Dice Mechanics advice? [Original system]

[The Crimson Binome]

It's an interesting concept, at the very least. I feel like I would need to know more in order to judge it.

What is the range of attributes and skills, for new and advanced characters? I'm imagining that a fresh character would have attributes between 2-5 (with skills from 0-5), where an advanced character would have attributes between 2-7 (with skills from 0-10).

Assuming that's the case, I feel like you might run afoul of the typical pitfall that non-level-based games get, where you don't feel like the character becomes more powerful over time. An end character rolling 7k2 +10 just isn't that much more powerful than a fresh character rolling 5k2 +5. As you add more dice in this scenario, the difference between attribute scores is less and less important.

Of course, that's with numbers I just made up, so I may be way off base. If your skill bonus can go up to +20 or more, then you run into the other problem where stats become meaningless (the wise old master always beats the giant flawlessly). As with anything, it's all in the implementation.

(Personally, this sort of system rubs me the wrong way, because the math scales weirdly in a way that makes it difficult to compare. I have no intuitive grasp over whether 5k2 + 2 is more or less than 3k2 + 5.)

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Back in 2e Skills-n-Powers there was an alternate mechanic offered for characters with high stats where instead of getting the +1 you got to roll an additional D20 and keep the best. This meant an attribute of 18 got to roll 4D20 and keep the best.
I liked the idea then, but it never really got traction in my group or, apparently, anywhere else.

That being said, roll Xd12 and keep the best two does suffer from the longer math issue. Perhaps keep the best and add +2 for any additional dice that are over 6?


Side note.. you might want to rethink the name of your game -> AEther Game by Armor Games