In this post I'm going to develop a rough-shod mechanic for Mercs (working title).
At the heart of the RPG, and really any game, is the Engine. It's the equivalent of the programming language or chord progression for the game, in that it not only determines what is allowed, but how the players can accomplish it. It's the thematic backbone for how the game feels when you play it, and the mechanic easily makes or breaks the game.
Generally an RPG system consists of some sort of quantified character ability, represented by attributes, stats, skills, or something similar. The classic stat array is the D&D Six: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, where every 2 points above a 10 gives you +1 on your d20 roll. I'm not making a D&D clone, so I'm not going to use those.
In recent years with the boom in self-published/indie RPGs there's been a huge variety of systems created, which run from a classic Skill+Stat combination, to drawing cards from a deck, to betting dice like you're playing poker.
Here's some examples of some systems and how they help deliver their respective tone:
Savage Worlds: In Savage Worlds each Skill is rated as a die, from a d4 to the d12. A player succeeds when they roll a 4 or higher, with additional successes (called Raises) on every 4 above that (8, 12, etc). In addition, the player rolls a Wild Die, which is always a d6 and allows each player the same chance of succeeding on a skill, no matter their actual skill rating. Because Savage Worlds is all about playing big, flashy, pulp-adventure-style heroes, this lets even the less-capable characters get their shining moment and delivers fairly consistent action-moments.
Apocalypse World: Apocalypse World has an unusual system where every action is accomplished by performing a Move, each of which is tied to a certain stat. The player rolls 2d6 and adds the relevant Stat to their roll, and depending on the result there's a different effect (failure is 6 or under, partial success is 7-9, and 10+ is a full success). This accomplishes several things: it means the GM never has to roll dice, as the players make all the decisions, which helps emphasize the book's assertion that the PCs are unique in their agency. It also lets the story advance during failures, which is a problem with several other systems where a failure means that player/story momentum falters for a moment.
Eclipse Phase: Eclipse Phase uses a fairly standard d% system, where you roll a d100 or, more commonly, 2d10 and read the result as a percentage, and rolling underneath your Stat is a success. Whenever I describe it to someone I call it a Price-is-Right system, because the higher you roll, the better you do...as long as you don't go over your Stat. In a setting where PC competence is assumed, but lethality is still a major theme, it makes you feel like you're always pulling by by the skin of your teeth, even when you get a particularly good roll.
Dogs in the Vineyard: In a game where you play Mormon-Jedi in an Alternate-History Wild West, you have pools of Stats (Heart, Acuity, Will, and Body), Relationship dice, and Item dice. You build a dice pool depending on the conflict, roll them, and put them forward in an effort to out-perform your opponent. It rewards tactical dice use and turns conflict into a back-and-forth game where the chance for escalation can produce real consequences. Bringing a gun into the conflict, for example, can increase your chances of winning an argument, but the potential for grave injury also increases, whether you want it to or not.
I'm going to choose to use a d% system, for a number of reasons:
1. It's simple. You only really need 2 dice, it's easy to read the results, and changes to the actual numbers don't make calculating your odds of success/failure any more difficult than it was before. Did you have a 40% chance to succeed, but got a +13 bonus? Now you have a 53% chance to succeed. Easy.
2. Going off of the above, it gives you a consistent, definite spread of results with a fair amount of modification for difficulty. Unlike using a 3d6 bell curve where a +1 bonus is significant, using d% lets you have a little more fun with number fiddling.
3. It's fairly granular. One thing I like about d% systems is that you can pull three results from a single skill test: the overall score (43), the tens-die (4) and the ones-die (3). This lets you tie certain fun things to individual dice, like Initiative, Damage, or some other side-rule.
Infrastructure
Mercs is going to have two methods of quantifying character ability: Skills and Drives.
Skills are going to be pretty basic: a spread of Actions the characters can take, and how proficient they are in that action. When a character tries something where failure will have an effect on the story/action, she'll roll d% and try to roll underneath the skill. Arbitrarily, I'm going to aim for a spread of 20 (minimum) to 75 (maximum) to give a good range from novice to proficient.
Drives are going to be mechanical and role-play motivations for the characters. Because mercenaries in stories are usually motivated individuals who enter the field for money, revenge, or just desperation, I'm going to try and work that in. The best way I can think of doing that right now is to have a number of basic drives (money, self-defense, discovery, etc) which give a static bonus if it's the prime motivator behind the character's action. Again, arbitrarily, I think Drives should range between 1 and 15, giving a minimum character skill of 21 and a maximum of 90. I think preserving a 10% chance of failure no matter what lends the game a sense of danger, even for highly capable characters.
In Summary
To take an action, a character chooses the motivating Drive and relevant Skill. She adds them together and rolls d%. If she rolls underneath that combined total, awesome, she succeeds. If she rolls over, she fails.
Next Time
I get nitty-gritty with the Skills and Drives, and maybe work out some sort of Difficulty mechanic.
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