Luck & Skill
Introduction
What you are about to read can be considered a "Role-Playing Proto-System" (RPPS) since it shows a skeleton of rules which must be refined according to the type of game sought.
You’ll find that many rules will be of the "it depends" type since this RPPS can’t cover every and all possible game types and styles, and adjusting the rules to a style will mean sacrificing them for other styles.
Characters
From heroes to ordinary folk, they are defined by Aspects (some games may use more Aspects).
Attributes: These define how well a Character can do stuff. There are 2 Attributes:
Luck: Is represented with a die, it goes from d4 (lowest) to d12 (highest), this is the die used when you have to make a Test.
Skill: Is a fixed value that ranges from 1 to 5 and is added to the result of the Luck die if the Character is skilled or knowledgeable in the activity performed.
And how do you know if the Character knows what they are doing? By checking their...
Concept: This is Character’s central idea, a guide to the Character’s skills and abilities. How vague or precise, short or long a Concept has to be will depend on what the game is about, it may be one or more words, it may also have to cover one or more requirements or elements such as: Quality - Kin/Bloodline - Profession/Background.
Its parameters are set according to the game’s world and tone and must be the same for all Characters.
Some example of Concepts are: Soldier, Law Officer, Cyborg Hacker, Charming Noble
Action Resolution
Sooner or later comes the time to Test a Character's Luck and Skill.
Tests: These should be done at times of importance and uncertainty (to avoid delaying the game with unnecessary rolls). The Game Arbiter (GA) is the one deciding if a Test is necessary based on the Character's situation.
There are two type of Tests:
Luck Tests: Are made to know if a Character is plain lucky (such as finding the correct key in an unknown bunch). A Luck Test is done by rolling the Luck die equal or higher than the Chance Value determined by the GA. The Chance Value shows how probable is a certain thing to happen, and is set by the GA; by rolling or using the fixed number.
The possible Chance Values are:
[Very likely: d6 or 3] [Probable: 2d6 or 6]
[Unlikely: 3d6 or 9] [Improbably: 3d8 or 12]
Action Test: When made, the player rolls the Character's Luck die, and, if their Concept covers the action performed, their Skill value is added to the die result, the final value is called the Action Value (AV).
Difficulty Value (DV): Is a measurement of the action’s complexity and required effort; is set by the GA considering the desired goal and the situation on which the action is done. A Difficulty shouldn’t be based nor influenced by the involved Characters’ Aspects. After determining the Difficulty a Roll is made (or the fixed number is chosen) to get the Difficulty Value. The possible Difficulties are:
[Very easy: Automatic success] [Easy: d6 or 3]
[Regular: d6+1 or 4] [Hard: d6+2 or 5]
[Very difficult: d6+3 or 6] [Impossible: Automatic failure]
When attempting an action, it may be a good idea to clarify any negative effects that a failure may generate.
An Action Test is successful if the AV equals or exceeds the DV. A
failed Test does not necessarily means the Character does not achieve
what they tried, it can mean that some negative outcome occurs, this is
helpful to avoid stopping the game due to a “bad roll”.
Quality: Not all Tests have to simply result in Success or Failure, sometimes one needs to know how good or bad the action went. The difference between the AV and DV can be used to determine how good or bad the action is executed. The higher the AV compared to the DV on a Successful action, the more productive or beneficial it will be the outcome. On a Failed action, the opposite is true
Action Value – Difficulty Value
0-1: Minor Success: What was sought is achieved in a reduced or partial way.
2-3: Normal Success: No pros or cons beyond of what was attempted.
4+: Major Success: More is achieved than what was intended.
Difficulty Value – Action Value
1-2: Minor Failure: What was sought is achieved in a reduced or partial way and also causes some additional negative effect.
3-4: Normal Failure: It fails but without any additional adverse effects.
5+: Major Failure: Its not only a Failure, also causes some additional negative effect.
Conflict: Skill vs skill and similar situations.
Direct Approach: Make Tests between the involved individuals comparing their AV against each other, whoever gets the higher score gets the victory. The Quality may be obtained from the difference in AV
Indirect Approach: The AV are compared against their own DV and the highest Quality wins.
Burning Luck
Characters can "Burn" their Luck to gain some special and temporary benefits, doing this causes the Luck die to use the next lower die on the die chain: d12 > d10 > d8 > d6 > d4 > 2d4* > 3d4*.
*For Luck Burned below a d4 roll an extra d4 to the roll and use the lowest value (don’t add the dice).
What Luck can be Burned on will depend on both the game and Character's Concept. In a heavy action game Luck may be Burned to do extra actions or to avoid Harm, and can be recovered after combat or at the start of each new combat. On a low magic game casting spells may be done by Burning Luck for an entire day while in a more magical setting it may stay Burned for some hours.
By how long and how much Luck is reduced is decided by the GA based on what the character is seeking to do, the Character's Concept and other applicable Aspects, and the type of game.
Items
Items goes from everyday objects like a door key, to mystical ones like an enchanted armor, or even futuristic ones like a flying car.
Item Points (IP): Are used to determine how much and what the Character is carrying and are divided into Carried IP (CIP) and Available IP (AIP).
At any time a player can add an ordinary item to the Character’s equipment as long as it could logically being carried, and could have been obtained with relative ease. If the item is not an easily accessible one a Luck Test may be made using the item’s availability and price as a guidance for Difficulty. Once the item is noted as part of the equipment the Character’s AIP are reduced by an amount based on the item’s size and weight.
Note that only the AIP are reduced, the CIP remain the same, and thus Load isn’t altered. CIP (and Load) can be reduced by getting rid of produced items or by eliminating AIP.
Characters can have any number of CIP, this amount indicates the Character's Load which can be used to gauge their speed and total weight:
[Light: 0-4] [Medium: 5-8] [Heavy: 9-12] [Overloaded: 13+]
If the GA allows it, the Concept can affect the number of IP on each category, for example, a Strong Character should be able to carry more items without having their Load affected.
Combat Equipment: Weapons and Protections have a Grade with an associated die and value similar to Luck and Skill.
Grade Efficiency Roll
D Minimum d12+1
C Low d10+2
B Medium d8+3
A High d6+4
S Maximum d4+5
Combat
When a fight occurs Characters act in the order of initiative most logical for the situation, Load and Aspects can be taken into consideration.
An attack is an Action Test against a Difficulty which considers the type of attack; visibility; target’s distance, size, cover; etc.
A victim wishing to defend can make an Action Test and use the AV if better than the Difficulty to get their DV. Depending on the type of game, the defense will be rolled before or after the Difficulty Roll, or both options will be available with its own advantages and disadvantages. A “free” defensive Action Test is not guaranteed on all games, some may require the defender to use their current or next available action, others will use available actions.
An attack is successful if its AV equals or exceeds the DV. What a Success means depends on the type of game and situation, it may be a type of Harm, or a number of minor enemies defeated, or the conclusion of the entire confrontation.
When dealing successful Harmful attacks the attacker makes a Harm Roll using their weapon's Harm Grade to obtain a Harm Value (HV), the victim can make a Protection Roll using their Protection Grade to obtain a Protection Value (PV).
The highest of AV and HV are compared against the highest of DV and PV, the Quality may translate in how many Harm the victim takes:
[Major Failure: 1] [Normal Failure: 2] [Minor Failure: 3]
[Minor Success: 4] [Normal Success: 5] [Major Success: 6]
Alternatively, based on the game and situation the Quality could be “exchanged” for special effects outside of Harms.
Harm
Harm is all form of damage that Characters can suffer as the game moves on. There are several forms of Harm but mechanically they share some elements.
Harm Limit (HL): This value shows how much Harm a Character can accumulate. How much Harm Limit a Character has of each type is based on the game type and style, deadly games will have lower Harm Limits while heroic Characters will be able to take on more punishment.
Luck & Skill divides each Harm Limit in Light Harm that doesn’t generate any negative effect when suffered, and Severe Harm that generates a negative effect when suffered. Not every game will use this division and some may use more.
Harm Hierarchy: In games using both Harm Levels damage is normally applied first on the Light Level Limit, and once no more Light Harm is available the Severe Limit is used.
In some game some types of Harm, or ones suffered in specific conditions can skip the Light Level and be treated directly as Severe.
Harm Outcome: When Harm is suffered and the Character doesn’t has any Harm Limit available then a Harm Outcome takes effect, some possible effects are: Defeat, Unconsciousness, Madness, Broken Spirit, Corruption, Death. The type of Harm Outcome must be set according to the game and its corresponding Harm Limit and Level.
Recovery
Depending on the type of Harm and game Characters may recover naturally over time or will need the help of specialized care or supernatural means.
The recovery speed will depend on the game, a quick recovery will allow for a return to action in the middle of the adventure or mission, slow recovering will make Harm a serious thing that Characters should avoid, specially when combined with low Limits and harsh Outcomes.
Character Creation
In order to create a Character the player must follow these steps. Note that depending on the game extra steps may be added.
- Talk to the GA to find out how deep and detailed the Character’s info has to be, as well as if it has to follow any specific parameters.
- Think on a Concept that fits the game and table.
- Give the Character a background fitting to the game setting and premise.
- Determine the Character’s Attributes*: Luck starts at d4 and Skill at 1, the player has 4 points to increase them: each point used in Luck improves the die by one size (d4 to d6, d6 to d8, d8 to d10, d10 to d12), each point used in Skill increases its value by 1.
- Choose the number of CIPs.
- Create the Character’s final details such as: name, motivation, physical description, etc…
*Alternative Luck & Skill can be randomly determined with a single d10 roll.
Points d10 Luck Skill
0 1-2 d4 +5
1 3-4 d6 +4
2 5-6 d8 +3
3 7-8 d10 +2
4 9-10 d12 +1
Character Growth
As time goes by, Characters can become better on their Aspects, and even earn new ones, this allows them to carry out new tasks or face greater dangers, and gives them a more organic feel.
The rate at which the Characters grow is set by the game, some may allow it based on in-game circumstances, other will be set by the amount of sessions played, while others may use more elaborated methods like Improvement Points with which to by the improvements or a level system with set Improvements at each achievable level.
The growth Characters can achieve can be divided into Horizontal and Vertical.
A Horizontal growth is when Characters expand their knowledge or skills, adding new tricks to their repertoires. It is the easiest for the rules of the game, the Character simply learns to do new things. These new things are extra Aspects like adding or replacing Concepts; Proficiencies, specific knowledge; Specialties, more specific uses of Proficiencies; Talents, special abilities; etc…
The exact scope and deepness of these Aspects will depend on the game itself.
A Vertical growth happens on existing Character Aspects. Due to how the values for Tests work, increasing Luck or Skill is not viable, so to represent these improvements the game makes use of...
Ranks: These show in an abstract manner how developed the Character is on a specific Aspect.
The Ranks work together with the Aspect they are connected to and there is no limit to how many can be Ranked, but the are 5 Ranks that every Aspect can achieve:
[Basic (B)] >>> [Advanced (A)] >>> [Expert (E)] >>> [Master (M)] >>> [Grand-Master (GM)]
Any activity performed will have a required Rank showing the “training or knowledge degree” required to be performed in a standard fashion.
Not having the required Ranks may mean an automatic failure, increased Difficulties, reduced or limited results and the like.
Rank Effect: As an Aspect’s Rank increases compared to the required one the Character will be able to perform greater feats or will have extra benefits when executing said action.
One of the Rank’s effects is to shift the action’s Quality based on the difference between the Character’s and action’s (or opponent’s) Ranks.
If an action’s Quality is shifted above a Major Success or below a Major Failure the following scale can be used…
Minor Success, Normal Success, Major Success, Amazing Success, Superb Success, Critical Success, Extreme Success
Minor Failure, Normal Failure, Major Failure, Amazing Failure, Abysmal Failure, Critical Failure, Extreme Failure
Another effect is allowing the Character to perform more elaborate or new actions such as casting more powerful spells, doing more attacks, etc…
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Better format.
A little better explained.
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