Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Prima System - Core Mechanic discussion.
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Michael Morris" data-source="post: 6265207" data-attributes="member: 87"><p>I'm starting a new thread since I really don't know what page the old one has fell to, and there are major changes since the last time I wrote on this. I am going to review how I reached this point.</p><p></p><p>I started with a blend of d20 and Savage Worlds. You rolled</p><p></p><p>d20 + ability die + skill die</p><p></p><p>The ability and skill dice fell in the d4 to d12 range. Early on I hit upon allowing multiple dice to be used for extreme skill or ability, but to keep the target numbers sane (a major criticism I have of d20) you only keep two of the dice. So a dragon with 4d12 for its strength and 2d12 for fighting skill rolled d20 + the best 2 of 6d12.</p><p></p><p>Playtests where conducted. It seemed natural to put in equipment and magic as items that added dice. I soon hit a problem of having lots of low dice, especially if there were d12's in the mix.</p><p></p><p>Also, the limit 2 rule had made it a bit less fun to be high level. While running Pathfinder, towards the end of my game, it hit me that it would be nice if my big bads could do more on their turns. High level characters getting more actions? Well, fighters do get more attacks. So I decided that if someone was rolling more than 2 dice, then could divide the dice among targets, but had to assign at least 2 dice per target.</p><p></p><p>That worked, but it still had problems. My latest idea is to decouple the dice from the various effects somewhat as follows.. This will be hard to follow cause I'm still working out terminology.</p><p></p><p>Abilities, skills, traits, equipment, spells, all these have a rank of 0 or higher. When you perform an action, you add the ranks of whatever you have that is relevant. At the very least, an ability will be relevant. The rank determines the dice you use with the d20 as follows:</p><p></p><p>1 d4</p><p>2 d6</p><p>3 d8</p><p>4 d10</p><p>5 d12</p><p>6 d12+d4</p><p>7 d12+d6</p><p>8 d12+d8</p><p>9 d12+d10</p><p>10 2d12</p><p>11 2d12+d4</p><p>...</p><p></p><p>And so on, infinitely. If you have more than 2 dice to roll with the d20, you can break the action into multiple targets. If you want to take more than one action in a turn you may do so, but the dice pool used will be that of the action you have the least skill in from among the ones you are attempting, and it must have at least 3 dice (be rank 11).</p><p></p><p></p><p>Consider a fighter with a combat trait rank of 2, longsword weapon skill rank of 2, and a Strength rank of 5. He rolls d12+d10 when he attacks with that sword. These sorts of numbers aren't unknown for a low level character.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I've also worked out the rudimentary advancement scheme, which lies somewhere between class/level and character point systems. Instead of receiving experience points that can be spent on anything, you receive points of different types.</p><p></p><p>Skill points are the baseline, received at the end of the session. A count of skill points is the same as your level in other games. Skills are boosters to actions the character specializes in. Specific weapon proficiency is a skill. The one restriction on skills is you can't boost the same skill two sessions in a row. You have to alternate.</p><p></p><p>Edges are obtained once every even level. They are analogous to minor feats.</p><p></p><p>Traits are obtained on levels divisible by 3. They are analogous to Base attack bonus, saving throw bonuses, or for those not coming at this from d20 traits are the skills that everyone wants. A character's combat trait for example affects *all* attack rolls. Magic use will be a trait.</p><p></p><p>Feats are obtained on levels divisible by 5. They are analogous to major feats (the ones high up on feat trees in Pathfinder) or to class abilities (uncanny dodge, et al) They include raises to attributes.</p><p></p><p></p><p>This approach insures that something happens at the end of each session (a skill goes up) but major character feature advancement is more spread out. DM's can advance more than one tick of course.</p><p></p><p>"Classes" in this system will be precrafted advancement maps that sit on top of the above.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Thoughts?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Michael Morris, post: 6265207, member: 87"] I'm starting a new thread since I really don't know what page the old one has fell to, and there are major changes since the last time I wrote on this. I am going to review how I reached this point. I started with a blend of d20 and Savage Worlds. You rolled d20 + ability die + skill die The ability and skill dice fell in the d4 to d12 range. Early on I hit upon allowing multiple dice to be used for extreme skill or ability, but to keep the target numbers sane (a major criticism I have of d20) you only keep two of the dice. So a dragon with 4d12 for its strength and 2d12 for fighting skill rolled d20 + the best 2 of 6d12. Playtests where conducted. It seemed natural to put in equipment and magic as items that added dice. I soon hit a problem of having lots of low dice, especially if there were d12's in the mix. Also, the limit 2 rule had made it a bit less fun to be high level. While running Pathfinder, towards the end of my game, it hit me that it would be nice if my big bads could do more on their turns. High level characters getting more actions? Well, fighters do get more attacks. So I decided that if someone was rolling more than 2 dice, then could divide the dice among targets, but had to assign at least 2 dice per target. That worked, but it still had problems. My latest idea is to decouple the dice from the various effects somewhat as follows.. This will be hard to follow cause I'm still working out terminology. Abilities, skills, traits, equipment, spells, all these have a rank of 0 or higher. When you perform an action, you add the ranks of whatever you have that is relevant. At the very least, an ability will be relevant. The rank determines the dice you use with the d20 as follows: 1 d4 2 d6 3 d8 4 d10 5 d12 6 d12+d4 7 d12+d6 8 d12+d8 9 d12+d10 10 2d12 11 2d12+d4 ... And so on, infinitely. If you have more than 2 dice to roll with the d20, you can break the action into multiple targets. If you want to take more than one action in a turn you may do so, but the dice pool used will be that of the action you have the least skill in from among the ones you are attempting, and it must have at least 3 dice (be rank 11). Consider a fighter with a combat trait rank of 2, longsword weapon skill rank of 2, and a Strength rank of 5. He rolls d12+d10 when he attacks with that sword. These sorts of numbers aren't unknown for a low level character. I've also worked out the rudimentary advancement scheme, which lies somewhere between class/level and character point systems. Instead of receiving experience points that can be spent on anything, you receive points of different types. Skill points are the baseline, received at the end of the session. A count of skill points is the same as your level in other games. Skills are boosters to actions the character specializes in. Specific weapon proficiency is a skill. The one restriction on skills is you can't boost the same skill two sessions in a row. You have to alternate. Edges are obtained once every even level. They are analogous to minor feats. Traits are obtained on levels divisible by 3. They are analogous to Base attack bonus, saving throw bonuses, or for those not coming at this from d20 traits are the skills that everyone wants. A character's combat trait for example affects *all* attack rolls. Magic use will be a trait. Feats are obtained on levels divisible by 5. They are analogous to major feats (the ones high up on feat trees in Pathfinder) or to class abilities (uncanny dodge, et al) They include raises to attributes. This approach insures that something happens at the end of each session (a skill goes up) but major character feature advancement is more spread out. DM's can advance more than one tick of course. "Classes" in this system will be precrafted advancement maps that sit on top of the above. Thoughts? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Prima System - Core Mechanic discussion.
Top