The Rules Skeleton

Reading awesome games like Mork Borg, Shadowdark RPG, and the upcoming Mythic Bastionland from Bastionland Press I find it hard not to come away inspired and full of ideas for games of my own.

I’d love to have a rules system to go with my Scottish-mythology-inspired setting, The Legends of Alba. I’m running it in D&D 5E, which is working just fine, but it's the tool that came to hand, not the right one for the job. There are more rules here than I need. A lot more! On the player-facing side alone, the Character Creation rules in the 5E Player’s Handbook run to 162 pages. Troika! handles Character Creation in a tight 38 pages while Into The Odd covers it in just 7 pages! Including art! Wowsers!

Most of the time this isn't a problem but when it is, I feel it. The weight of all those extra words. It's a bit like the feeling when you get to the supermarket checkout with a very full trolley and you can't remember how or when half the stuff got in there. But instead of the supermarket you’re in a dungeon full of skeletons and you have this big trolley full of things and there’s actually so many things in here that surely one of them will be helpful in this situation but you’re looking and you’re looking and what even is this thing and now the skeletons are stabbing you. Ugh. No good.

TFW suddenly there's like 3 skeletons

Thankfully, it doesn't have to be that way. So I’ve been thinking about what I’d want in my own ruleset, coming from 5E but moving towards a mechanically lighter game. 

But where to begin?

Sly Flourish’s One Sheet 5E, which you can get by subscribing to their Newsletter, describes the core loop of the RPG so concisely: “...the DM describes the situation, the player describes what they want their character to do, and the DM adjudicates the results.”

Short enough you could send it via the Sending spell!  But that's really all there is to it.  And the only bit that cries out to me as needing any rules is the last part. So there's my starting point: How does the GM adjudicate the results of character actions?

I'm going for rules-lite, so I'd like just one mechanic for this. No separate Skill Check, Saving Throw, or Attack Roll, thank you. I want one Check that covers everything, one rule to rule them all.

And I’m coming from 5E, so for this master check, let’s stick with D20 + some modifier vs a target number. “If it ain’t broke” etc. Also a D20 is just a nice big fun dice to roll.  It’s the RPG dice!

For the “some modifier” part, this is typically based on the character making the Check. How good are they at doing what they're trying to do? I want a small, broad number of variables here. Abilities rather than Skills. I'm still thinking about how to frame these but for now I like Talents. Who wouldn't want a Talented character?

As for when to make Checks, I like the simplicity of “Roll to avoid risk” but I also like a low-stakes, “let’s see how this goes” sort of Check from time to time. They can help keep players engaged and add to the feeling of an emergent shared narrative, so I want to leave the door open for that.

So here’s my WIP rules for Talent-based Checks for The Legends of Alba.

***

Talents are a Character’s natural and trained abilities.

• [STR] Strength - Brawn, resilience, endurance.
• [SKL] SkiIl - Dexterity, stealth, reflex.
• [SNS] Senses - Awareness, instinct, insight.
• [SLF] Self - Presence, charm, guile.

A Character’s aptitude for each Talent is represented by their Bonus.

Example Character starting Bonusses:

• Warrior: STR+5, SKL+0, SNS-1, SLF+2
• Hunter: STR+0, SKL+5, SNS+2, SLF-1
• Druid: STR+0, SKL-1, SNS+5, SLF+2
• Bard: STR-1, SKL+2, SNS+0, SLF+5

Checks are necessary when a Character takes an action that challenges one of their Talents and the outcome cannot be taken for granted.

The GM determines the most suitable Talent, then sets the Challenge (C) of the Check, e.g.:

• C10: Not easy
• C15: Difficult
• C20: Very difficult

Establish the consequences of success and failure before the Check is made.

The Player rolls a D20 and adds their Bonus. If the total is equal to or greater than the Challenge, the Check succeeds.

***

So there we go, hardly a full ruleset, but maybe the backbone of the skeleton of one.

Till next time!