Hey all!
So, I started a new experiment with d100, after trying and tossing out a lot over the last year and generally reading a lot about a number of systems (including the unofficial Elder Scrolls RPG, both the 5e game and the d100 game). It's a whole mix of a lot of them, and this may be pointless with other systems around, but here's what I got.
Sidenote: So, because I was asked before, as to "Why would I play this instead of X?"
I've no earthly clue. This is just my take of a number of different ideas. Maybe I can figure out the why later, but a lot of this is me trying to put everything down in an understandable manner.
This all makes sense to me over some systems.
If I were to name a goal, it would be to have a very flexible system with a lot of customization options and that is quick to play. The set up takes a little long in parts, but, at its core, it's quick to read and move on to the next move. Taking inspiration from the Elder Scrolls (Daggerfall in particular), FATE and Demon's Souls, this has been an exercise in dialing back a lot of tertiary features in order to make moves and decisions quick and flexible.
If you remember my d10 game that I posted about a while back, I feel it ultimately failed on a few key areas and will be putting it aside for now. This system, in my opinion, simply has a lot more play to it, if you catch my meaning.
Basic Rolls
Roll d100, shooting for at or below target (so at a target of 78, a 75 is considered a success). This goes up and down, depending on the non-combat task.
Each roll is comprised of a Skill Level + Attribute (both on a scale of 1-50). The six traditional attributes apply.
A couple of things of note. First, Yes, I am using Elder Scrolls races. Secondly, what I have below is a character in a science fantasy setting. I don't quite want to go over the setting I have in mind yet.
I guess we can first look at the basic part of the character sheet.
So, this is Hawk, a wood elf Huntsman.
Let's have him attack something.
There's a goblin in front of him who is hostile. So, he rolls d100 to with a light melee saber (Dex 50 + Light Melee Rank 23 = Target 73), and the goblin rolls to defend (Target 40).
Hawk: 64
Goblin: 35
Both characters have technically succeeded in their rolls. However, since the attack is higher, the Hoblin is going to be taking damage.
Damage is made up of two parts: Rolled Damage and Base Damage.
Base Damage comes from a stat's Output, which is 1 tenth of the Attribute Total. In this case, he uses Dexterity for the weapon, and therefore the output is 5.
Rolled Damage comes from the 10s in the roll itself. In his case, it is 6, since the roll is in the 60s.
Put together, the full damage is 11. However, the Goblin did succeed as well. Damage will then be reduced by the 10s in the goblin's roll (35, therefore 3).
11 - 3 = 8 (total damage).
If the Goblin failed, it would have been the full 11 damage. If the goblin both succeeded and either did higher than the attacker, or if the attacker just failed altogether, there would be no damage.
Other factors:
- Roll 1-5 are critical. This is either guaranteed success on a roll or a critical hit. Critical Hits are the max amount of damage that attack could do.
-- This means, if the target is 75 (thus 7), and the Output from the attribute is 5, a critical is a guaranteed 12.
-- This changes, depending on weapon type.
- Rolls 96-100 are critical failures, regardless of target.
So, that was the basics of how to calculate success and output. There's exceptions, changes, armor and other factors, but that's what the baseline experience is.
Attributes:
Not much different from your usual 6 Attributes. Con helps with HP, Str with weapon styles and so on.
How do you roll them? So, what I had done are these steps:
1. Roll them like you would for DnD (4d6, leave out the lowest. Do that seven times, leave out the lowest sum)
2. Multiply each of the six values by 5 (bringing them to a 1-100 scale).
3. Divide those by 2 (bringing them down to 1-50 scale), rounddown.
These are no supposed to increase on a regular basis. Buffs, sure, but not leveled up per say.
In either case, this method works for me, but let me know if you can think of a preferred one.
Character Creation
Now, let's rewind back to the character creation:
(Side note: What's not listed here is Hawk's chosen Strength. It is a hunting ritual that he uses, giving him an advantage for a day against a certain enemy.)
This system is loosely based off of SkullSplitter's custom 5e Class System (If you're curious: https://www.skullsplitterdice.com/blogs/dnd/dnd-5e-custom-class-template). It's basically point system, balancing the following factors:
- Number of skills
- HP Range
- Capacity for Magic (including MP)
- Armor/Shield Max
- Weapon Proficiency
- Strengths/Weaknesses
This is outside of the choice of race, (the table to the right). That also adds skills and other stuff. I'm going to put that aside for now, as I do want to rework that at some point. It will be a factor in this character sheet, but, again, we should probably leave it alone for now.
So, the way I have been doing this is by giving a character 12 points to work with, and a minimum of 4 skills. As for the other factors:
- All chosen skills start at 12.
- HP is one tenth of your Athletics Skill times the HP factor you choose in the Character Builder. Plus, half of your total Endurance.
-- Hawk put 2 points for HP Range (3), Athletics is at 22 (2), and Constitution at 37 (18). So, in Hawk's case, this HP is (3*2) + 18 = 24
(Side note: All characters have Athletics as a skill. If they choose it as a primary skill, it starts at 12. Otherwise, starts as the sum of the Outputs of Strength and Constitution.)
-- Athletics will be leveled up as the character goes on adventures. Even a wizard has to walk, climb and do a lot of basic traveling activities over the course of a quest.
- MP is the Intelligence Output times the factor chosen at the Builder. MP is specifically for larger spells. Cantrips can be smaller effects done at anytime (more on that later). So, you can have magical skills with no MP; you'll just only have access to cantrips.
- Ritual Spells are ones done outside of combat and for more complex magic use.
- "Prepared SC" At first, these were bigger custom spells, but that is currently being workshopped.
- Simple (Non-Martial) weapons can just do Rolled Damage. So, you can have Light, Medium, or Large Melee weapons without the point in Martial Weapon, albeit less effective.
- Armor is another damage reducing measure for one a defender is hit and succeeds at defending.
-- Hawk's armor is "4, 20". This means, on a success attack on himself while he's successfully defending, he has a 20% chance of reducing the damage by 4.
-- Chance to Reduce is the value (4) times 5 (bringing us to 20).
-- Certain weapons can negate armor.
- Shields add to the initial defense roll, not the armor roll.
- Strengths and Weakness are other tweaks that can be put on a character (More on this later).
The following is a list of skills and their respective categories and Attributes. Some are hold overs from previous experiments:
(Subject to change)
Strengths and Weaknesses
These are further tweaks to a character. These include factors such as (but not limited to):
- Being about to use other Attributes for Melee weapons (Such as Wisdom or Intelligence, as opposed to Strength and Dexterity).
- On that note, focusing all magic under 1 Attribute (including how MP). By default, some schools of magic are under Wisdom, others under Intelligence.
- Advantage or disadvantage with a certain creature type.
- Combat pet.
- Vulnerabilities to poisons, magic, disease, etc.
Overall, it is the opportunity to overrule any of the listed rules established on this post. Want a Paladin who uses Wisdom for his melee attacks, illustrating a more methodical approach to combat? Want to center all magic on Dexterity, demonstrating a focus on muscle memory over Intelligence? Go right ahead, for a price.
Leveling up
So, this took a while for me to make a decision on. I never wanted numbers to really balloon (such as HP), but I wanted there to be some progress that is clearly shown. Here is what I have:
- Skills: Level up with use. We'll go over the economics later, but I do have an option for trainers in mind.
- HP: Levels up with Athletics
- MP: Basically, left alone
- Attributes: Left Alone (though I am open to some tweaks, if rare ones)
- Character Builder Points: These will occur with Quest/Story Milestones.
For Character Builder Points, here's how I imagine it:
- In Skyrim, you are an adventurer. You have, maybe, a fighter's build. And you have spent the last while leveling up the skills that make up that build. Then you are asked to kill a dragon. The dragon is slain, which is best case scenario. But then the Milestone occurs as you absorb its soul. The character has fundamentally changed, beyond just skill levels. Now you have shout powers alongside the rest of your skills.
Mechanically, in this system, this would be an additional Character Builder Point, either for Shouts to be added as a new skill or as an additional Strength. Another example may be to change how a character performs magic. Or is given a combat pet. Or is learning that they suddenly have the capacity for magic. This is for a character to not just grow but also change, mechanically, due to circ*mstances rather than a long-term plan.
And I guess this is a good time as any to mention one particular point: This is not a straightforward leveling up system. There are no "Character Levels", really. It is fairly simple in some ways (use thing, it gets easier), but not because of linear progression. Every aspect of the character levels up independently.
As to when someone has leveled up a skill, that is up to the DM. I do not really have a calculated system of uses, sucesses and so on.
Types of Hits:
We've gone over Base and Rolled Damage. Here is the terminology for how the Hits are termed:
It's out of order, but the priority is Critical, then Full, then Partial.
Combat
You've come across enemies.
- See who has the highest Dex Output among your party.
- Roll d10 + Dex Output (just for the one character). The opposing party will do the same.
- Whichever party has the highest result goes first.
- From there, the turn goes back and forth between the two parties.
- When it is your party's turn, you choose whoever has not gone yet in that round.
- A character cannot go again until everyone else has gone.
- Whichever side had the last move at the end of a round, the other side goes first in the next round.
- New Round Begins, everyone's move is reset.
Defense Rolls:
The defense roll is not relegated to just Melee, Athletics or so on. Alteration, the School of Magic that involves the material world, can also be used to parry a blade. The disadvantage there is it cannot be used that way if silenced. But it can be used. As with most things on the tabletop, negotiate with your DM, and try to make it make sense.
If a character is paralyzed, prone or cannot see the enemy, they cannot defense roll. The attacker only has to succeed in the attack roll to hit.
Action Points:
Action points are used for every action (including movement) during a Move. Everyone starts with 2 AP, and are granted 2 (max of 3) after they move. In between moves, the character can use 1 Reactive Action at the cost of 1 AP. These include counter attacks on a successful block, interrupting movement, and so on.
Other actions at the cost of 1 AP:
- Attack
- Move (up to 30 ft)
- Switch weapons
- Manuevers
- Spells and Cantrips
Magic (Cantrips vs. Spells)
To put simply, Cantrips do not cost MP, Spells do. As to how the damage and status effects are calculated, here's a table to illustrate that.
(note: This is not yet complete, but I think it gives a general idea of how magic is balanced.
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For Status Effects, many elemental attacks require that the defender fails its defense roll for the Status Effect to happen. Therefore, for a better chance of it occurring, using a spell exclusively for a Status Effect has an overall better chance.
As for bigger spells that require that last Character Builder Point, I will workshop that. I'm thinking a spellbook with some limit to how many Spells you can have "equipped" at once, but I will try to nail it down soon.
Last note: Spell Criticals remain at rolls 1-5.
Weapons:
Melee and Ranged Weapons come in 3 categories: Light, Medium and Heavy. It's a balance between Critical Hit Chance, Armor Negation (or Break), 1 or 2 handed and Attributes.
These weapons could be whatever you want, so long as they follow the rules above. A saber can count as a Light Melee if you want, so long as you don't use it two-handed.
Light Weapons are for Critical Hits, naturally.
Heavy is to negate armor.
Medium, naturally, are in between, offering a decent Critical chance, and an option for some armor Negation if used Two Handed.
These are subject to change, but this is more or less how the weapons are balanced.
Armor:
So, to clarify on one point. Medium and Light armor have options to Move after a successful defense roll. 10 Feet for Light, and 5 Feet for Medium. Call it this game's equivalent to a dodge roll. This does not cost AP.
Again, Shields do not reduce damage. They simply help your initial defense roll.
NOTE: I'm actually undecided whether to have the Armor Roll always happen on an attack or only after a successful defense roll. Let me know your opinion on that.
There are other things to go over (The crafting skills and so on) but let me know what you think overall. If you have a good idea for anything that goes over 100, I'd be happy to read.
And thanks for reading!
