Super fast RPG setup

[mainsworthy]

SUPER FAST SETUP RPG RULES

When a side has the initiative they can do tasks or do maneuvers. you normaly use maneuvers, but if you want to do something not covered in the manovours like climbing a wall ,or tieing up a captive, or picking a lock, or hiding, or persuading a guard to let you pass, or setting a trap, anything RPG like would be what you would use task check for, the maneuvers are mainly for movement and combat.

skills are built into the STATS (in a fantasy game they would be STR strength, MIND wisdom,INT inteligence, CHA charisma,DEX dexsterity, SAV save) the stats represent an average charactor or monster etc... each class has an average set of STATS, you select one from a list or create a charactor by rolling a D6 for each stat a roll of 1 =-3 ,a roll of 2 =-2,a roll of 3 =-1,a roll of 4 =1,a roll of 5 =2, a roll of 6=3 the idea is each PC or NPC has no setup for fast play.


STATS are in a range from -3 to +3 so a strong barbarian may be STR +2


each charactor does not have a paper charactor sheet instead has a set of D6s representing its stats, the D6s should be differrent colors.for each stat a 1 =-3 ,a 2 =-2,a 3 =-1,a 4 =1,a 5 =2, a 6=3 , you would have one page command sheet with a list of your units and the stats D6s placed next to the name in the list


The Difficulty of all tasks or Save, you only roll a D20 + relavant STAT + a D4 roll , you MUST apply a STAT! the STAT maybe plus or negative BUT you still use it.

Very easy (0) see something big in plain sight
Easy (5) Climb a rope
Average (10) Hear someone approaching
Tough (15) craft a trap
Challenging (20) Swim a river
Formidable (25) Pick a lock
Heroic (30) Leap across a wide chasm
Nearly impossible (40) Track an enemy over rock


as you play the game you gain rewards of increased STATS, you rotate your D6 for the relavant D6 to a maximum of 6(=+3)

also as you play you suffer penalties like getting hit, you rotate your D6 for the relavant D6 to a minimum of 1(=-3). Hit points are not included instead if all your D6s get reduced to 2 or 1 you are dead.

failing a task may cause you to take STAT damage like falling while climbing.

You may also be rewarded by tasts like finding treasure like armor & increasing your stat d6s so STR would have 2 D6s for a maximum of +6 in that STAT

whenever you do a task you must roll a d10, if you get a zero you lose initiative.


MANEUVER RULES
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There are two catagories of units, Combat units & Leaders, you can have any type of unit in the combat catagory, but you can only have a foot or cavalry unit in the Leaders catagory(leaders cant use ranged weapons).
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a cobat unit attacks with a D10, you can add more d10s to the attack for certain things, but you only choose one for the combat effect, so if you rolled 3 D10s because your on a hill and are elite, then you roll 3 d10s and choose witch one to use. you get d8 or a d6 for a d4 or negative number of combat d10s
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if you get into a negative number of d10s, negative 1 you go to a d8, negative 2 you got to a d6, negative 3 you got to a d4, the list of results gets smaller increasing the possability of losing iniative
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each d10 combat roll has a differrent effect,
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1 lose initiative, play passes to other side
2 Your Unit is badly hit reduce 2 of your D6 STAT dice by 2
3 Your Unit is hit reduce 1 of your D6 STAT dice by 2
4 Your unit pushed back 12 inches
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1D4 line (negative 3 dice)
5 Your unit pushed back 1 inch
6 You remain locked in Melee, you may continue turn, or reattack
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1D6 line (negative 2 dice)
7 Foe pushed back 1 inch
8 Foe pushed back 12 inches
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1D8 line (negative 1 dice)
9 Foe is hit reduce 1 of its D6 STAT dice by 2
0 Foe is badly hit reduce 2 of its D6 STAT dice by 2

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each leader can roll a d6 to aid an attack or to help defend a unit, if leader is in a 12 inch range, only one leader per side may
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participate in a attack, but may participate in as many attack that occure in range.
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each d6 Leader roll has a differrent effect,
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1 lose initative, play passes to other side
2 add an attack dice to an attack roll
3 stop a 1 inch pushback
4 stop a 12 inch pushback
5 remove a dice from attack
6 remove two dice from attack
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the game is played by initiative, whoever has it can move and attack, but the other side can roll for leaders in each attack, or fire ranged units at any moving unit, ranged units can fire every time a unit moves BUT only with one attack dice. When a unit moves it must roll a D10 on a zero you lose the initiatve
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a combat foot unit has 3 types light , medium, heavy. Light is just hand weapons like daggers & bows, swords or axes, Medium are pikes or spears, Heavy catapults etc..
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Light combat units can move 12 inches.
Medium 8 inches
heavy 4 inches
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a combat cavalry unit has 2 types light , heavy. Light is just hand weapons like bows, swords or axes, Heavy are lances or spears.
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Light cavalry combat units can move 18 inches.
Heavy cavalry combat units 12 inches
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each attack or leader combat roll has a base dice , plus or minus dice for advantages or disadvantages.
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A cavalry combat base roll is one d10 against other cavalry units(but against foot a cavary unit can charge and gain 6 inches movement and light cavalry use two combat dice, Heavy get three combat dice)
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a foot unit has one d10 as a base combat roll, plus or minus dice for differrent thigs. negative number of dice goes to a d8 , to a d6, and a d4
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elite plus one d10
enemy elete minus one d10
on a hill plus one d10
attacking uphill minus one d10
pike against cavary plus one d10 (no d10 for ranged fire against cavary)
defender in trees minus one d10
defender behind cover minus one d10.
if attacker is Medium combat units you get an extra combat d10
if attacker is heavy combat units you get an extra two combat d10
if defender is Medium combat units you minus a combat d10
if defender is heavy combat units you minus a combat d10
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ranges of ranged weapons
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bow medium
crossbow short
pistol short
musket long
spear short
sling short
catapult extra long
very short 4 inches
short 7 inches
medium 11 inches
long 15 inches
extra long 20 inches
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if any unit moves into difficult terrain it must stop, then next time it moves at half speed untill it leaves the terrain.
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Notes
cavalry may not charge in forests
cavalry may not charge if defender is behind cover
cavary may not attack over hard cover
any roll that loses initative, does lose initiative, you dont get to choose a differrent die, so a 1 on a d10 d8 or d6 will lose iniative.
if a ranged unit fires while an enemy is moving, or in a combat attack BUT its not in close range of an enemy and gets an attacker killed result, you ignore it as a miss.
if a unit is in base to base combat & loses the initiative, then the unit step apart 2inches.
every combat roll has a minimum of a base dice which happens to be a d4 for negative 3, so negative thrree(d4) is the minimum combat roll
when you move into contact with the enemy you must roll for combat
if you dont have any d8s use all d10s(minimum of one d10 per combat roll)
if your using GUNs then you can attack with a GUN just like a sword in melee, you still get to fire when opponant moves.
chariots are classed as heavy, and attack like a mounted & can charge but movement is 12 inches 18 when charging, they are spear or bow,
if a figure is in base contact with a vehicle it can enter it as part of its movement, it can exit into base contact at then end of the vehicle move
if a unit enters dificult ground, movement is quartered.

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[mainsworthy]

I thought you would like a response I got from someone about this

. "This is pretty interesting! I like the idea of using the dice to generate and record the stats, and using the stats to record changes to the status of the character. I also think its creative to have equipment as an extra die that is 'added' to a stat (at least if this IS what you mean by the 'treasure like armor' example)

I presume a tough monster might have multiple dice for its key stats (e.g. a big monster might have multiple STR dice), and all would have to be reduced.

Leaving out rules for combat is a little bit cheeky, given their centrality in most RPGs! I'd be curious to see how you intended that to go.

My main concern with the system is with the resolution mechanic:
- the d20 seems dwarf the stats - why bother recording stats in the range +/- 1-3 if you're going to add 1d20 to them? They don't seem to make much practical difference to the odds.
- likewise the differences between difficulty levels the maximum range for a human is +/-3, which is only one difficulty band on your current scale.
- so I think you need to either a) increase the range of the basic stats; or b) use a smaller die than 1d20, with narrower difficulty bands.
- finally, I don't see why you are adding 1d4 to the main 1d20 roll; unless this extra die has a special function you haven't described, you might almost as easily leave it out and adjust all the Target Numbers by 2-3 points.

I'm curious why you score the stats at +/-3 rather than just counting them at the face value of the (i.e. 1-6). What is the benefit of that to outweigh the awkwardness of translating every number you read from the dice and working with negative numbers? And do you see a special benefit in NOT having a way to represent a STAT of 0?

If you feel you really need negative stat scores, the dice might be a bit easier to read if the scores 1-3 on the dice corresponded to scores 1-3 of the stats, and you read 4-6 as the negative numbers. Or you could have custom dice...

You might streamline things even further by giving NPCs/ monsters a smaller set of stats. Depending on the style of game, a lot of monsters might e.g. need only Size and Skill. Why use 6 dice to represent a critter that will only ever appear in one combat scene? A minor NPC might not need ANY stats, if it is in a non-combat role. Or just a single STR score, so it can fight if need be.

Having said all of this, the dice system seems most useful for one-shot games or transient NPCs. If a character is going to appear in another session, its scores will have to be written down anyway... "