A d12 system I "made" in 3 days

[CubicsRube]

So this is a combination of shitpost and a random collection of thoughts I've muddled around in my head for a while.

There's a few concepts I'd love to see in RPGs that I'm not aware of in any systems currently (if there are, please point me to them!). And as I was too sick this weekend to really do much, but not sick enough to avoid boredom, I put them all into a PDF!

Attached is my thoroughly untested, feverishly slapped together bunch of mechanics. It started as a one page RPG idea (until I found out that it's hard to keep it down to one page) and started getting bigger until I just didn't care any more. You have been warned.

Would I want to publish an RPG? Hell no! After the soul draining might 5 pages you see attached, the thought of publishing, testing and designing layout for something several hundred pages makes me want to drive to the coast and stare off into the horizon for a very, very long time.

Main items:
* A d12 system. Because hell, why not give the die some love? As I was writing down a few items however, I did think it would be interesting to use as a randomiser with a much tighter spread than a d20. You could crit and fail more often, but also can make it less impactful verses skills if you are working in ranges of +1 to +10 bonuses as I have here.
* Skills range from 0 to +10 basically. The choices are designed to have diminishing returns on purpose. I like the idea of simulating the speed of learning new items, but the extra effort it takes to get to true mastery of something. Where I to design a proper game, I would probably add "feats" or some kinds of special abilities at each level, so there is a difference between a master and an expert swordsman for example, rather than just a +1 difference.

• I wanted to make everything into a skill. I like the idea of one modifier to a roll to make the system easier to pick up and play. Also making everything a skill gives players a lot of choice on how they build their character if they choose.
• Designing a skill list is hard. Balancing it is even harder.
• I like spells as skills as a concept. It speaks to me as I imagine some successful magicians having no real world skills as all their time and effort is consumed with learning spells.
• I've liked rolls for casting spells since shadowrun (and DCC and now shadowdark). I also like the idea of someone casting a humble spell (such as magic missile) doing it way more often and doing way more damage if they are highly trained (such as a trained magician doing 1d6+4 vs a master magician doing 1d6+10 damage plus succeeding at the roll 92% of the time vs the trained 42% of the time).
• The other and really the main element I would want to insert into a system is what I'm currently calling "Deeds, favours and oaths". This is my attempt at creating a kind of social mechanic. There's no dice rolls to this, but it is intended to have strong mechanical incentives in play and also be a major part of the character that grows and changes over time.
• Deeds are effectively a reputation system. This can be used to recognise characters for what they have done in the past and can provide guidance to the GM on how NPCs might react to them. If done right my hope is such a simple system could help players feel the world is responding to their actions, and could be used as hooks for future adventures.
• Favours are a way to try and insert diplomacy into rules beyond just a "roll persuasion" situation. By receiving favours from NPCs as rewards and providing a strong incentive to honour those favours, they become a kind of "consumable" players can call on.
• Oaths are partly a way for the GM to call the players to action, but they could also be offered in negotiations by players (for example in order to be set free from prison, or released by bandits, or being gifted enchanted objects or positions of authority in return for a particular oath).
• I like hero points, or anything that gives the player an opportunity to put something a bit extra into a roll.
• Armour as HP. I would like to try the concept of armour as hitpoints some time in a game. Of course it is very "gamey", but what I think is interesting about it, is that it makes crafting a special skill in the way that healing does. Having a healer is important of course, but with armour points its equally important to have someone who can effect some basic repairs when armour gets damaged.

This as likely as far as I'll get to testing anything. It mostly just remains stuff I think about to pass the time from time to time. If there is anything you want to use you are free to take. If you want to tell me why these ideas will destroy D&D and roleplaying as we know it, post here! It's all about having fun!

 

[CubicsRube]

Oh, I forgot I made an excel character sheet!

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I really like the Deeds + Oathbreaker as reputation!

 

[CubicsRube]

I really like the Deeds + Oathbreaker as reputation!

Thanks. Yeah this is more a collection of random house rules slapped together than a coherent system. The deeds thing is something I've loosely used as a GM on my side of the table and the oaths/favours is my attempt to flesh out a social system beyond "roll-to-succeed".

More than anything those are the things I would test out.

 

[GMMichael]

I'd play it on a Saturday. Yes, one page for an RPG is hard! Some thoughts:

A basic RPG idea is: what is a roll, and why am I doing it? Your game hand waives a lot of that (or takes D&D defaults) by jumping to "checks are made on a d12."

The increasing Choices cost for higher training levels is a bit redundant, because the diminishing payback in Bonuses accomplishes the same thing. Basically, no one will become a Master.

Going 100% skill-based means that some fringe activities will be up to a plain d12 roll, which might not sit well with higher-level PCs.

Yup, skill lists are hard. And the longer your list is the more chance that skills overlap (apply to the same tasks).

Deeds/Oaths/Favors are good ideas that deserve fleshing out.

Spells as skills that you roll is a fun idea that I've been using for a while. If an attack can crit, why not a spell too? Anyway, a downside is that limited skills means limited spells, so you might toy with a way for wizards to have more spell variety, if not spell proficiency.

 

[CubicsRube]

The increasing Choices cost for higher training levels is a bit redundant, because the diminishing payback in Bonuses accomplishes the same thing. Basically, no one will become a Master.

Going 100% skill-based means that some fringe activities will be up to a plain d12 roll, which might not sit well with higher-level PCs.

Deeds/Oaths/Favors are good ideas that deserve fleshing out.

Spells as skills that you roll is a fun idea that I've been using for a while. If an attack can crit, why not a spell too? Anyway, a downside is that limited skills means limited spells, so you might toy with a way for wizards to have more spell variety, if not spell proficiency.

The dimishing returns is an idea that seemed to me like it'd be worth explorinf as to my knowledge, there no RPG that quite does this. Either as a 4/7/9/10 profression on a d12 or a 5/9/12/14/15 progression on a d20 perhaps. The idea is to simulate how you can quickly learn the basics and to encourage characters to diversify their skills. I expect master levels wpuld be for higher level characters that don't have much of a need for any other skills.

The idea of the "luck" skill is to incorporate any roll that doesn't apply to any other skill. I should have described that better.

Yeah I want to test out oaths & favours with my group how and if they engage with it. I'm sure there's stuff to learn in there.

The spells i'm either way on, but I'm on a DCC kick so i thought of it that way. The spells could be expanded into spell schools (like the weapon groups). I feel like i'd like to see a game where casters have to sacrifice a lot of real world skills as they spend all their time studying magic. It makes sense to me that martial characters should be more worldly and skilled.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Cool, quite keen to check this out!
Combat and Spellcasting as skills is where D&D should go...

 

[CubicsRube]

Cool, quite keen to check this out!
Combat and Spellcasting as skills is where D&D should go...

It's certainly my preference anyway.