Design Challenge: prison-playable RPG rules

[Starbuck_II]

I like the pennies idea personally.

 

[Kinneus]

"New house rule, guys. No rogues. It's just weird to have you all backstabbing each other, when I know you're just going to go off and backstab each other in real life later."

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Not only are dice considered contraband, but dice substitutes like chits may also be confiscated. The only places you'll find dice in most prisons is in access-controlled lounges and the like.

Cards follow a similar prohibition.

However, shooting rock-paper-scissors would be effective (and impossible to confiscate) for adjudicating successes or failures.

HP = Cigarettes or toothpicks or sticks of gum.

For a ruleset, you'd want something ultra simple, like the good old Metagames The Fantasy Trip: In The Labyrinth.

 

[CorditeJimmy]

AC = targets DEXx2

attacker rolls 1d6 + modifier (modifer is STR for melee, DEX for ranged)

if result > AC, it's a hit. Damage = result - AC

Apologies if I missed something, but wouldn't this create the potential for unhittable characters?

Let's say we roll up our starting stats and each happen to get one six to distribute where we will. I put my 6 in Dex, you put yours in Str.

If you attack me you're trying to beat my AC of 12 with your attack roll of 6+d6.

And it only gets worse as we level up. If I put my one stat point into dex and you put your in STR, it's now 7+d6 against 14. Unless you have some kind of "sixes always hit" rule you simply can't touch me. And if you've made Dex the stat for sneaky snuff and ranged combat as well then it's not like I'm hard to hit but otherwise useless, I can hide and shoot you. Dex simply becomes the best stat.

 

[Herobizkit]

Steve Jackson's Fighting Fantasy games could easily be adapted for rock-paper-scissors resolution.

You have 6 HITS (hit points).
Each "piece" of armor found can negate X hit/s. "Hy helmet takes that hit. Now my shield. Now my armor."
New weapons or monsters can do more HP of damage. "The axe does 2 HITS of damage instead of 1."

Skills can work like skill challenges from 4e. You need 3 successes before 2 fails, or the door remains locked. Using relevant tools adds a success, or cancels a fail.

Spells can be as simplistic as those on the original Dragon Warrior for the NES. Direct damage, healing, and status effects are all you'd *really* need.