Help Needed: Creating a fantasy rules system using 2d10

[ichabod]

Basically, why is it assumed that it should become easier as you progress in your adventures and not harder as a result of the evils of the world responding to the players, who have, at this point, certainly made themselves known in the world.

I don't think that's the assumption. I think the assumption is that as you get stronger, you face stronger opponents. So it's not that things get easier, they just don't necessarily get harder either. Now I remember back when you didn't beat video games. They just got faster and faster and faster until you died. That could be fun for a while, but you always died. You could maybe find a happy medium, but I think that's going to be awfully tricky.

 

[Tonguez]

If you can remove HP bloat and keep PCs on a generally flat progression that would be cool. especially a system that rewards roleplay via base roll + stacking tactics dice + traits + hero points.
Increasing die value (d4-d6-d8-d10 etc) of traits each level might mark ‘level progression’ maybe - I think you might be on to something.

 

[Mycelian Studios]

If you can remove HP bloat and keep PCs on a generally flat progression that would be cool. especially a system that rewards roleplay via base roll + stacking tactics dice + traits + hero points.
Increasing die value (d4-d6-d8-d10 etc) of traits each level might mark ‘level progression’ maybe - I think you might be on to something.

I don't think I want to go down the road of using different dice for certain progressions because then it really just starts to look way too similar to the optional rule in the 5E DMG of Proficiency Dice. Because players can only go as far as level 12, the max Excellence they can have in any given Skill, Weapon, Specialty, Spellcasting, etc. is 4. However, unlike 5E, the dice equivalent to Inspiration (called Hero Dice, which are a d4) can be gained multiple times throughout a session, or even hoarded from session to session (should the character not find ways to get more throughout that session). The max amount you can have is 5, unless you are a human, then you get the human trait "Human Tenacity" which gives them an extra starting Hero Die as well as increasing their max to 6. If a player decides to keep Hero Dice from session to session, they will lose one for each session where they don't use them. The upside to that is that there are multiple ways to gain them and multiple ways to use them (unlike Inspiration, which can only be used to gain advantage on a roll). One example of this that I'm thinking about is using Hero Dice to provide the ability to subtract additional Threat from an enemy. To do this a PC must hit the enemy, then they can roll any number of Hero Dice and for each '4' rolled on those dice, subtracts an additional point of Threat from the enemy. Same with possibly preventing damage fro each '4' rolled after taking a melee or ranged hit from an enemy. Needless to say that you are more likely to roll a '4' the more Hero Dice you use, however this means you will no longer have them at your disposal unless you find ways to get more through heroic acts.

Tactics are their own bonuses in game but some things will grant mechanical bonuses as well. Flanking for example, while it doesn't give advantage in my system, it only provides a +2 bonus. Using a crossbow while prone also gives you +2. I'm sure there is probably other tactical bonuses I could include, but ultimately I would hope that good teamwork becomes its own edge in a battle, rather than a mechanical buff.

 

[Mycelian Studios]

Here is the prototype for the first page of the character sheet for this game.