arscott said:
Seventh Sea has an interesting variation wherein the number of dice you roll is equal to attribute + skill, but you only get to keep attribute's worth. It works a bit like the 4d6 drop one for D&D ability generation in that it alters the probibility curve without affecting the range of results.
R&K - Roll and keep system. Legend of the Five Rings uses that as well. Generally, you roll x amount dice, but only keep y. That's expressed as xky. It's all d10s. For skills, it's usually Roll Trait + Skill, and only keep your Trait. Other things might use your school rank (something more or less your class level) and Ring (the core of a character is expressed as 5 elemental Rings, and 4 of those are made up of two traits each. The fifth is Void, which is a special case.) . Of course, there's all sorts of thigns that can add dice to your hand, either as rolled or as kept dice (or even both).
You add what your roll together to beat the TN (target number). if you roll a 10, it "explodes" - you roll again and add that to the 10, it counts as one die. Sometimes, it's more than 10s that explode (8s and 9s), and sometimes it doesn't explode at all (as in an unskilled roll)
If you want to do more than just accomplish your task - if you want to do something really glorious - you can raise: You add +5 to the TN and you accomplish more. You have to beat the new TN, though, you can't go half way. If you miss the higher TN, you miss the whole thing. There's always a limit to the number of raises you can take. Many techniques and circumstances give you free raises, which give you the benefits without raising the TN or counting against your number of raises. You can also use those free raises to lower the TN by 5
Say you want to cut down some ronin with your Katana. You use the Kenjutsu skill for that. Let's assume you have Agility 4, and 3 ranks in Kenjutsu. You roll 7 and keep 4, and that has to beat his TN to be hit: Reflexes x 5 + Armor + Other (let's say 5 x 3 + 3 for that Ashigaru Armour he scavenged somewhere). That's 7k4 against TN 18. Should not be too hard - especially since you have the Katana emphasis to your Kenjutsu skill (most bushi have), So you decide to raise twice for increased damage (which costs 1 raise and can be done several times)
You roll 10+3, 7, 1, 3, 8, 5, 6, keeping 13, 8, 7, 6, for a total of 34 - hitting the TN 28 with room to spare.
A katana's damage rating (DR) is 3k2, plus your strength as rolled dice. Your two riases could buy you 1k0 twice, or 1k1 once. Let's go for 1k1, so with your strength 2 you get 6k3, and decide to spend two void points for 2k2 extra, giving you 8k5.
You roll
10+4, 1, 1, 4, 8, 5, 7, 6, keeping 14, 8, 7, 6, 5, for 40 damage - devastating.
He has Stamina 4, but Willpower 2, meaning his Air Ring is only 2. that means he has 4 wounds per wound level except for out, which is 10. That's 38 total. The Ronin drops from the single stroke.
