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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Michael Morris" data-source="post: 6193729" data-attributes="member: 87">Prima (Playtest name, I have no idea what the final will be) is an RPG system that I'm working on, though to what degree I haven't decided.  I'm not even sure it's fully workable, but I've been taking my time with it and tweaking things.  After a couple years its starting to take form.The system is somewhat d20 based - d20 vs. a target number.  But instead of static modifiers, modifiers take the form of dice.  At the very least abilities modify checks, and skills can modify them as well.  So, if you have a d8 strength and a d6 climb skill, You'd roll d20+d8+d6.Very high abilities and skills take the form of multiple dice.  Racial abilities, spell effects, equipment circumstance bonuses may also add in dice.  No matter how many dice you roll though, you only keep the highest two.  So a halfling of mid to high level might have a d6 racial die for stealth checks, have a cloak of elvenkind giving him a d8 bonus to the checks, have a dexterity of d12/d4 and a stealth skill of d12/d6.  Hence he'd roll d20 + the best two rolls out of a pool 2d6,d8,2d12,d4That's the crux of the system that's been tested so far.  Attacks are resolved as opposed rollsThere are no hit points. Damage reduces ability scores, usually constitution.  The Savage Worlds Shake/Wound approach is used for combat damage.  Charm spells and the like must deal damage to charisma and a character only becomes charmed or dominated once their charisma is exhausted.  In a sense, charisma is to mental attack / defense what constitution is to physical attack / defense.I'm unsure if I'm doing classes / levels.  My wish is to create a system where classes / levels can be 'mapped' onto a classless engine. that way novice players can use the classes and levels as a guide, and experienced players can just do their thing.What I've worked out so far is each session a character gets a skill point. More powerful advancements come at different intervals.  Unlike a lot of skill based games I'm going to make the "combat" skill be something that can only be advanced occasionally, same with magic manipulation skills. Ability score raises will be the rarest, probably once every tenth session or so.The structure of the system is such that advancing your best skills / abilities has diminishing returns.  Once you have a d12 in a skill, raising to d12/d4 doesn't help that much. At 2d12 your skill is vast enough to make your relevant ability for the skill somewhat of a non-issue.  If its low it won't help you, and your ability to hit the highest target numbers doesn't change.The most important point of the system is to allow players the ability to advance their skills and abilities while keeping the target numbers locked regardless of play level.  Once a character has found a way to be rolling 2d12 on a check, whatever other dice he gets to roll don't matter as much except to make failure on the the moderate tasks extremely unlikely.  The key is that DC 24 is the highest DC that can be hit by a character with no aid and minimum ability (d20+d4), but also the midpoint on the bell curve for the veteran character with a means through skill and ability (usually both) to have d20+2d12 on the check ( 23.5 is the average roll of those dice).All other decisions about how Prima will work will flow from there.</blockquote>

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