Bash & Slash RPG beginning

Like so many other grognards, I make house rules for almost every game I play.  This has been applied to ludicrous levels with the solo-RPG "D100 Dungeon".  What I've been playing bears less and less resemblance to the rules as written these days, so I though I would write them down into my own rulebook.  Below are the first three pages, which is as far as I've gotten.  It will end up being much, much longer, as I have been picking up mechanisms and tables from all over.  (Check out "Welcome to the Deathtrap", "Bastionland",  "Goblin Punch", Knave, and Maze Rats for good examples.)

Anyway, here is what I have so far.  It's intended for solo-play dungeoneering, but could easily be expanded to general role play.  Please tell me what you think.

Bash & Slash
A role playing game system by me ( Alpha 0.1, 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 (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.
d20:  A twenty-sided die.
d66:  Roll a d6 twice to select from 36 possible outcomes, labeled 11 through 66.
d100:  Roll a d20 twice, ignoring the tens digits, to select from 100 possible outcomes, labeled 00 through 99.  Or roll two different d10 dice.  Or a d20 and a d10.  Or an actual d100 die.
2d6:  Roll two six-sided dice and add the results together, to get a result between 2 and 12.

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.

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 and enduring hardships.

Attributes can never rise above 20.  Attributes may be temporarily reduced.  If any attribute is reduced to zero, the character dies.  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), the character passes out for d6 hours, or until the attributed is healed to six or better, and that 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 Fortitude (a boost).  [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 4-6, you regain one point.  You may also make a healing test to recover one point to a single reduced Attribute.  Note that resting characters tend to attract wandering monsters.

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

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 an Attribute during skill tests.  Active use of a Boost reduces it by one point (after the use), but can accomplish much more, depending on the nature of the Boost.  Boosts with a value of 0 cannot be used actively.  Active uses only effect actions directly involving that boost, unless otherwise stated.

v  Agility

Ø  Fight:  Use when engaged in melee combat.  Active uses:

§  Reroll the skill test, keeping the better result

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

§  Add its value to melee damage you inflict.

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 certain traps.  Active uses:

§  Reroll the skill test, keeping the better result.

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

§  Subtract its value from non-magic damage you receive (to a minimum of 0).

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

§  Reroll the skill test, keeping the better result.

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

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