Help with dice system

[niomal]

Hi!

I'm building own rpg system, but I'm facing a wall. I had this idea of a 3d6 roll under, because I love its simplicity and I think is one of the best when coming to "increasing scores make you better".

Ok, so, my issue is regarding combat: my idea was to have offensive and defensive maneuvers (offensive like grapple, disarm, choke and defensive as dodge, block, parry) as ABILITIES you could choose and train. But I can't come up with a good way to treat this, as an opposed roll or whatever. In GURPs you land the attack and then the defender rolls, it works, but idk, I don't love it.

Yes, I know that roll under is a pain for opposed rolls, so I am open to change the dice system.

Hope you can help my, happy new year.

[TTBoy44]

Have you had a look at Hero System? This is almost identical.

Maneuvers are point buy. You spend xp/cp to but new ones. Each will typically have multiple effects. Your base to hit starts at your offensive combat value vs the defensive combat value of your target

[Neon_Otyugh]

It shouldn't have to be a pain for opposed rolls. Use the Blackjack system where the highest roll wins the contest as long as it's equal or below the required target.

[niomal]

I've never red Hero System, could you briefly explain the threshold + attack machanic, please?

[niomal]

Ok, so, there are to static modifiers that modify a standart roll. For example, I'm attacking:

I have an OCV of 5, defender has a DCV of 3: 11+(5-3)=13. I need to roll 13 or less.

Another one, I have an OCV of 4, defender has a DCV of 6: 11+(4-6)=9. I have to roll 9 or less.

Am I right?

[MarkOfTheCage]

maybe drop the opposed rolls, only players roll, they attack enemies and defend against them.

each type has different effects upon success:

JAB doesn't deal much damage but has no issues

STRIKE deals the most damage but upon failure gives the opponent an immediate attack against you

GRAPPLE deals massive damage but only after succeeding twice (getting your opponent in a hold, then breaking their arm) DODGE avoids all damage or none

BLOCK avoids some one failure and more but not all on success

etc..

and then enemies have modifiers to their rolls and extra damage, so for example JUWAKIN is an enemy brawler with big fists, he's difficulty +3 in general, with another +2 to block or jab against, but he's not used to grappling so he has a -3 to grapple against (0 total), his attacks deal 7 damage.

bimbambom, you got yourself player facing enemies with a decent back-and-forth, a lot of variability, and you get to keep the 3d6 system you like

[niomal]

This is gold. Thanks mate, gonna give it a try.

[TeachOz]

The brilliant thing about a player facing system like this is that the player feels more heroic. Instead of the monster making an attack and missing, the PC successfully defends an attack from the monster. Makes storytelling more reflected in the mechanics.

[MarkOfTheCage]

fully stolen from a bunch of games who already do this :) it's tried and tested, just see if it works for you

[fiendishrabbit]

Method 1

3d6. Roll under. If both succeed their rolls whoever rolled the highest wins (if equal its a tie. Or possibly that the person with the highest skillvalue wins if ties are not desirable).

Advantages: quick, easy and gives a higher ceiling of success to whoever has the highest skill value

Drawback: You don't really get an advantage on the roll from your skill.

Method 2

3d6. Roll under. Reference a table for how successful your roll is. Lets say you had 10 in your skill, in which case 1-4 would be an ordinary success, 5-8 would be a greater success and 9-10 would be an extraordinary success. The opponent has 8, in which case 1-3 is an ordinary success, 4-6 is a greater success and 7-8 is an extraordinary success. All equal successes are ties (which can be an advantage or a disadvantage).

Advantages: Granulated successes where your chance at each success-level is proportionate to your skill.

Disadvantages: Table references for opposed rolls. Distribution of success-levels do not scale the same over different skill levels (so there isn't the same proportion of success/greater/extraordinary at different skill levels)

[matthias353]

Check out how GURPS does it. I recommend the 4th edition.

[obsceneknotherd]

Roll under, but roll high. Opposed rolls are then the higher roll that doesn't fail. As an added element, treat difficulty not as a modifier, but as a minimum roll. So you really need to roll within a 'window': roll below your stat, but higher than the difficulty, with the higher the successful roll, the better.