How Does This Sound For a Basic Conflict Resolution System?

[changoo]

I'm trying to put together something really really simple, like a step above freeform RP simple and thought this might be good for it. I'd appreciate any input or tweaks you guys might think would be good but simplicity is the key right now.

Roll a d6 and compare the result to the the following:

1 - Critical Failure: You screwed up big time in some unforeseen way that's left you much worse off than when you started.

2 - Simple Failure: You screwed up but you can still recover if you try hard enough.

3 - Neutral Result: You didn't go forward but you didn't slip back either, keep trying!

4 - Simple Success: You succeeded and achieved your intended goal but nothing more.

5 - Critical Success: You succeeded spectacularly and you're reaping the benefits in unexpected ways.

6 - Wild Dice: Roll again, See GM for details.

I'm not sure what to with the wild dice that would keep things simple for the players (and me but mostly the players) and I haven't done much messing around with d6 related systems to have character generation covered.

Would it make sense to have their characters rank themselves from 1-5 (mimicking the success ladder) in generic skills or have them choice specific things and work out some other way to grade the character's abilities?

Thanks in advance

 

[kitsune9]

Another approach is you could roll 1d6 and only a 6 or higher result counts in success.

Now for your success ladder, you don't have 1-5 ranks but have 0-3 ranks in something. If someone has 0 rank, that's your average / untrained character. Someone who has 1 rank is considered Good, 2 ranks Excellent, and 3 ranks Awesome. The ranks are modifiers to achieve success.

Now for situational modifiers, these are completely free form and since we're rolling a 1d6 here, I'd leave them out unless a task is so super easy or super hard that you'd bother to apply modifiers.

For the exploding die or critical failures, these add a new level of complexity that I'd leave out if it was up to me; however if you're keen on keeping it in, then a natural 1 is always a failure and exploding 6 just determines not only how you succeeded, but how truly awesome you could do. To make it really simple, each time you roll a 6, becomes a multiplier on how well you performed an action. For example, if I roll to hit a bandit with my sword and I rolled a 6, I hit (YAY!). I roll again since the die explodes and if I roll another 6, I now did 2x as good (Take that vile cur! Look at that head fly!). If I roll another 6, then now my success is 3x (Ewww...tomato paste...). If I roll the next die and if comes up with some other number other than 6, then I'm at 3x my success on hitting the bandit.

Good luck with your game!

 

[Nagol]

If we ignore the "Wild Dice", a character succeeds 1 in 3 times.

You may want to increase the odds of success by folding Neutral and Simple Loss together and having Simple Success occupy 1/3 of the chart. That gives the player a 50% of success on any attempt.

 

[Jon_Dahl]

If we ignore the "Wild Dice", a character succeeds 1 in 3 times.

You may want to increase the odds of success by folding Neutral and Simple Loss together and having Simple Success occupy 1/3 of the chart. That gives the player a 50% of success on any attempt.

I agree, the chance of success should be higher.
How about this:
Keep your good idea of skill ranks between 1-5. All tasks go under a specific skill and under specific minimum rank. In a normal situation you inform this to the player: "Shooting an apple which is on top of someones head, Crossbow-skill rank 4".

Then you roll 1d6.

1 - Critical Failure: Your skill rank is treated as two ranks lower for the task.

2 - Simple Failure: Your skill rank is treated as one rank lower for the task.

3 and 4 - Neutral Result: Your skill rank doesn't change for the task.

5 - Simple Success: Your skill rank is treated as one rank higher for the task.

6- Critical Success: Your skill rank is treated as two ranks higher for the task.

Of course there will be debate on what is the minimum skill rank for certain tasks, but try to be lenient and your players won't complain too much.