Dice - The System!

This is a system Mr Wiggles and I have been working on for some time now. I'd abandoned the project some time back, when I decided that it didn't follow the core principles we'd been aiming for. That means it wouldn't work in an online game at all, and absolutely required in-person play. Over the last few days, I've made some adjustments that should bring it back to what we wanted originally. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Dice: The System.

The basic idea of this system is to present fast and easy rules for combat while allowing enough room for players to be free with their character designs. This level of freedom may be overwhelming to some players who find it difficult to create characters without a rigid structure. Since the game takes place mostly in the imagination anyway, its basic design was intended to place less emphasis on the tactical aspects of many roleplaying games, with hex maps and figurines, and focus more on description, cooperative storytelling, and exciting action. This decision was made primarily to make the game system easier to run for anyone with little room for such things, or for playing in online forums where such tactical elements are easier to deal with when made more abstract. If you prefer to keep those aspects, then you can simply make rules for such things as range, reach, speed, and facing. Ideas for these will be in the Optional Rules section.

Basics

Dice: The System uses six sided dice for task resolution and to determine overall well-being. Rather than the hit points of traditional roleplaying games, characters in Dice will have their dice pool decreased to represent lowered effectiveness, until eventually they have no dice left and cannot act. Lost dice return at a rate determined by the GM according to the situation, plot necessity, and how well the players are performing in the roles of their characters.

The core mechanic of the game is #d6 vs Difficulty. The difficulty is usually 5, but can be modified up or down depending on the circumstances, the action being taken, and the character's skills. If a character has a skill that makes the action easier, difficulty is reduced by one. If the action is impossible for most people, but the character has a skill allowing the action in the first place, the difficulty is 5. Each die that meets or exceeds the difficulty is one success, and a greater number of successes mean the action was performed better. When characters are competing, the character with the most successes wins.

Each character has a given number of dice to represent their level of overall ability. This is the number of dice rolled for any action, as well as the representative for health and overall plot immunity. Failing contests can decrease the number of dice a character has, until eventually the character can no longer act.

Characters

Dice: The System is designed to handle characters from all genres, eras, and worlds. From wizards to mecha pilots, aliens to psychics, normal people to superheroes, Dice can represent them all. This is because Dice abstracts many of the elements of a character, making each character more a matter of overall ability and what it is they do.

The first step in making characters using Dice is for the GM to select a Power Scale. Power Scale determines just how powerful a character is, and affects combat and a few other situations. Each level of Scale adds 1 to the number of successes each die gains, as well as the number of successes necessary to lose a die. If two characters of the same scale are fighting, this doesn't really matter. If one character is of higher scale, though, they'll have a great advantage over their weaker opponent.

Bystander - 1

Mook - 2

Hero - 3

Veteran - 4

World-Class - 5

Stellar - 6

Galactic - 7

Universal - 8

Cosmic - 9

Deity - 10

Player characters begin their careers with five dice at their scale. As characters advance they can increase their scale by gaining dice. Once a character gains their eleventh die, their scale goes up by one and dice return to 5. At that point, each die is more powerful, so it all evens out.

In addition to Power Scale and starting dice, characters get five ability slots, where they can list skills, powers, special equipment, and anything else they need to set themselves apart from the other heroes. Abilities that assist with mundane activities reduce the difficulty by one per slot taken, and special abilities that aren't possible for normal people begin at difficulty five. There are also abilities that can do things like improve Power Scale in certain situations.

Weaknesses are like abilities in reverse. Each weakness is about as powerful as an ability, but they reduce a character's effectiveness instead. For every weakness taken, the character gains another ability slot. Weaknesses need to be chosen carefully, as they should be appropriate to the setting (no 'Terrible Pilot' in a swords and sorcery fantasy game), equal to abilities (no 'Terrible at Sewing' for a heavy action combat character), and not be too limiting to play (no 'Requires Iron Lung').

Name:

Sex:

Age:

Concept:

Power Scale:

Abilities:

Weaknesses: