Help With W, X, and Y...

I am participating in the A to Z April challenge this year.  The theme for all of my posts is the experiences of my gaming group and 80s gaming; of course, posts with related subjects like movies we watched as a group or video games will also be done.  I have 23 letters of the alphabet pretty much completely planned out ahead of time.  I am having problems with W, X, and Y.  Can anyone that follows this blog give me some words or phrases beginning with those letters to serve as prompts?  Feel free to submit whatever you feel - it may just be the thing that jogs some cobwebs loose and gives me an idea for that post.  Any and all suggestions will be highly appreciated!

Single D6: Action Results Table

My plans are for the single D6 game to be quick playing and easy to use.  I think the easiest way to do that is to base all attempted actions on the role of a single D6 against the Action Result Table.  Fans of Talislanta will find this table very familiar.  The process is pretty simple and straightforward.

1.  Compare the character's Skill or Attribute Rating against the Difficulty of the Action.

2.  Take the difference (positive, negative, or even zero) and apply it to a D6 roll.

3.  Refer to the chart below to see the outcome of the attempted action.

Action Result Table

If you roll a	The Result is
0 or less	Mishap
1 to 2	Failure
3 to 5	Success
6 or more	Critical

The following guidelines may be used when interpreting the results from the Action Result Table.

Mishap:  The attempted action not only fails but has unexpected consequences such as the character drops or breaks his weapon, accidentally injures himself, the spell backfire, or some other similar outcome.  The decision is in the hands of the GM to determine the details of the mishap in correlation to the attempted action.

Failure:  The attempted action fails to achieve the intended results.

Success:  The attempted action succeeds and achieves the intended results; this could be anything from a moderate to success to a complete success depending on the circumstances.  The higher the roll, the better the outcome.

Critical:  The attempted action not only succeeds but also has unexpected benefits such as a major wound inflicted on the target, a bulls eye shot, or some other similar outcome.  Again, it is the duty of the GM to determine the details of the critical in correlation to the attempted action.

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This is all just first impression type ideas without any play test being done at all.  I may have to adjust the numbers in the left hand column in the ART.  That will allow for a wider improvement range for characters over their adventuring career.  To go along with the table above, Attributes and Skills will be rated with positive and negative number; for example, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2.  This rating will be applied to the D6 roll in the appropriate situations related to the attribute or skill in question.

A Single D6... (Part 2)

After my earlier post and the comments left by some readers, I had some more thoughts come to mind about  a role-playing game designed around using a D6 for all task resolution during play.  Some of these ideas are mine and some were taken from the comments left on the other post; no worries, I will give credit to any and all who contribute ideas in this continuing brainstorm process.

Inspiration and Concept

The inspiration and concept for this idea came from this comment on my post with the idea of using LEGO Heroica dice in an RPG:

Eldrad Wolfsbane said, "What about an entire RPG based on a single D6? Could it be done?".

After reading the comments on my original post and reading the suggestions made about such a design, I got a few more ideas of my own and decided to move forward with a little more design work on this game.  An additional design goal is for the number 6 to be important to the game in other areas of the game also.  For instance, I want the core rules to be done in 6 pages and all supplemental material to be done in 6 pages also.  I know that goal is limiting but it should make for a fun and interesting design challenge deciding what gets included and what gets removed.

Name
I still have not settled on a decent name for the underlying rules system. Some of the labels I came up with for this project include uno6, single6, unoDie, solo6, just6, and simple6. I am not sure if any of those are near as "cool" as I would like but they do get the point across.  I am probably leaning towards just6 or simple6 but I am still officially undecided.

Format
I am designing the rules with the intent of each rule book being no longer than 6 pages; in fact, if I can ensure that all rules and supplements are exactly 6 pages of content then that would be extra neat.  My plan is to do a core rule book, maybe a supplement of left out or optional material, a fantasy book, fantasy expansions, and then stretch out to other genres.

Core Rules

Since the goal is only 6 pages of rules the focus should be on including only what is essential to the game.  I think it might be best to have a player book and a game master book for the core rules.  I just do not think that character creation, combat, and gm stuff can all be included in just 6 pages.  If I discover otherwise, then I will go with a six page consolidated core rule book.

Characters
I would like character creation to be limited in detail but still offer a little bit of variety.  This is probably not a game system where campaigns could could last years unless advancement was slow.  It would be best to keep the defining aspects of characters to a minimum.  Something like this might work:

races: human only in the core rules.
stats:  Physique (physical power & toughness), Reflexes (balance and dexterity), Intellect (smarts), and Will (mental toughness).
talents: simple and broad skills that might pertain to play of the game
boons: advantages
banes: disadvantages

Task Resolution
Again, Eldrad Wolfsbane suggested doing a tiered set of values to show expertise and strike chances:

Unskilled 1 in 6
Average 1-2 on 6
Skilled 1-3 on 6
Very Skilled 1-4 on 6
Expert 1-5 on 6

Combat
Of course, combat would be handled with rolls of D6 also.  Ideas by Eldrad Wolfsbane include:


1 What you were trying to do goes very wrong.
2 What you were trying to do goes wrong.
3 What you were trying to do barely succeeds.
4 What you were trying to do succeeds.
5 What you were trying to do goes very well.
6 What you were trying to do goes far better than expected.

MODIFIERS

Hand to hand subtract -2
Clubs -1
Blades and Bullets
Large Blades and Bullets +1
Explosions +2

Armor
Light -1
Heavy -2

Agile -1
Very Agile -2

Talent level would also add subtract.
Unskilled -1
Average 0
Skilled +1
Expert +2
Master +3

This version of combat is completely simple BUT it would make the players and enemies think twice about combat.


A few sample enemies

-Town Guard with Spears and Muskets wearing Light -1 Armor.

-Expert +2 Assassins with Two Handed Swords +1 Wearing heavy Armor -2. That would be a total of +3 to hit and -2 to be hit.
Everyone gets six skill points. You may only put 3 in one skill only. After 6 adventures you get 1 point, then after 7 adventures you get another point and so on.

I kinda played with this system above.

Very deadly but kinda fun.

Blood everywhere!

Two normal guys Fed and Barney going at each other with swords both roll the highest get first hit a natural 6 (Fred) and the looser gets a 3 (Barney). Barney dies in a pool of blood as Fred cheers!

One roll to determine to hit, initiative, and damage. Very fast system!

There could be a simple speed modifier that adds to the roll only to determine if the character goes first and not for damage purposes.

Quick +1
Very Quick +2

On the roll above Barney's effective place in the round would have been a 5 if he were Very Quick. Still too slow for Fred's quick hit with a sword.

Armor and Agility BTW subtracts from the attacker's dice roll.

Fantasy Rules
Three races covered in base fantasy rules - dwarf, elf, and half-elf.

A set of classes to include warrior, mage, rogue, and maybe a few others.

Weapon damage would be handled as suggested by the Zenopus Archives:

short weapons 1d6-1
med weapons 1d6
long weapons 1d6+1
two-handed weapons 1d6+2

Other areas that would need detailing for a fantasy version would be monsters, magic, and treasure.


Other Genres
The base stuff could very easily be used for most genres with no problem but then you run into problems such as how do you have firearms all use D6 and all choices still be viable?  That is definitely something to consider.  I would like to maintain the 6 pages of rules - no more or no less - in each rules pamphlet.  You might need several pamphlets for one genre, though.  For example, you might need Fantasy, Magic, and Campaign Setting pamphlets to play in a fantasy setting.  All of them would be 6 pages each so the rules would only total 18 pages for fantasy and 6 for core.


Next?
I am going to try and consolidate all of these ideas together into a coherent set of core rules and maybe some fantasy rules to follow...

I Made Thinker

In the past few days I have had a spike in membership and I would like to thank all of those those have recently joined and those that continue to follow and read this blog.  With my current number of followers at 42, I have moved up to fifth level according to From the Sorcerer's Skull.  I am enjoying the blogosphere tremendously and hope to continue to contribute my little part.  I am basically flying by the seat of my pants on this thing.  There is a little bit of planning - and I do mean very little - to these posts but I do seem to have hit some sort of stride where it is much easier to come up with post topics.  With that being said, I gotta go check out some of YOUR blogs now.

A Single D6... (Part 1)

This entire post was inspired by this recent comment here in response to my post about using LEGO Heroica dice for a role-playing game:

Eldrad Wolfsbane said, "What about an entire RPG based on a single D6? Could it be done?".

My initial thoughts were that such a game would probably be very limiting and would not be played very much at all.  After thinking about it for a while, I am starting to wonder if that initial reaction is wrong.  Could a role-playing game based on the roll of a single six sided die occupy the players with a satisfying play experience?  It might seem limited at first but I think it might be worth investigating to see what can be done with a game designed around that idea.  A little brainstorming on my part produced the following thoughts.

Goal

An RPG design that uses only a single D6 for all task resolutions in the game.  Damage immediately comes to mind as the only area that needs to use different dice than just a standard D6.  There are, however, other options that will maintain the D6 only resolution mechanic.

Damage could be a specific set amount for each weapon. For example, a club could do a static 3 points of damage. To offer some variety, the damage of each weapon could be altered by the character's strength adjustment.  For example, the previously mentioned club that does 3 points of damage could do 5 points of damage in the hands of a character with a +2 strength adjustment.  Now there is a method to do damage that does not negate the design goal of a single D6.

Name

All role-playing games should have a decent name for their underlying rules system.  I like attaching cool labels to projects so a few I came up with include uno6, single6, unoDie, and solo6.  I am not sure if any of those are near as "cool" as I would like but they do get the point across.

Genre

The best bet would probably be to avoid genres - such as supers or science fiction - that provide the opportunity for a very wide character power range.  The genre should be more limited in power and could probably be done with a single D6 for western, horror, modern, or maybe even fantasy.  

Task Resolution

I am thinking that a simple chart similar to the one in the Talislanta rules might be the best option.  A player would roll and apply any attribute or skill modifiers to the roll.  Then the GM would call for any adjustments based on the situation or opponent and then consult the chart.  There would be differing levels of success or failure based on the total of the roll.  A quick playing simple system would probably be for the best.  

Final Thoughts

The ideas expressed above are just my initial thoughts on a single D6 role-playing system.  I honestly do not know if I will further develop it at all.  I just wanted to get these ideas out of my head.  It has been my experience that many campaigns are shorter than they were in the old days so I think a satisfying play experience could be realized from a simple set of rules with these ideas if it was done properly and characters did not drastically improve over a short period of time and the power level was kept at the appropriate level.

Missed Opportunities

Over the years, the role-playing industry and hobby has put out many products.  These products have covered and allowed campaign play in all sorts of genres from fantasy to science fiction to just plain weird.  There are also plenty of "I wish" products that never get made but would seem to be ripe for a role-playing game of one sort or another.  Here's some games that I would like to see.

AD&D Second Edition by Gygax

Of course, we will never get this now but Gygax did give many clues to where his design would have went. There have been numerous threads about this on various discussion boards and there is even a person/group working on what they *believe* would be a true Gygaxian 2E.  In the end, nobody knows exactly what Gygax was going to do other than Gygax.  This is probably one of the top hypothetical products I would want to be a reality.  I suspect if this would have been made then we would still be in the third edition era of the game. 

Dune

There actually was a Dune RPG released BUT it saw a very limited release after WotC bought out LUG.  At that time, Wizards had Star Wars D20 and Last Unicorn Games had (iirc, of course) Star Trek and Dune.  Imagine, if you will, that Wizards buys LUG and now has Star Wars, Star Trek, and Dune as RPG properties; all 3 products are powered by the same rules system also.  Think about the possibilities!

Others

There are plenty of other hypothetical products that could have been hits in the role-playing community.  Possibilities that come to mind include RPGs based on The Prydain Chronicles, The Chronicles of Narnia, Image Comics, Transformers (powered by Mekton?), and Sliders just to name a few.  Maybe one of these days...

Sliders Is Better Than Doctor Who

I find myself browsing and viewing a lot of the movies and shows on Netflix lately.  I only have the streaming service so I do not know exactly what I am missing out with the mail delivery service but I do know that I am missing at least "some" stuff".  Regardless, one of the things I have really enjoyed is the opportunity to watch all sorts of TV shows including older shows and much more recent shows.  Some of the TV shows that I have at least watched a few minutes to gauge my interest include Dark Shadows (60s original), Burn Notice (seasons 1-4), Night Gallery, Masters of Horror, and many more.  The TV series that I am currently viewing is Sliders.  I saw many of the episodes as they originally aired but there has been enough time lapsed since then that it's all pretty much new to me.  The bad news is that the streaming version is only a partial list of episodes for season one and season two is completely absent; all said there are 72 streaming episodes available for viewing.   

I made it through the shortened season 1 and I am currently two episodes into season 3.  As I am watching this episode a thought crossed my mind - Sliders is better than Doctor Who as the basis of an RPG campaign.  I can hear the Doctor Who fans screaming in anguish right now at the blasphemy of that thought.  Make no mistake, Doctor Who is an awesome series and my favorite show of all time.  On the other hand, when it comes to a role-playing setting Sliders has it beat for several reasons.  Please, put the torches away and hear me out before this blog and I face your wrath.

Player Characters

One of the goals of a role-playing campaign based off of a TV show would be the ability to emulate the setup of the main protagonists from that series.  I believe Doctor Who presents a problem with that because the Time Lord character (Doctor Who or otherwise) will typically outshine all other characters.  The humans will be overshadowed by either one of the other players or by an NPC; unless, of course, all players are a Time Lord.  That changes the entire setup from the TV show.  In contrast, Sliders has four human characters in the party.  Sure, some are smarter, more athletic, look better, etc. but they are all human.  My point is that one character may get the spotlight in certain situations but will not maintain the spotlight in the same fashion as The Doctor would.

The Setting

At first glance it would seem that Doctor Who has the advantage when it comes to the setting.  I mean, the entirety of time and space would be your playground in a Doctor Who game.  That would also be one big hassle for the GM.  Every time the TARDIS landed somewhere else then a new planet, space station, alien race, alien animals, etc. would have to be detailed.  Again, Sliders has the advantage when it comes to role-playing.  The setting is Earth - actually parallel Earths - so the setting is basically constant all of the time.  Of course, there are details different on each Earth so only a little work has to be done to get a "new setting" for the next slide.

Adventure Ideas & Canon

Doctor Who has many years of show history - 30+ years of the original and nearing 10 on the new series - that serve to give many details for the players to absorb and use.  There have been numerous visits to Gallifrey, Skaro, etc. and the players need to be aware of much of that information if they want to remain canonically relevant without invalidating of that history.  Stepping on canon will bother some (many?) players and there is a lot of canon to Doctor Who. Sliders was on for less than 10 seasons; a decent run but not enough to develop so much canon to hinder adventure ideas for gaming.  In fact, many of the episodes end or start with the Sliders about to leave a world for the next one.  The viewer only gets to see a few moments of that world before the slide so there is an opportunity for adventure ideas right there.  Another source of adventure ideas is real world history - what if the Nazis won World War II, or what if the U.S. moon mission was a disaster and the space program shut down, or what if the cold war between the U.S. and Russia was still going on?  There are numerous ideas that can be generated by flipping through an encyclopedia, almanac, or even cruising Wikipedia.

Those are just 3 of the reasons why Sliders is better than Doctor Who for a role-playing campaign.  I would list more but I can hear the crowd approaching.  I see the flames of their torches through my window shades.  Maybe I can slide out of here before they make it through the door?

 

Resident Evil 6 Official Trailer US

The Gene Is Passed On

My son, Ethan, received the Wii version of the Skylanders game for Christmas.  Since then he has gotten several additional characters.  We got him a new character yesterday and he started using him immediately.  As you are building up the various characters one of the things you can do is buy power ups from a fairy.  When you run out of money or your funds are too low, you can get more by bashing barrels or other items on a treasure hunt until you get enough for the next power up.

As I am surfing the net on my laptop watching Ethan play his new character, Sonic Boom, his funds become too low after a power up.  I expect him to go around breaking barrels or traveling to beat areas that have already been cleared.  I even asked him if that was what he was going to do.  Ethan responds with, "No, Dad.  This is what you do. Watch me.".  He grabs the treasure chest figurine, places it on the portal of power, and promptly locates the treasure chest and retrieves the money and jewels within.  At this point - to my surprise - Ethan immediately removes the treasure chest and places it back on the portal of power.  This causes the treasure to re-spawn so he can collect it again.  He figured out that he can just walk back and forth on a short trip doing this little trick to collect money instead of roaming all over the map.  He's figured out how to grind through character improvements at five, so I'm sure I will see more of this to come in the years ahead.

LEGO Heroica Dice

I have gotten my 5 year old son two of the LEGO Heroica sets recently.  Information about the rules and products can be found at the Heroica web site.  One of the coolest things about these sets is the included dice.  Of course, you have to assemble them before use and I believe that you can also buy other faces to put on the dice; that makes for complete customization. The dice are approximately twice as big as the standard dice found in most board games. 

Anyway, I just really dig these sets because it is a minimalistic version of fantasy adventure gaming rules that also encourage house ruling.  That got me to thinking about the dice.  I wonder what kind of tables or resolution systems could be designed around these special dice?  I may explore that in the future but I just wanted to point this out as food for thought.  If anyone has done this or knows of a site that has this information that I can mied for ideas, feel free to speak up!