, the two lowest numbers are bummers, and the numbers in the middle, if any, are competent but uncool. A skateboard uses a d4 - it's the coolest, but it's also the one you're most likely to wipe out with. Derby-style skates, rollerblades, and BMX bikes are d6s, d8s, and d10s, respectively. Walking or using any kind of motor vehicle uses a d12 - it'll almost certainly get you where you want to go if that's all you want, but it won't be as totally radical.

Still doesn't explain the shift to the right, though

>Ideal Degree of Success Distribution
>rpg-design.wikidot.com/evaluation

It's not a dice mechanic. It's a model for comparison.

1d6-1d6+X, where X is an incremental bonus granted by stats.

Looks exactly like to me.

>1d6-1d6+X
>anydice.com/program/93cd
Can you show me what I'm doing wrong? This doesn't match up.

Clearly not, since you have more than 11 possible outcomes for each line.

>1d6-1d6+X

In addition to the number of possible outcomes bit, hanging X there would just move the curve left or right, not push the peak higher. Getting a result of 0 with X=0 is as likely as getting 4 with X=4. A 2d6 system (which 1d6-1d6 is, whether you add or subtract is irrelevant) will always have the most common result (7 additive, 0 subtracting) at 16.666...67% probability.

It doesn't match up. The graphic is actually taken from the "Ideal Degree of Success Distribution" article where the author put it forth as a goal but said had know idea how to achieve it with a reasonably simple system. 1dx - 1dx +y just results in a triangular line from -x-1 to x-1 shifted y to the right, so a row of pyramids the same height.

Ah, you're right. My bad.

>I like the idea of staying away from Hit Points, and instead using a durability system. Or making Hit Points a variant option.
For my own homebrew Im working on a replacement for hp that's a sliding scale called Edge. You win the contest and Edge goes up, if you lose it, going down to negatives. Should it hit either end the fight is over and victor is whose side it went to. So no HP, rather back and forth, who got the Edge. This would mark the end of the fight, but there is also other consequences like wounds, which would be inflicted along with shifting the Edge. To drive the fight to end beyond consequences I implemented Escalation; a modifier to increases the Edge shifts.

In short;
>No individual HP track, but still wounds (not fight ending, 'cept death/incapacitated)
>Edge, sliding scale for a fight to determine who wins
>Escalation to drive the fight to an end.