My New Task Resolution System

[S'mon]

Came up with this for White Star (OD&D in SPACE!!) after being told Level was more important than Attribute in OD&D. Also was influenced by Lindybeige's Youtube criticism of typical D&D task resolution. My system:

Character Competence = Attribute (eg STR, normally 3-18) + Level (1-10 in White Star)

Task Difficulty is rolled:
Easy - 3d6
Medium - 4d6
Hard - 5d6
Very Hard - 6d6

If Competency equals or exceeds Difficulty, the attempt is successful!

 

[GMMichael]

Some thoughts, in case you're on the fence:

This system makes it very important to use 3d6 ONLY for ability generation.

You might want to toss out "equals or exceeds," because it's not just confusing on its own, but more so when you're rolling the opposition instead of the effort. I'd stick to "exceeds."

Finally, the increasing amount of dice to roll means increasing the amount of time resolving tasks.

That said, it looks like fun to me...

 

[amerigoV]

That is an interesting concept - that the skill result is fixed but the difficulty is what is rolled. I like that its all d6s.

So who rolls? The player or the GM? As a player I would hate to have to train half my dice to roll high (Fireball!) and half low (Skill resolution).

 

[Nagol]

Competency 26 can accomplish Very Hard tasks 90% of the time.
Competency 22 can accomplish Hard tasks 90% of the time.
Competency 18 can accomplish Medium tasks 90% of the time.
Competency 14 can accomplish Easy tasks 90% of the time.

Competency 15 can fail Very Hard tasks 90% of the time.
Competency 12 can fail Hard tasks 90% of the time.
Competency 9 can fail Medium tasks 90% of the time.
Competency 6 can fail Easy tasks 90% of the time.

A level 1, reasonably poor attribute (8) will fail an Easy task 62.5% of the time.
A level 1, reasonably strong attribute (14) will succeed an Easy task over 95% of the time, a Medium task 66% of the time, a Hard task 30% of the time, and a Very Hard Task a bit less than 10% of the time.

A level 5, reasonably poor attribute (8) will fail an Easy task 17% of the time.
A level 5, reasonably good attribute(14) will succeed an Easy task always, a Medium task 95% of the time, a Hard task 69% of the time, and a Very Hard Task 36% of the time.


If these success levels feel right, it looks like a simple system. It puts a lot of pressure on using your best attributes and increasing them if at all possible in the system.