There's a d6 Chance in Hell

Was recently running that edgelord RPG about princesses and it may have been the first time I had, because I wanted to adjucate a check, but realized I didn't have any way spelled out to do so in the actual rules. This is probably very intentional. Old school game; rulings not rules.

What it does have is the x-in-6-chance-to-do-things type of skills for just a few specific actions that hearken back to 0e D&D. I'd like to adapt that to kinda keep things consistent. After all, if I did the d20 at/under ability score thing, some things would feel too competent or incompetent when compared to d6 skills and rolling d20 high to hit but d20 low to do everything else will confuse my players every damn time.

In the following system, you don't even have to say if they are rolling high or low or what number to roll. You can even roll your own meaningless DM dice behind the shield to so as to be extra mysterious. Click-clack!

So, before they ask for a d6 roll, the GM secretly rules what the base percent chance to do a thing is, considering the action doer's class, level, species, and ability scores (you could add numbers on top or whatever). This ad hoc figure is then converted using the table below:

1 in 6: 1~16%

2 in 6: 17~33%

3 in 6: 34~50%

4 in 6: 51~66%

5 in 6: 67~83%

If the secret chance is higher that 83%, ask the player to roll anyway, just to be a little dramatic. 

Example: Percy wants her warrior to climb a wall. The Judge thinks most people would have a 40% chance of doing this. Warriors are good at using their bodies, so +5%. Lvl 8? +8%. A dwarf? stubby arms and heavy ass is -5%. Net of 48% is a 3 in 6 chance. Percy rolls a 5, and the judge rolls three dice just for dramatic effect. Percy didn't pass, but her girlfriend just broke up with her. She needs this. The judge sighs in high-maudlin, then grins, "You got lucky this time." That's right, the judge fudged it. 

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Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.