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Bash & Slash v2 update 2

 Been doing a little more fiddling with this rules set.  I'm still happy with the basic way it works.  I redefined the stone to be 8 pounds ("butcher's stone") to get rid of most of the 1/4 weights, and put coinage back on the decimal scale.

Bash & Slash v2

Attribute or Skill (Level):
None(0).  Unskilled.  Roll with Disadvantage (roll twice and take lowest).
d2(1):  Inept (half a d4 or one third of a d6)
d3(1½):  Novice (half a d6)
d4(2):  Layman
d6(3):  Apprentice
d8(4):  Journeyman
d10(5):  Craftsman
d12(6):  Master

Attributes: When referred to as the first letter or name#, use the (number) value.  When referred to by name, use the die type.  A standard human has a d4 in all attributes.  A grimdark adventurer starts with 1(d2), 2(d3), and 2(d4).  A standard adventurer starts with 1(d3), 3(d4), and 1(d6).  A heroic adventurer starts with 2(d4), 2(d6), and 1(d8).

Skills:  If your characters had useful skills, they wouldn’t be exploring dangerous caves for pennies.  Begin with 4(0), 2(d2), 2(d3), 1(d4), and 1(d6).  Skills can’t be raised higher than two levels above their associated attribute.  An unskilled attempt rolls Attribute with disadvantage (roll twice and take the lowest).  (The combat skills are Fight, Throw, Shoot, and Dodge.  The magic skills are Mana and Moxie.  Grit aids survival.  Strong lets you carry more and hit harder.  Fiddle and Sneak are useful for getting through or avoiding obstacles.)

Attribute (hit on):  Skills:
Agility (1):  Fight, Dodge
Brawn (2-3):  Throw, Strong
Cunning (4):  Shoot, Mana
Deviousness (5):  Fiddle, Sneak
Endurance (6):  Grit, Moxie

Stamina:  B+E+Grit#  (round halves down)

Carry Capacity is by weight in stones.  (A gallon of water = 1,000 coins =  one stone.)  Your carry capacity is 2+B+E+Strong#.  Every stone more that you carry increases your Burden by one, which effectively decreases your Stamina by one.  Most items are carried on your belt or in your pack.  It takes d4 rounds to find something in your pack.  The smallest unit is ¼ stone.

Sweat is how much effort you can make (or how many hits you can avoid) before you start taking real injuries.  When sweat equals (Stamina-Burden), you are exhausted.  Each hit while exhausted is applied randomly to your attributes with a d6 roll (hit on).

 

Test:  Roll Attribute and Skill, take higher, opposed by difficulty (a target number, or the highest result of a die roll).  If player rolls equal to or higher than the difficulty, the test succeeds.  If you beat it with both dice, it is a double success.  If you beat the difficulty by 6 or more, it is an extra success.  If you beat the target by 12 or more, it counts as three extra successes instead of one.

Combat applies successes (hits) to Sweat, or an Attribute (roll randomly for each) if exhausted.  Each time an attribute is reduced, roll the attribute’s new (lower) die – on a one, you forfeit the next round (take no action and make all rolls at Disadvantage).  When an attribute reaches zero, you forfeit your next d3 rounds, and thereafter all its skill tests are made with disadvantage (and no attribute die, of course).  When any attribute goes below zero, roll Grit & Moxie against a difficulty of 4.  If both succeed, character stays on his feet, forfeits the next d6 rounds, and all rolls are at disadvantage until healed.  If one succeeds, character passes out. If both die rolls fail, character dies.  A passed out character dies if he receives any further injury.  At the end of each hour that a character remains passed out, roll a d6:  on 1-2, they die; on 3-5 they remain passed out; on 6, they wake up and will survive, but are exhausted until healed.

Melee Weapon:  Agility & Fight vs/ Fight & Shield, then weapon & Strong vs/ armor
Thrown Weapon:  Brawn & Throw vs/ Dodge & Shield, then weapon vs/ armor
Missile Weapon:  Cunning & Shoot vs/ Shield & Shield, then weapon vs/ armor
Brawl:  Brawn & Strong vs/ Brawn & Strong
Magic:  Cunning & Mana vs/ Mana & Moxie, then check wand and spell effects
Social:  Cunning & Devious vs/ Cunning & Devious, then check Sneak vs/ Moxie

Boosts:  When you really need to succeed, you can sacrifice one level of an attribute or skill to replace its die roll (after the fact) with the roll of a d20.  The level loss remains until the character takes a full rest.  (Only in the room after winning a Boss fight.  Everywhere else is subject to wandering monsters.)  You can also voluntarily damage your weapon, armor, shield, or other item to replace their roll with a d20.  Different items have different amounts of durability before they become useless or break.

Attribute Improvement:  After defeating a boss, the Dungeon will grant both treasure and the chance to improve one attribute.  (Why else would people voluntarily enter trap laden, monster infested dungeons?)  Pick the attribute that you wish to increase, and roll the next higher sized die.  If the result is the highest number of that die, your attribute increases one level.  If not, too bad, better luck next time.  Attributes can at most be raised to a number level equal to the dungeon level plus two.  So, the first dungeon level cannot raise any attribute higher than a d6.

 

Heroic Sacrifice:  If you have a skill or attribute at 0, you can still boost it, even though doing so will probably kill you.  If your skill was reduced to zero, you roll a d12 instead of the usual d20.  If you are untrained in that skill, you roll a d6.  Your fellow adventurers will thank you as they loot your corpse.  ½  ¼  ¾

Armor (weight): Protection                           Shield (weight): Protection
None (-): Roll weapon with advantage.
Improvised (1): d2                                          Bracers (½): d2
Cloth (½): d3                                                  Improvised (1): d3
Leather (1): d4                                                            Buckler (½): d4
Chain Shirt (2): d6                                          Small (1): d6
Mail (4): d8                                                     Medium (1½): d8
Scale/Brigandine (5): d10                               Large (2): d10
Plate (6): d12                                                  Tower (3): d12

Weapon (weight)[durability]:  Damage         underlined may be thrown
None (-):                                                          Roll Strong with disadvantage
Improvised (-)[1]: d2                                      rock, bottle, stick
Light weapons, 1 hand (3/ ¼)[2]: d3              knife, throwing knife, club, dart
Light weapons, 1 hand (¼)[3]:  d4                 dagger, hand axe, hammer, javelin, war club, staff
Medium weapons, 1 hand (½)[5]:  d6                        sword, war hammer, battle axe, mace, spear[3]
Light weapons, 2 hands (½)[3]: d6                 axe, flail, war club, staff
Medium weapons, 2 hands (½)[5]:  d8           long sword, war hammer, battle axe, mace, spear[3]
Heavy weapons, 2 hands (1)[3]:  d10             great sword[4], pole axe, maul(1½), pike
Heavy weapons, 2 hands (1)[3]: d12              halberd
Missile weapons, 2 hands (1)[2]: d4               sling (missile weapon weights include ammunition)
Missile weapons, 2 hands (1)[3]: d6               short bow, staff sling (also counts as a staff)
Missile weapons, 2 hands (1)[3]: d8               long bow, light crossbow (takes one round to load)
Missile weapons, 2 hands (1½)[3]: d10          heavy crossbow (takes two rounds to load)

A poor item rolls two die types lower.  An inferior item rolls one die lower.  A superior weapon rolls one die type higher.  An excellent item rolls two die levels higher.  Anything lower than a d2 grants disadvantage.  Anything higher than a d12 grants advantage.  Yes, an excellent halberd would roll three d12 (four against an unarmored opponent) and take the highest.

If the weapon rolls at least six higher than the armor, the armor takes one point of damage.  If the armor rolls at least six higher than the weapon, the weapon takes one point of damage.  If the difference is 12 or more, the item takes 3 damage instead of just one.  This includes missile weapons, which have strings that fray and break.  An item reduced to 0 durability is useless, but can be repaired.  An item reduced below 0 durability is broken and cannot be repaired.

 

Coinage:  10 copper Copeks (commonly called a penny, plural pence) equal one silver Shilling.  10 shillings equal one gold Guinea.  10 guineas equal one platinum Pound.  10 pounds equal one mithril Mark.  Each coin is scored to be broken into halves or quarters.  A quarter copek is a farthing, and will purchase a half-dozen fresh eggs or a piece of cheese.  A quarter shilling is a groat.  A quarter guinea is a florin.

Learning Skills:  Skills are taught by the Adventurers Guild, for a fee.  Training takes one week.  At the end of the week, roll Cunning.  If the result is anything but a one, you successfully learned the new or higher level of skill.  If you rolled a one, better luck next week.  No refunds.  Note that the Guild will not teach anyone without a prestige at least equal to the skill#.  (1½ (d3) counts as 1 for this purpose.)  You cannot skip skill levels.  You cannot train in more than one skill per week.  You cannot advance a skill# higher than its attribute# plus two.  Example:  You must have a Cunning of 1½(d3) to learn Mana at 3(d6), but cannot yet learn it at 4(d8).

Skill level:        1(d2)   1½(d3)              2(d4) 3(d6)  4(d8)   5(d10)   6(d12)
Cost:                1c        5c          1s       5s        1g        1p          1m

 

Enemies are divided into generic types:  Vermin, Minions, Champions, Bosses, and Villains.  Vermin and minions pass out when exhausted.  Champions take damage to Brawn only.  Bosses have full attributes, but do not use boosts.  Villains are treated as characters.

Goblin:  A(d4) B(d3) C(d3) D(d4) E(d3)  Fight(d4), Throw(d6), Dodge(d4), Strong(d2), Fiddle(d3), Sneak(d4)

Hobgoblin:  A(d3) B(d4) C(d3) D(d4) E(d4)  Fight(d6), Throw(d6), Dodge(d4), Strong (d3), Grit(d2)

Bugbear:  A(d3) B(d6) C(d3) D(d4) E(d6)  Fight(d6), Throw(d4), Dodge(d4), Strong (d6), Grit(d4)

Orc:  A(d4) B(d6) C(d3) D(d3) E(d4)  Fight(d6), Throw(d4), Shoot(d4), Strong(d4), Grit(d6)

Kobold:  A(d6) B(d2) C(d2) D(d3) E(d2)  Fight(d3), Throw(d4), Dodge(d6), Sneak(d6)

Bash&Slash v2 update 1

This rules set is going well, if slowly due to other concerns.  I'm still happy with it, though a bit disappointed that it's not d20 based.  Oh, well.  You follow your nose down the rabbit hole, and you shouldn't be surprised when you encounter strangeness.

I have no idea why the coinage systems seemed so important to detail.  This is intended to be a solo dungeon crawl.  I was originally just going to use "coins".  I'm still not certain if I want to use weight or slots.  With the low starting attribute numbers, using weight in "stones" (16 pounds for simplicity) seems to work well enough, especially when limiting things to 1/2, 1/4, and 1/10.  Weight also includes a measure of bulk.  Note that a starting character with Layman level attributes and no appropriate skills can only carry 4 stone.  A chain shirt (1 stone), a medium shield (3/4 stone) and a spear (1/4 stone) is half of his total carry capacity.

Bash & Slash v2

Attribute or Skill Levels:
Unskilled(0).  Roll with Disadvantage (roll twice and take lowest)
d2(1):  Inept (half a d4 or one third of a d6)
d3(1½):  Novice (half a d6) (round halves up)
d4(2):  Layman
d6(3):  Apprentice
d8(4):  Journeyman
d10(5):  Craftsman
d12(6):  Master

Attributes: When referred to as the first letter or name#, use the (number) value.  When referred to by name, use the die type.  A standard human has a d4 in all attributes.  A grimdark adventurer starts with 1(d2), 2(d3), and 2(d4).  A standard adventurer starts with 1(d3), 3(d4), and 1(d6).  A heroic adventurer starts with 2(d4), 2(d6), and 1(d8).

Skills:  If your characters had useful skills, they wouldn’t be exploring dangerous caves for pennies.  Begin with 4(0), 2(d2), 2(d3), 1(d4), and 1(d6).  Skills can’t be raised higher than two levels above their associated attribute.  An unskilled attempt rolls Attribute with disadvantage (roll twice and take the lowest).

Attribute (hit on):  Skills:
Agility (1):  Fight, Dodge
Brawn (2-3):  Throw, Strong
Cunning (4):  Shoot, Mana
Deviousness (5):  Fiddle, Sneak
Endurance (6):  Grit, Will

Stamina:  B+E+Grit+Will

Carry Capacity is by weight in stones.  (250 coins and the purse they’re in weighs ¼ stone.)  Your carry capacity is B+E+Strong.  Every stone more that you carry increases your Burden by one, which effectively decreases your Stamina by one.  Most items are carried on your belt or in your pack.  It takes d4 rounds to find something in your pack.

Sweat is how much effort you can make (or how many hits you can avoid) before you start taking real injuries.  When sweat equals (Stamina-Burden), you are exhausted.  Each hit while exhausted is applied randomly to your attributes with a d6 roll (hit on).

 

Test:  Roll Attribute and Skill, take higher, opposed by difficulty (a target number, or the highest result of a die roll).  If player rolls equal to or higher than the difficulty, the test succeeds.  If you beat it with both dice, it is a double success.  If you beat the difficulty by 6 or more, it is an extra success.

Combat applies successes (hits) to Sweat, or an Attribute (roll randomly for each) if exhausted.  Each time an attribute is reduced, roll the attribute’s new (lower) die – on a one, you forfeit the next round (take no action and make all rolls at Disadvantage).  When an attribute reaches zero, you forfeit your next d3 rounds, and thereafter all its skill tests are made with disadvantage (and no attribute die, of course).  When any attribute goes below zero, roll Grit & Will against a difficulty of 4.  If both succeed, character stays on his feet, forfeits the next d6 rounds, and all rolls are at disadvantage until healed.  If one succeeds, character passes out. If both die rolls fail, character dies.  A passed out character dies if he receives any further injury.  At the end of each hour that a character remains passed out, roll a d6:  on 1-2, they die; on 3-5 they remain passed out; on 6, they wake up and will survive, but are permanently exhausted until healed.

Melee Weapon:  Agility & Fight vs/ Fight & Shield, then weapon & Strong vs/ armor
Thrown Weapon:  Brawn & Throw vs/ Dodge & Shield, then weapon vs/ armor
Missile Weapon:  Cunning & Shoot vs/ Shield & Shield, then weapon vs/ armor
Brawl:  Brawn & Strong vs/ Brawn & Strong
Magic:  Cunning & Mana vs/ Mana & Will, then check wand and spell effects
Social:  Cunning & Devious vs/ Cunning & Devious, then check Sneak vs/ Will

Enemies (Stamina):  Minions (E), Champions (B+E), drop when out of stamina.  Bosses are treated as characters, but cannot use boosts.  Villains are treated as characters with boosts.

Boosts:  When you really need to succeed, you can sacrifice one level of an attribute or skill to replace its die roll (after the fact) with the roll of a d20.  The level loss remains until the character takes a full rest.  (Only in the room after winning a Boss fight.  Everywhere else is subject to wandering monsters.)  You can also voluntarily damage your weapon, armor, shield, or other item to replace their roll with a d20.  Different items have different amounts of durability before they break and become useless.  (When they reach zero, they roll with disadvantage.  They break when reduced below zero.)

Attribute Improvement:  After defeating a boss, the Dungeon will grant both treasure and the chance to improve one attribute.  (Why else would people voluntarily enter trap laden, monster infested dungeons?)  Pick the attribute that you wish to increase, and roll the next higher sized die.  If the result is the highest number of that die, your attribute increases one level.  If not, better luck next time.  Attributes can at most be raised to a number level equal to the dungeon level plus two.  So, the first dungeon level cannot raise any attribute higher than a d6.

 

Heroic Sacrifice:  If you have a skill or attribute at 0, you can still boost it, even though doing so will probably kill you.  If your skill was reduced to zero, you roll a d12 instead of the usual d20.  If you are untrained in that skill, you roll a d6.  Your fellow adventurers will thank you as they loot your corpse.

Armor (weight): Protection                           Shield (weight): Protection
None (-): Roll weapon with advantage.
Improvised (½): d2                                         Bracers (¼): d2
Cloth (¼): d3                                                  Improvised (½): d3
Leather (½): d4                                               Buckler (¼): d4
Chain Shirt (1): d6                                          Small (½): d6
Mail (2): d8                                                     Medium (¾): d8
Brigandine (3): d10                                         Large (1): d10
Plate (4): d12                                                  Tower (1½): d12

Weapon (weight)[durability]:  Damage         underlined may be thrown
None (-):                                                         Roll Strong with disadvantage
Improvised (-)[1]: d2                                      rock, bottle, stick
Light weapons, 1 hand (⅒)[1]: d3                 knife, baton, throwing knife
Light weapons, 1 hand (⅒)[2]:  d4                dagger, club, hand axe, hammer, dart[1]
Medium weapons, 1 hand (¼)[4]:  d6             sword, war hammer, battle axe, mace, javelin[2]
Medium weapons, 2 hands (¼)[3]: d6            staff, axe, flail
Medium weapons, 2 hands (¼)[5]:  d8           long sword, war hammer, battle axe, mace, spear[3]
Heavy weapons, 2 hands (½)[3]:  d10            pole axe, maul, pike
Heavy weapons, 2 hands (½)[4]: d12             halberd

A poor item rolls two die types lower.  An inferior item rolls one die lower.  A superior weapon rolls one die type higher.  An excellent item rolls two dice levels higher.  Anything lower than a d2 grants disadvantage.  Anything higher than a d12 grants advantage.  Yes, an excellent halberd would roll three d12 (four against an unarmored opponent) and take the highest.

If the weapon rolls at least six higher than the armor, the armor takes one point of damage.  If the armor rolls at least six higher than the weapon, the weapon takes one point of damage.

Coinage:  20 Copeks (commonly called a copper or penny, plural pence) equal one silver Shilling.  20 shillings equal one gold Guinea.  20 guineas equal one platinum Pound.  Twenty pounds equal one mithril Mark.  Each coin is scored to be broken into halves or quarters.  A quarter copek is a farthing.  A quarter shilling is a groat.  A quarter guinea is a florin.

 

B&S v2

OK, so I'm seldom completely satisfied.  B&S started out as a mod of D100 Dungeon, but I really want skill to play a more important role.  So here is version 2, which is almost but not quite completely different.  I'm pleased (for now) with how its going.  Hit points are very low, but most hits only do one point of damage.  I'm really liking how Boosts work in this version.  Decisions are what makes a game.

This is a very rough draft, after about an hour of working on it.  (Edited early the next morning.)

Bash & Slash v2

Attribute or Skill Level:
0: Unskilled:  Roll with Disadvantage.
1: d2:  Novice
2: d4:  Layman
3: d6:  Apprentice
4: d8:  Journeyman
5: d10:  Craftsman
6: d12:  Master

Attributes begin with 2(d4), 2(d6), and 1(d8).  For a greater challenge, start with 3(d4) and 2(d6).  For grimdark, start with 1(d2), 3(d4), and 1(d6).  When referred to as the first letter or name#, use the number value.  When referred to by name, use the die type. 

Skills begin with four at 0, three at 1(d2), two at 2(d4), and one at 3(d6).  Skills can’t be raised higher than two levels above their associated attribute.  An unskilled attempt rolls Attribute with disadvantage (roll twice and take the lowest).

Attribute (hit on):  Skills:
Agility (1):  Fight, Dodge
Brawn (2-3):  Throw, Strong
Cunning (4):  Shoot, Mana
Deviousness (5):  Fiddle, Sneak
Endurance (6):  Grit, Will

Stamina:  B+E+Grit+Will

Carry Capacity is by stones.  Your carry capacity is B+E+Strong.  Every stone more that you carry increases your Burden by one, which effectively decreases your Stamina by one.

Sweat is how much effort you can make (or how many hits you can avoid) before you start taking real injuries.  When sweat equals (Stamina-Burden), you are exhausted.  Each hit while exhausted is applied randomly to your attributes with a d6 roll.

Test:  Roll Attribute and Skill, take higher, opposed by difficulty (a target number, or the highest result of a die roll).  If player rolls equal to or higher than the difficulty, the test succeeds.  If you beat it with both dice, it is a double success.  If you beat the difficulty by 4, it is an extra success.  If you beat it by 8, it is three extra successes.

Combat applies successes (hits) to Sweat, or an Attribute if exhausted.  Each time an attribute is reduced, roll the attribute’s new (lower) die – on a one, you forfeit the next round (take no action and make all rolls at Disadvantage).  When an attribute reaches zero, you forfeit your next d3 rounds, and thereafter all its rolls are made with Disadvantage.  When any attribute goes below zero, roll Grit & Luck against a difficulty of 4.  If both succeed, character stays on his feet, forfeits the next d6 rounds, and all rolls are at disadvantage until healed.  If one succeeds, character passes out for d6 hours.  If a passed out character receives further injury or is not medically treated by the end of the time, he dies. If both die rolls fail, character dies.

Melee Weapon:  Agility & Fight vs/ Fight & Shield, then weapon & Strong vs/ armor
Thrown Weapon:  Brawn & Throw vs/ Dodge & Shield, then weapon vs/ armor
Missile Weapon:  Cunning & Shoot vs/ Shield & Shield, then weapon vs/ armor
Brawl:  Brawn & Strong vs/ Brawn & Strong
Magic:  Cunning & Mana vs/ Mana & Grit, then check spell effect

Enemies(Stamina):  Minions(B), Champions(B+E), drop when out of stamina.  Bosses are treated as characters, but cannot use boosts.  Villains are treated as characters with boosts.

Boosts:  When you really need to succeed, you can sacrifice one level of an attribute or skill to replace its die roll (after the fact) with the roll of a d20.  The level loss remains until the character takes a full rest.  (Only in the room after winning a Boss fight.  Everywhere else is subject to wandering monsters.)  You can also voluntarily damage your weapon, armor, or shield to replace their roll with a d20.  Different items have different damage thresholds before they break and become useless.  (When they are on their final point before breaking, they roll with Disadvantage.)

 

6.8 Western cartridge

 The 6.8 Western (.277) round is intended for long range hunting.  If that's your thing, then by all means, go for it.  It make perfect sense to have a hard hitting, flat shooting round when hunting elk from one ridgeline to another.  With an OAL of 2.995, it fits in a short action, so the rifles built for it can be a tad lighter.

The 6.8 Western is, in reality, the .270 WSM cartridge with the shoulders pushed back, the neck stretched, and a chambering optimized for longer, heavier bullets.  It holds a bit less powder than the WSM, but the longer, higher BC bullets drop less and are deflected by the wind less.  At ranges over about 200 yards, bullets fired from the 6.8W are actually outpacing those of its parent cartridge.  This makes them better for both hunting and long range target shooting.  The slight reduction in recoil won't hurt, either.

Is it better than the venerable .270 Winchester?  Yes.  Yes, it is.  Is it worth getting?  That's entirely up to you.  If you like your .270, you can keep your .270.

Thoughts on armor (B&S)

 I'm not satisfied with the armor defense mechanism I laid out in the previous post.  It is too complex.  Simple is good.  That was not simple.  So, what are my options?

• Armor makes you harder to hit, like D&D.  That's been done to death.  It is simple, but I don't like it.  One, it's completely unrealistic. (In a game with dungeons full of random monsters and piles of gold coins sitting around.)  Second, I already have a skill die and a tool die at work in the to-hit system, in addition to the roll-high-under d20.  That's three dice per side, without considering (dis)advantage adding to the count.  I only have so many sets of dice to play with.
  
  
• Armor is a fixed value that subtracts from the die roll.  I don't like this because it makes heavy armor completely knife proof.  I also have as a design goal minimizing the math applied to the dice.  There's enough math happening on the character sheet.  And I really don't like the feeling of a successful roll being cancelled by a negative modifier.  Nobody like that.  Blame the dice, not the game, for your misfortune.
  
  
• Armor is a random value that subtracts from the damage.  That's better, but I still want to minimize the math.  And subtraction is just slower than addition for some reason.
  
  
• What I have currently - armor causing disadvantage to the damage die.  It's clunky and may require more dice than I'm really comfortable with.
  
  
• Armor reduces the size of your damage die.  This has real possibilities, but may require a bit more thinking than I really want to handle a die roll.  I know I've seen this mechanic somewhere, but I can't remember where.
  
  
• I'm sure there are other possibilities, but these are what first came to mind.

So, what to do?  I like the opposed rolls, as long as they don't over-complicate the game and slow it down.  Rolling two dice is almost as fast as rolling one, as long as there is no math involved.  And it does occasionally allow a dagger to get through plate armor.  I know - if the weapon die is higher, you take the full value.  If the armor is equal or higher, you take nothing.  That works - but it's still unsatisfying.  After feeling the high of a successful to-hit, I really want to see the payoff of dealing some damage.  And there is no way of dealing a single point of damage to a target in armor.

Howe about this - if the armor wins (or ties), the weapon still does one point of damage.  Getting pounded on hurts and bruises, and that is wearying.  I like it!  A successful to-hit always does some damage.

Now, what values to use for the armor?  I'm currently leaning towards having leather armor (thick hide or fur) being the baseline.  Anything more than that will have a larger and larger die type.  So here is the chart (Edited 3/6/2021):

• Bare skin:  Roll damage with advantage.  It's dangerous out there in the dungeon, and people are soft and squishy.
• Padded/cloth:  No sane person ever wore this into battle if he had any other choice.  It's what you wear under your armor.  But it does keep you from being more easily injured.
• Leather:  d2(d4), burden 1.
• Chain shirt:  d4(d6), burden 2.  It's good, but leaves a lot exposed.
• Mail:  d6(d8), burden 3.  It covers the entire body in three main pieces (chausse (pants with feet, like some pajamas), hauberk (long shirt), and coif (hood)), except the face.  Walking on mail had to be an interesting experience.  Every armor type better than this is basically adding more on top.
• Brigandine:  d8(d10), burden 4.  Relatively inexpensive and looks good.  Scale is the similar, but with small plates on the outside instead of larger plates on the inside.  And you look like a fish.
• Laminar:  d10, burden 5(4).  Looks great on Roman soldiers (lorica segmentata).
• Plate:  d12, burden 6(5).  In reality, plate weighs less.  But it isn't all that flexible, and there has to be some sort of in-game drawback.

If you aren't wearing a solid metal helmet, your armor is at disadvantage.

Armor must compare to weapons.

dagger=d4 (light)

sword=d6 (medium)

long sword=d8 (medium used 2 handed)

great sword=d10 (heavy, 2 handed)

halberd=d12 (polearm, 2 handed)

Should damage use the 'exploding dice' mechanic?  If you roll the maximum value on your die, you roll another, and subtract one from the total.  Repeat if you keep rolling high, you cheater.  (I've seen a single d6 do 21 points of damage this way.)

B&S combat rough draft 1

 Here is the rough draft of the Bash and Slash combat system, version (I have no idea, but let's call it one, since it's the first one to get written down).  I think it will work.  A few test rolls yesterday showed promise.  Needs a better write-up and more testing.  Remember, tests are roll under attribute+boost, and you want to roll higher than you opponent.  You also need to roll higher than his defense.  Combat is simultaneous.

Oh, yeah, I forget about multiple opponents.  If fighting 2-3, they gain advantage on the test.  If fighting 4-6, you suffer disadvantage on the test, and they gain advantage on the damage roll.  No more than 6 opponents can face you at a time.  They'll just have to wait their turn.

I like the off-hand dagger rule.  Although never really used in combat by any sensible and prepared person, it is a staple of the fantasy genre.

Oh, shoot.  Size.  Small targets suffer from advantage to the damage die when hit (and disadvantage to the test).  Large targets benefit from disadvantage to the damage die when you hit them (and advantage to the test).  Very Small = 2ADV (2D test, pesky mosquitoes!), Very Large = 2DIS (2A test - how can you miss the enormous thing?)  That way, pixies can have have more than one stamina, and dragons don't need to have 100 stamina.

Combat

Melee combat:  Opponents attack each other simultaneously.  The highest successful melee test (Agility + Melee) wins, but the die roll must also exceed the highest defense die.  In case of a tie, both combatants hit and damage each other.  If you are unarmed, you test with disadvantage and use dodge instead of melee.

Defense dice:  Melee (or Dodge) level die size (1=d4, 2=d6, 3=d8, 4=d10, 5=d12)
                        Shield (off=hand dagger= d4 in melee only, Small=d6, Medium=d8, Large=d10)

Damage:  Roll the die for your weapon, along with your skill die type.  Add Strong to the better roll.  Armor affects this as follows:
            Armor (Burden)                        Damage roll
            None (0)                                  Weapon die has Double Advantage
            Fur/Pelt/Cloth (0)                     Weapon die has Advantage
            Light (1)                                   Standard rolls
            Medium (3)                              Weapon die has Disadvantage
            Heavy (5)                                 Weapon die has Double Disadvantage

Weapon damage dice:  Fists (d2), Improvised (d3), Light (d4), Standard (d6), Standard (2 hands or charging) (d8), Heavy (d10), Heavy (charging) (d12)

Thrown weapon combat:  Attacker rolls to hit, defender rolls to dodge.  The attacker has to succeed on his roll (≤ [Agility + Throw]), but be higher than both the defender’s Dodge and Shield dice rolls.  Thrown weapons do benefit from the Strong damage boost.

            Range:              Close               Near                Far      
            Roll:                 standard           DIS                  N/A

Missile weapon combat:  Attacker rolls to hit, defender rolls to dodge.  The attacker has to succeed on his roll (≤ [Cunning + Shoot]), but be higher than both the defender’s Dodge and Shield dice rolls.  Missile weapons do benefit from the Strong damage boost, but only at Close and Near targets.

            Range:              Close               Near                            Far      
            Roll:                 2DIS                standard                       DIS

An off-hand dagger in melee acts as a d4 shield, and increases a primary light weapon attack to d6.  The off-hand dagger does not get to make a separate attack.

B&S RPG part 2

 Bash & Slash RPG part 2 - The Bloatening

Aaaannnnd the bloat has already set in.  This is intended to be a solo dungeon crawl, but I keep trying to build in general role playing capabilities.  These don't work in a solo crawl - there isn't anybody else to save you.  

Good things are never easy.  Especially when I keep changing my mind about little details like how the combat system works.  I want armor shields to be important, maybe as important as the combatant's skill.   But armor has to actually do something.  So do shields reduce your chance to be hit, or reduce your chance to be injured after a successful hit?  Do I have detailed armor, or generic "light/medium/heavy"?  Same thing for weapons.  Do I build in the difference between bash/slash/poke, or just give certain weapons an armor piercing ability?  That sounds easier, now that I write it down.  Speaking of armor piercing - swords simply don't do well at that.  That's why armor was invented, after all.  Then why would anybody ever use a sword?  Because no hand weapon does more damage to unarmored flesh, that's why.  And they're the absolute best at parrying other weapons, to keep you from getting cut.  But does any of this really matter in a (hopefully) simple dungeon crawl?

Speaking of bloat - I already have two different systems to track encumbrance - by weight and by slots.  Only need one of these, and slots is probably the better idea.  Either would work, I guess, but I like the idea of having to know where everything is, and digging around in your pack (or, heaven help you, in a big sack) to find the thing you're desperately looking for while the giant spider approaches.

Simple is hard.  Complicated is easy.  Concise is hard.  Verbose is easy.  Genre focus is proving to be harder than I thought.

All that being said, here's the current WIP.  I am certain that there will be massive changes before I'm satisfied with it.

Bash & Slash
A role playing game system by me (Alpha 0.2, MAR 2021)

Definitions

Skill Test (lower = better):  Roll a d20, and you succeed if the result is less than or equal to an Attribute plus an optional Boost.  A roll of 20 (19 or 20 for a disfavored Attribute) is a critical failure, and your character loses one point of Stamina.

Boost Test (lower = better):  Roll a d6, and you succeed if the result is less than or equal to the value of the Boost.  A roll of 6 always fails.

Opposed Test (high under):  A skill test against an active opponent.  Both sides roll a skill test, and the higher successful result wins.  In case of a tie, both sides succeed.

Effort Check (higher = better):  Roll one (or more) dice and take the result.  This is mostly used for damage rolls, but also for some tasks that will take extended effort to accomplish. 

Advantage (ADV):  Roll an extra die, and discard the worst result.  May be abbreviated as an “A” following a die roll type, as in “d6A”.

Disadvantage (DIS):  Roll an extra die, and discard the best result.  May be abbreviated as a “D” following a die roll type, as in “d20D”.

Advantage and Disadvantage cancel each other on a one-for-one basis.  Advantages and Disadvantages stack, to a limit of two.  Double advantage (2ADV) means roll two extra dice, and discard the worst two.  Double disadvantage (2DIS) means roll two extra dice, and discard the best two.  Examples:  d20A:  Roll two twenty-sided dice and keep the best.  d6DD:  Roll three six-sided dice and keep only the worst.  3d6A:  Roll four six-sided dice, discard the lowest, and add the higher three together.

Middling (MID):  Roll three dice and discard the highest and lowest.  May be abbreviated as an “M” following a die roll type, as in “d6M”.

d6:  A six-sided die.
d3:  A six sided die, with the result halved.  When halving a number, always round up.
d66:  Roll a d6 twice to select from 36 possible outcomes, labeled 11 through 66.
2d6+1:  Roll two six-sided dice, add the results together, then add one.

A Scene is a full encounter.  It includes local exploration, dealing with traps, fighting monsters, picking locks, gathering treasure, etc.  In general, one room in a dungeon is a single scene.

Distance is measured relative to you or your target.  Intimate is wrestling and whispering range.  Close is melee and talking range.  Near is thrown weapons and shouting range.  Far is missile weapons and whistling range.  Distant is only within the range of siege weapons and bagpipes.

Character Creation

The five Attributes your character has are:

            Agility (AGL):  Melee combat, dodging, and acrobatics.
            Brawn (BRN):  Lifting, carrying, brawling, intimidating, and taking damage.
            Cunning (CNG):  Magic, shooting, healing, and crafting.
            Deviousness (DEV):  Manipulating, sneaking, and noticing.
            Endurance (END):  Stamina, general health, and luck.

Attributes can never rise above 20.  Attributes may be temporarily reduced.  If any attribute is reduced to zero, the character may die.  Whenever an attribute is reduced to 5 or less, test it with a d6.  If the test fails (the result is higher than the attribute), their Stamina is reduced to one, their Sweat is maxed out, they pass out for d6 hours, and the affected attribute is permanently reduced by one. 

Pick two attributes to favor.  They have a value of 10.  Mark them with a “+”. Pick one attribute to disfavor.  It has a value of 8.  Mark it with a “-“.  The other two attributes have a value of 9.

Stamina:  How much physical effort your character can perform without becoming exhausted.  Your character’s base Stamina is equal to your Endurance plus Grit and Luck (boosts, discussed later).  [For more epic adventuring, add half your Brawn.] 

Sweat:  Hard work (like melee combat) is exhausting.  Sweat is used in place of traditional “hit points” to avoid deadly damage, to power spells, and enable mighty feats of daring.  Sweat recovers quickly, returning to zero at the end of each scene.  When sweat equals Stamina, reduce your Stamina by one, and any additional sweat is applied randomly to your Attributes as damage. 

Roll:                1          2-3       4          5          6
            Attribute:        AGL    BRN    CNG   DEV    END

Rest:  Your character can go Stamina hours without rest or food.  If you do not stop to eat and rest for an hour after that many hours, you are exhausted and gain one burden each additional hour you go without rest.  (Attempting to rest after fewer than half that many hours has no effect.)  When your character takes an hour to rest and eat, Sweat is reduced to zero and all Stamina is restored.  For each reduced Boost, roll a d6.  On a 1-2, you regain one point.  You may also make a healing test to recover one point to a single reduced Attribute or to eliminate a poison.  Note that resting characters tend to attract wandering monsters, who are attracted to the smell of the cheese you’re eating.

 

 

Burden:  How wearying your character’s existence has become.  Carrying a heavy load, wearing armor, illness, adventuring too long without rest, or being cursed all add to your burden.  At the beginning of each scene, increase your sweat by your burden.

Carry Capacity (CC) in stones is Brawn plus Strong (a boost).  [For more epic adventuring, add half your Endurance.]  If you carry too much, your Burden increases and you may suffer disadvantage on all skill tests.  You cannot carry more than 10 stone more than your capacity.

Load:               ≤ CC               ≤ CC+3           ≤ CC+6           ≤ CC+8           ≤ CC+10
Burden:           0                      1                      3                      6 + DIS            10 + 2DIS

Containers:  Since your character probably only has two hands, most items have to be carried in various containers.  You can strap one very large or two large items to your poor, aching back.  Pants pockets have not yet been invented, and would be hidden under your armor, anyways.  Other containers are listed below.  It takes one round to find any particular item in a pouch, 1d3 rounds to retrieve something from a purse or backpack, and 1d6 rounds to find and extricate what you’re looking for in a bag or sack.

·         A purse is a very small item, and can carry up to 1000 tiny items (like coins and gems).

·         A pouch is a small item, and can carry 6 very small items.  A pouch full of purses full of coins weighs ½ stone.

·         A pocket on a robe or vest counts as a pouch.

·         A belt can carry 6 small items and one medium one.  You can wear up to two belts.

·         A backpack can carry 20 small items and 6 medium ones.  You can only wear one backpack.

·         A bag is carried in one hand, and has the same carry capacity as a backpack.

·         A sack is lugged in two hands, and can carry 100 small items and 20 medium ones, along with either one very large item or six large ones.

Death:  When an attribute reaches zero, the character may die.  Test your Luck boost.  If you succeed (the roll is ≤ Luck), your character will remain unconscious for 2d20 hours, then awaken with a score of one in that attribute.  If the test fails, your character will die in 1d6 rounds unless magically healed.  If your character survives, the affected attribute will be permanently reduced by 1d3+1 and your Luck will be permanently reduced by one (to no less than zero).

Boosts:  Your character can learn tricks to improve their performance at various tasks.  Boosts are associated with specific Attributes.  Boosts are used passively to increase the Attribute during skill tests.  Active use of a Boost reduces it by one level (after the use), but can accomplish incredible things, depending on the nature of the Boost.  Boosts with a value of 0 cannot be used actively, as their value cannot drop below 0 or rise above 5.  (You can still take that sort of action by rolling an Attribute test.  You just gain no additional benefits.)  Active uses only affect actions directly involving that boost, unless otherwise stated.  The effects of active uses do not require a test unless otherwise stated.  Each boost may recover a single level during a rest on a d6 roll of 1-2.

 

v  Generic

Ø  All Boosts have the following two active uses:

§  Reroll the skill test, keeping the better result.

§  Add its value to the die roll of a test you have succeeded at.  This can help you win an opposed test by having a higher final result than your opponent.

v  Agility

Ø  Fight:  Use when engaged in melee combat.  If you are unarmed, test with disadvantage.  Active use:

§  Defend a close ally by forcing their opponent to fight you instead.

§  Add a die to your melee damage, based on its current level:

1: d4    2: d6    3: d8    4: d10  5: d12

Ø  Dodge:  Use when avoiding dangerous flying objects.  When fighting defensively, add Dodge to Fight, but you cannot deal damage to your opponent.  Also useful for avoiding some traps.  Active use:

§  Reduce any non-magic damage you receive (to a minimum of 0), based on its level:

1: d4    2: d6    3: d8    4: d10  5: d12

Ø  Acrobatics:  Use creatively to climb, jump, swing, or generally move over, under, around, past, through, or away from obstacles and threats.  Active use:

§  Grant a swashbuckling Advantage to any Agility or Brawn based test you have not yet rolled.

 

v  Brawn

Ø  Brawl:  Use to intimidate or to have a good old time wrasslin’ a bear.  Active uses:

§  Disarm an opponent.  This requires a d6 check.  If their weapon is two handed, this check has Disadvantage.  If you fail, you still complete the act, but take d3 damage.

§  Trip, push, or otherwise manhandle an opponent.  If they are armed, this requires a d6 check.  If you fail, you still complete the act, but take d3 damage.

Ø  Strong:  Use to lift and carry, open stuck doors, and hit things harder.  Passively adds its level to melee damage and all Brawn based effort checks.  Active use:

§  Add a die to melee damage or a Brawn based effort check, based on its current level:

1: d4    2: d6    3: d8    4: d10  5: d12

Ø  Throw:  Use to throw missile weapons, like spears, darts, and stones.  Also applies to tossing opponents out of the tavern window.

§  Add a die to thrown weapon damage, based on its current level:

1: d4    2: d6    3: d8    4: d10  5: d12

 

 

v  Cunning

Ø  Shoot:  Shooting a bow or crossbow, using a sling, or aiming spells.  Active use:

§  Ignore any distance and/or low light penalties.  If you are shooting into total darkness at a target you have some means of knowing is there, you can still try, but with disadvantage (2DIS if the target is far).

§  Add a die to your missile damage, based on its current level:

1: d4    2: d6    3: d8    4: d10  5: d12

Ø  Heal:  Non-magical healing.  A successful test while resting can restore a single point to one attribute, or you may eliminate a single poison.  A Healer’s Kit will grant advantage on this test.  Active uses:

§  Reduce subject’s Sweat to zero. Restore their Stamina according to your Heal level:

1: d4    2: d6    3: d8    4: d10  5: d12

§  Immediately awaken a person who has passed out (this can’t be you).  Their Sweat is reduced to 1d3.  Restore their Stamina according to your Heal level:

1: d4    2: d6    3: d8    4: d10  5: d12

Ø  Craft:  Create or repair items.  Requires appropriate tools and materials, along with hours, days, or weeks of effort.  Active use:

§  Quickly repair one point of damage to any single item.  If attempted without basic tools (sometimes duct tape really is enough!), this use must pass a Cunning test.  If the test fails, the item receives an additional point of damage instead.

Ø  Brew:  Brew beer and other magic potions.  Active use:

§  Drink part of a potion without using it up.  You gain the full benefit of the potion, and it is still available for later use.

Ø  Mana:  Spells cannot be cast without Mana.  When a spell is miscast, reduce your Mana by one.  Active uses:

§  Double the radius or duration of any spell.

§  Force spell resistance checks to be made with disadvantage.

§  Add a die to magical effort, based on its current level.

1: d4    2: d6    3: d8    4: d10  5: d12

 

 

v  Deviousness

Ø  Con:  Talk people into doing things that they probably shouldn’t.  The target being inebriated grants you advantage.  Also used for making disguises.  Active use:

§  Fake your way in an unknown language for a brief, simple conversation with lots of arm gestures.

Ø  Fiddle:  Convince objects that they’d prefer to be in a different shape, position, or place.  Like how that purse should be in your hand instead of the mark’s pouch.  Also remarkably handy for getting through locked doors and past traps.  Active use:

§  Improvise a trick that will delay or damage an opponent.  The delay or damage are determined by its level:

1: d4    2: d6    3: d8    4: d10  5: d12

Ø  Sneak:  The ability to be and act unnoticed.  Handy for getting close enough to that mark with the pouch full of fat purses, or sneaking past the guards.  Active use:

§  Add a die to your melee or thrown weapon damage, based on its current level:

1: d4    2: d6    3: d8    4: d10  5: d12

Ø  Notice:  Pay attention, especially to your sixth (danger) sense.  Active use:

§  Grant advantage to any Deviousness based test or check not yet rolled.

 

v  Endurance

Ø  Grit:  Work through the pain and nausea.  This Boost adds to Stamina.  Active uses:

§  Restore 1d3 Stamina and reduce Sweat to zero.

Ø  Luck:  Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.  This Boost adds to Stamina.  Its generic active uses can be used to aid any action your character makes.  Active uses:

§  Force an opponent to reroll any test or check, keeping the worst result.  This includes damage rolls.

§  Subtract its value from the die roll of a test your opponent has succeeded at.  This can help you win an opposed test by having a higher final result than your opponent.

§  Cause an opponent to “accidentally” make a melee attack against one of his allies instead of against you or your allies.  This requires a d6 check.  If it fails, the target takes no action.

§  Allow an ally to make any test or check not yet rolled with advantage.

§  Make any test or check (not yet rolled) of your own with double advantage.