Looking for a certain type of RPG...

[jdrakeh]

Torg does this.

Well, in Torg, to perform an action, a player rolls 1d20. A natural 10 or 20 entitles the player to another roll. The total is compared to a chart that generates a Bonus Number; the Bonus Number is added to the Attribute or Skill. If the result total equals or exceeds the Difficulty Number, the action succeeds. This die roll is merely the foundation for resoution, though.

The problem is that this roll is interpreted and modified differently for different things. In cases where a degree of success is needed, the margin of success can be read on a chart that. Some action doesn't require a degree of success at all. Combat and other situations often use a margin of success in different ways (e.g., determining damage, etc).

Additionally, the player may create their own exceptions to the basic roll using Possibility Points. Further, the Drama Deck is basically a set of very specific, pre-defined, exceptions to the basic roll and standard resolution. Finally, on top of all of the exceptions and potential exceptions listed above, Torg also has contested rolls, yert another variation on the basic uncontested roll roll above.

So, while it's accurate to say that Torg has one dice mechanic that it uses as the foundation for all of the other dice mechanics therein, it's not really accurate to say that Torg uses one single dice roll to resolve all actions or conflicts. No more accurate than saying GURPS, Hero, or d20 uses one single system to resolve all conflicts, anyhow.

Like these other games, resolution in Torg varies wildly from one type of action to another depending upon many variables (perhaps even more variables than in these other systems, due to the Drama Deck).

 

[Scurvy_Platypus]

Talislanta is a game that uses a single d20 roll to determine the success or failure of anything/everything.

There are modifiers that are added to the roll, but that's about the only real "additional" stuff that happens.

The roll is compared to a simple chart, which incorporates a mild element of "degrees of success". As I recall, the chart looks like this:

0 or lower = "Mishap" / Critical Failure
1 - 5 = Failure
6 - 10 = Partial Success
11 - 19 = Full Success
20+ = Critical Success

The setting can be hard for some people to get into, as it's more of an "alien world" than the "medieval earth with different geography" that most fantasy games seem to be.

If you can find the 4th Edition of the book, it's worth picking up. It was published by Shooting Iron (John Harper). Morrigan Press is the current holder of the Talislanta License, but there seems to be some question as to whether or not the company is really still alive. Morrigan hasn't paid a number of people for their work.

Morrigan Press did a "5th Edition" of Talislanta which basically split the 4th Ed book into 3 books (Player, GM, and a setting only book), added a few tweaks to the magic system (I think from Codex Magicus), and finally added an archetype creation system.

Characters in Tal are made by picking an Archetype, making a few modifications to customize it a bit, and then you're good to go. Rather similar to the template system from the old West End Games Star Wars system, if you're familiar with that.

Morrigan Press also turned around and modified the system used in Talislanta a bit, and put out a generic version of it called The Omni System.

Overall, it's still a pretty light system, but it does have a lot more meat to it than Risus.

If you're interested in the generic version of the rules, you can buy the pdf here:
http://enworld.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=2862&it=1

If you're interested in Talislanta, you can find it here:
http://enworld.rpgnow.com/index.php?cPath=182_244

 

[LostSoul]

After looking up Dogs in the Vineyard, it looks like an interesting game, but I was just curious Glass, if you happened to know how easy it might be to convert the game to other genres and such?

It's a little tricky, because it works best when the PCs are agents of some kind of recognized moral authority. There are a number of settings where you can do this (playing Jedi in Star Wars, for example, something I did once) but it doesn't cover everything.

Here's a list of suggestions in the book:

• Seventeenth-century Massachusetts, with the PCs as witch finders.
• Thirteenth century Europe with the PCs as Dominican inquisitors, the black and white Hounds of God.
• A modern-day mob game, replacing the Faith with the Mafia’s codes of silence and loyalty, with the PCs as enforcers.
• Or a game about the Untouchables, with the Law instead of the Faith, and the PCs as Eliot Ness and his people!