theRogueRooster
First Post
I admit it: I'm an Alternity freak. Some of the mechanics in Alternity that I'm really keen on are, as the thread title suggests, the ability to achieve one of three success levels on any skill check, the complex skill check resolution, and the stun/wound/mortal hitpoint system.
Are there any rules, homebrew or otherwise, that provide similar functionality to the mechanics listed above for d20?
For any who don't know what I'm talking about (but would like to), here's a fairly brief and very simplified rundown of how the Alternity mechanics work:
Skill checks
Pretty much every action in Alternity was a skill check of some type, even combat. The core mechanic involved rolling a control die (always a d20) and adding or subtracting, based on the difficulty of the action attempted, a situation die (from d4 to d12, except d10). The goal was to roll a low number. The "DC" of the skill check was the ranks bought by the player plus the corresponding ability score. If your roll is equal to or lower than the target number, you score an Ordinary success. However, if your roll is equal to or lower than (target number/2), you score a Good Success. Finally, if your roll is equal to or lower than (target number/4), you score an Amazing success. Naturally, the better your success, the better the outcome (for example, weapons generally deal more damage the higher the success).
Is there any way to emulate the different degrees of success using d20's skill system?
Complex skill checks
Complex skill checks are basically skill checks that require multiple successes to complete. Using complex skill checks, scenarios like disarming a bomb get real interesting as PCs are pitted against time to defuse the explosives. The explosives might require 10 successes to properly disarm it, with Ordinary result equal to 1 success, Good equal to 2, and Amazing equal to 3. Three failures or a Critical Failure (a natural 20 on the control die) usually terminated a complex skill check, requiring a PC to restart the check.
I suppose one could do something similar (although without the levels of success) in d20, but due to the binary pass/fail nature of the system which results in "harder" actions being represented as higher DCs, it seems that the target DCs would need to instead be lowered by some amount to keep it feasible. Perhaps a lock that normally requires a DC of 20 to pick only requires a DC of 14 but also requires 5 successes. Any ideas on how to get something like this to work?
Hit points
Alternity used stun/wound/mortal points to represent damage to PCs. These numbers were based off of Constitution and did not increase with level. Stuns represented shocks and bruises; lost stun points were healed at the end of each encounter. Wounds were more serious, and were healed with bed rest and the first aid skill. Mortals represented severe injuries to the body and could only be healed with the surgery skill. A PC who lost all their stun or wound points were knocked unconcious. A PC who lost all their mortal points were dead.
As much as I like this representation of health, I just can't imagine how it could be integrated into d20 without massive rewrites of anything combat related (particularly spells). But I'd love to be proven wrong.
This thread is mainly intended to see what kind of mechanics may already be floating out there as well as to generate discussion on possible ways to convert these Alternity mechanics. Any and all ideas are welcome.
-tRR
Are there any rules, homebrew or otherwise, that provide similar functionality to the mechanics listed above for d20?
For any who don't know what I'm talking about (but would like to), here's a fairly brief and very simplified rundown of how the Alternity mechanics work:
Skill checks
Pretty much every action in Alternity was a skill check of some type, even combat. The core mechanic involved rolling a control die (always a d20) and adding or subtracting, based on the difficulty of the action attempted, a situation die (from d4 to d12, except d10). The goal was to roll a low number. The "DC" of the skill check was the ranks bought by the player plus the corresponding ability score. If your roll is equal to or lower than the target number, you score an Ordinary success. However, if your roll is equal to or lower than (target number/2), you score a Good Success. Finally, if your roll is equal to or lower than (target number/4), you score an Amazing success. Naturally, the better your success, the better the outcome (for example, weapons generally deal more damage the higher the success).
Is there any way to emulate the different degrees of success using d20's skill system?
Complex skill checks
Complex skill checks are basically skill checks that require multiple successes to complete. Using complex skill checks, scenarios like disarming a bomb get real interesting as PCs are pitted against time to defuse the explosives. The explosives might require 10 successes to properly disarm it, with Ordinary result equal to 1 success, Good equal to 2, and Amazing equal to 3. Three failures or a Critical Failure (a natural 20 on the control die) usually terminated a complex skill check, requiring a PC to restart the check.
I suppose one could do something similar (although without the levels of success) in d20, but due to the binary pass/fail nature of the system which results in "harder" actions being represented as higher DCs, it seems that the target DCs would need to instead be lowered by some amount to keep it feasible. Perhaps a lock that normally requires a DC of 20 to pick only requires a DC of 14 but also requires 5 successes. Any ideas on how to get something like this to work?
Hit points
Alternity used stun/wound/mortal points to represent damage to PCs. These numbers were based off of Constitution and did not increase with level. Stuns represented shocks and bruises; lost stun points were healed at the end of each encounter. Wounds were more serious, and were healed with bed rest and the first aid skill. Mortals represented severe injuries to the body and could only be healed with the surgery skill. A PC who lost all their stun or wound points were knocked unconcious. A PC who lost all their mortal points were dead.
As much as I like this representation of health, I just can't imagine how it could be integrated into d20 without massive rewrites of anything combat related (particularly spells). But I'd love to be proven wrong.
This thread is mainly intended to see what kind of mechanics may already be floating out there as well as to generate discussion on possible ways to convert these Alternity mechanics. Any and all ideas are welcome.
-tRR
