Attempting to make a super light RPG: QUICKD6

[Morrus]

Just whiling away an hour or two before I appear on a podcast.

So here's my initial idea, which I'm calling QUICKD6. Or maybe QUICK SIX. That sounds better.

CORE MECHANIC

---

To do anything you roll 3d6. On a 10 you succeed (unless it's opposed against another creature, in which case both roll 3d6 and the highest wins).

Situational modifiers can add or remove a dice, as can awesome or poor tools.


CHARACTER CREATION

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You have 3d6 (or a number of dice equal to your LEVEL if you are not LEVEL 3) to divide between a bunch of things you're good at. For example:

2d6 - fighting
1d6 - running

These increase the 3d6 you normally roll. So when running, you roll 4d6 instead of 3d6.

MAGIC (or PSIONICS), unlike other things, starts at 0d6. Because it's magic. It has a special rule: you can use it for anything (attack, lift a thing, etc.), but each time you use it it goes down by one die. When it reaches zero, you can't do any more magic. It restores after a full night's sleep.

You also choose two things you are not good at. For example:

- bluffing
- swimming

When doing one of these things you roll 2d6 instead of 3d6.

Your HEALTH is the same as your LEVEL. Some creatures might be lower level, but PCs start at LEVEL 3.

So your character sheet is super simple. It looks like this:

BOB THE BARBARIAN (LVL 3)
Fighting 5d6
Running 4d6
-------------------
Bluffing 2d6
Swimming 2d6

SKILLS

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Choose from this list:


Fighting
Magic/Psionics* (starts at 0d6)
Stealth/Thievery
Bluffing/Charm/Charisma
Intimidation
Athletics/Climbing/Swimming/Running
Science/Lore (depends on genre)
Medicine/Healing
Art
Crafting
Gaming/Gambling
Performing/Singing/Dancing
Computers/Hacking
Engineering/Explosives
Trivia
Driving/Piloting
Outdoors/Survival/Tracking
Bravery/Resolve
Perception


ADVANCEMENT

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After each adventure you get +1d6 to distribute, but you cannot negate a thing you're bad at. This also increases your LEVEL (and HEALTH) by 1.


COMBAT

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Make an opposed check to attack. Loser loses 1 HEALTH. At 0 HEALTH you fall unconscious.

You can pay (sacrifice) any of your attack dice for damage points at a 1:1 ratio. So if you have 8d6 in Fighting, you can choose to roll 6d6 and do an extra 2 damage (3 HEALTH).


MONSTERS

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Note that monsters are made freeform, so don't have to follow those rules, though it's HEALTH and LVL is still the total of its bonus dice. Monsters can have unique skills not on the normal list (like Flying, etc).

KOBOLD (LVL 2)
Hiding 4d6
Climbing 4d6
-------------------
Fighting 2d6


ORC (LVL 4)
Fighting 4d6
Running 4d6
Tracking 4d6
Intimidation 4d6
-------------------
Social 1d6
Stealth 2d6


DRAGON (LVL 16)
Fighting 7d6
Flying 6d6
Perception 5d6
Intimidation 6d6
Appraisal 4d6
Magic 3d6
-------------------
Stealth 2d6


Needs a bit more work, but them's the bare bones off the top of my head.

 

[J.M]

Love it!!
The static damage, while simple, means that you can't take down a even a kobold in one hit, and the dragon deals as much damage as anyone else. What if we said that the damage you cause is equal to the number of 6's you rolled, if you win the combat roll? Yes, this means that sometimes no one would take any damage, and sometimes the loser might take a lot.

 

[GMMichael]

Don't go with Quick Six; it sounds like a scratch-off lottery. But I guess there is luck involved...

 

[Morrus]

Love it!!
The static damage, while simple, means that you can't take down a even a kobold in one hit, and the dragon deals as much damage as anyone else. What if we said that the damage you cause is equal to the number of 6's you rolled, if you win the combat roll? Yes, this means that sometimes no one would take any damage, and sometimes the loser might take a lot.

I suspect that would make combat long and tedious as people rolled over and over looking for sixes.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Pretty cool. A couple of questions just to better understand.

So if Bob the Barbarian needs to convince someone to help him (Social? Diplomacy?) he just rolls 3d6? Basically all stats not specifically shown are 3d6?

If the dragon tries to intimidate Bob, is there an opposed roll? Higher total wins? Or does the dragon just roll 6d6 and on a 10 or higher, Bob’s intimidated? If Bob is intomidated, what happens to him? -1d6 on all actions? Somethibg else?

 

[Morrus]

Pretty cool. A couple of questions just to better understand.

So if Bob the Barbarian needs to convince someone to help him (Social? Diplomacy?) he just rolls 3d6? Basically all stats not specifically shown are 3d6?

Yup.

If the dragon tries to intimidate Bob, is there an opposed roll? Higher total wins? Or does the dragon just roll 6d6 and on a 10 or higher, Bob’s intimidated? If Bob is intomidated, what happens to him? -1d6 on all actions? Somethibg else?

Dragon 6d6 vs Bob's 3d6.

Maybe next level, Bob decides to put another d6 in, say, bravery. Or resolve. Or something similar.

As for what happens -- not too sure yet. I think there needs to be a single "condition" which can be described in different ways. -1d6 is a good idea (it could be fear, or a curse, or an injury, or whatever). I'm thinking something along the lines of D&D's advantage/disadvantage, but rolling two dice pools is too cumbersome. One idea is advantage lets you roll d8s while disadvantage means you roll d4s. That could be fun.

 

[Morrus]

I'm trying to decide whether to have a list of skills or an open-ended keyword system. I also need to work out how something like dragon breath or a fireball or a bomb work, which would be area attacks.

I'm thinking:

FIGHTING EFFECTS

---

Instead of adding d6 to Fighting you can instead add an effect. Effects include:

• Area. For each die, the attack targets an additional foe. You can add multiple dice to this.
• Weaken. You injure, poison, or curse your target. The target is weakened.*
• Range. You can hit things much further away than most.

*Weakened creatures roll d4s. Bolstered creatures roll d8.

MAGIC

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Magic works just like Fighting. You can roll your Magic to attack. You can attach the same effects. You can also spend 1d6 to buy a spell, but you can't have more spells than your Magic score.

(Note this means everybody starts with 3d6 magic, which makes for quite a magical society. Might need some thought there.)

 

[hawkeyefan]

Yup.



Dragon 6d6 vs Bob's 3d6.

Maybe next level, Bob decides to put another d6 in, say, bravery. Or resolve. Or something similar.

As for what happens -- not too sure yet. I think there needs to be a single "condition" which can be described in different ways. -1d6 is a good idea (it could be fear, or a curse, or an injury, or whatever). I'm thinking something along the lines of D&D's advantage/disadvantage, but rolling two dice pools is too cumbersome. One idea is advantage lets you roll d8s while disadvantage means you roll d4s. That could be fun.

Gotcha. I like the simplicity. As for the attributes, you planning on having an existing list, or leaving it up to the players and then applying them when they seem relevant?

I like the idea of a simpler advantage/disadvantage type situation, and the change in dice type is cool, but does have the drawback of requiring more dice than d6es.

 

[Dioltach]

I like it. I like the name as well. But I'm already thinking of house rules to add more options. And I bet everyone else is too (because, well, we're gamers).

 

[TallIan]

Love it!!
The static damage, while simple, means that you can't take down a even a kobold in one hit, and the dragon deals as much damage as anyone else. What if we said that the damage you cause is equal to the number of 6's you rolled, if you win the combat roll? Yes, this means that sometimes no one would take any damage, and sometimes the loser might take a lot.

Two solutions spring to mind:
1) You do one damage for every 10 or part thereof that the attack rolls beats the defense roll by. (Attack - defense)/2 round up. A bit of math's, but probably not too hard for mast gamers. I chose 10 because that's the "normal" DC, a more suitable number may come from some proper math's.
2) An attacker can split their dice pool to attack one opponent multiple times or multiple creatures one or more times each.
eg. A dragon with 10d6 fighting can make; two attacks of 3d6 each at kolbold 1 and one attack of 4d6 at kobold 2.

I'm trying to decide whether to have a list of skills or an open-ended keyword system. I also need to work out how something like dragon breath or a fireball or a bomb work, which would be area attacks.

I'm thinking:

FIGHTING EFFECTS

---

Instead of adding d6 to Fighting you can instead add an effect. Effects include:

• Area. For each die, the attack targets an additional foe. You can add multiple dice to this.
• Weaken. You injure, poison, or curse your target. The target is weakened.*
• Range. You can hit things much further away than most.

*Weakened creatures roll d4s. Bolstered creatures roll d8.

MAGIC

---

Magic works just like Fighting. You can roll your Magic to attack. You can attach the same effects. You can also spend 1d6 to buy a spell, but you can't have more spells than your Magic score.

(Note this means everybody starts with 3d6 magic, which makes for quite a magical society. Might need some thought there.)

Weakened seems simple in principle, but I don't know many gamers with enough d4s or d8s to cope beyond level 6 or so

You could always make magic a mandatory thing you aren't good at with an allowance that you can increase it