Thread: TARAK TALES BACKGROUND THREAD - WORLD MATERIAL (no comments)

Game System Mechanics What I'm going to be doing is basically playing this just like a regular table-top RPG, with characters and dice and all of that. Role-playing will obviate the need for dice in most situations, but where a skill becomes necessary to use, I will be making all necessary rolls as GM. I use the die roller at Random.Org , and the first die of any roll result is the Wild Die, a mechanic explained later. I'm using an adapted form of the d6 rules, as established by West End Games in their now-defunct Star Wars RPG. In that rule system, all possible actions are covered by Skills , and all possible skills fall under one of six Attributes . Attributes are therefore the foundation of the character. All attributes have a certain die code , a number of dice you roll to get a result. Every skill that falls under an attribute uses that attribute's die code as its base. Skills that are developed build up from the attribute die code. That means if your Strength attribute, for example, is 3D, then any skill that falls under Strength is going to be at least 3D without any training. But if you build up a Strength skill, such as Jumping, it can only go higher. All die codes in d6 are expressed as basically how many 6-sided die you roll. The total of the die rolls are added up, and that's your result. High numbers are good, because basically, you're wanting to roll higher than a a set difficulty, or b your opponent's roll. Die codes sometimes have pips , which are extra numbers you add on to the result once you roll it. 3 pips get translated into 1D on the die code. So, the progression would be 2D, 2D1, 2D2, 3D, 3D1, 3D2, 4D, etc. Normal human average attributes are 2D. Human maximum attributes are 4D. Player characters are automatically considered to be heroes, and as such, start off with an overall average of 3D in each attribute. Skills have a minimum of the skill's attribute, and no ultimate maximum there are limits during character creation, but not afterward. Some conventional benchmarks which may be askew for a fantasy setting, but still useful 2D Human average skill. 3D Well-trained. 4D Professional. A mechanic with this level of skill could open a shop, an accountant could go independent, etc. 5D Above-average expertise 6D Considered about the best in a city or geographic area. About 1 in 100,000 people will have training to this skill level. 7D Among the best on a continent. About 1 in 10,000,000 people will have training to this skill level. 8D Among the best on a planet. About 1 in 100,000,000 people will have training to this skill level.listu That's basically how the statistic mechanics and die codes break down. There is also a mechanic called a Wild Die . One die in every roll the first one in the die roller I use is considered the Wild Die. If the Wild Die rolls a 6, the 6 is counted into the total of the roll, and the die is rolled again to add to the total. If it comes up a 6, it's added in and rolled again, and so forth until the first time it comes up anything other than a 6. On the other hand, if the first roll comes up a 1, the 1 is never counted into the total, and the GM me can decide whether the 1 means a penalty in which case the highest die of the rest of the roll is also eliminated, or a complication, which means something happens to complicate the situation. I get to decide what that is. In operation, what happens is, a player will attempt to use a skill whether or not the character has training, they can try just about anything they can think of, and will roll the appropriate number of dice. Let's say the die code is 3D2. The dice would come up 4, 3, 5. The Wild Die did not come up a 1 or a 6, so nothing special happens. 3D43512, 214. The skill roll is therefore 14. This roll is compared to either a pre-set difficulty such as 10 or the opponent's roll let's say your enemy rolled a 12. If your skill roll is higher, you do what you attempted. If it's lower, you fail. Fast and simple. There are several different things that can happen with skills and people, but one of the common and interesting things that bears mentioning is performing multiple actions simultaneously. In each given turn or round or other short unit of time, a character can normally perform one action, like use a weapon. However, they could conceivably attempt to do more than one action, like use a weapon twice, or use a weapon and dodge at the same time, or use a weapon and leap over a gorge, etc. There's a drawback, though for every extra action attempted, there's a -1D penalty for all actions. So, if you take 2 attacks, both of your attack rolls are going to be at -1D. If you try for 3 attacks, all your rolls are going to be at -2D. And so forth. However, if you've got a high enough skill in whatever you are attempting, you can take some die penalties and still have a quite reasonable chance of success, so it's worth knowing about the mechanic. There are three more mechanics of play Hero Points, Evil Points, and Character Points. Hero Points are a special way to make things go well. It comes out of the Star Wars Force Points mechanic, which is when you basically just trust in the Force. For one round, all your character statistics are doubled. So, 4D skills become 8D for that round, for example. The drawback is, you have to do something heroic, or you lose the point. If you're just regularly heroic, you get the point back, but if you're super-heroic, you earn another one. And if you use your Hero Point to do selfishness or evil, you get an Evil Point. All player characters are assumed to be essentially good. Flawed, insane, dangerous, whatever, but in the end working for the right side of things. If you directly counter that, you get an Evil Point , and if you get enough of them, your character goes Evil, and stops being a player character. Evil points are pretty hard to get you have to either use a Hero Point selfishly or for evil, or you have to commit some egregious sin. I'll always warn you when you're courting an Evil Point. Character Points can be spent during play to gain momentary advantage, such as 1D on a given roll, whether attack or defense within limits. Character points are also spent between sessions to increase skills. In short, the die number the 2 in 2D for example is the number of character points needed to bump up to the next pip. That's the thumbnail of the mechanics. More details available via PM or in the actual planning thread, as this is the informational thread.