I'm wanting to thrash out a combat system. Something involving dice-pools, and successes vs failures.
Like, a player decides to wrestle a chicken. The chicken is fast, and requires 2 successes to properly be wrestled. The player, a simple farmer at this point, has a Strength of 1, a Finesse of 1, and an Agility of 1. The chicken is safe- Strength determines maximum size of die, Finesse determines how many, and Agility is for dodging enemy attack. The chicken has roughly the same stats, except has higher agility than the player.
The player, currently, has 1d4. All rolls fit on this table, with certain exceptions:
1: Critical failure. -2 successes.
2: Failure. -1 success.
3: Failure. -1 success.
4: No Effect
5: No Effect
6: Success (1)
7: Success (1)
8: Great Success (2)
9: Great Success (2)
10: Perfect (3)
Dice are considered exploding, so rolling a 4 on a 1d4 means another roll. Dice gained in this manner will not detract from successes.
The highest possible roll on a die is always considered a Success or higher. A die must have at least one "No Effect", and if it is lacking, the number before highest possible roll will be considered this.
Meaning: d4s are extra special and have Crit Fail/Fail/No Effect/Success, d6s and on are normal, there is an exploding die element.
The farmer attempts to wrestle the chicken into submission and rolls a 4, then a 1 (explode). The farmer gets one success out of two, and the chicken escapes.
The farmer starts training, and raises Finesse. He now rolls 2d4 to attack, and attempts again the next day.
The farmer again fails, with a 3,2. -1 successes- ouch. He goes home, trains again, and now raises Strength.
The chicken is angry, and also attempts to attack. The chicken's agility is higher, and thus, goes first.
(3) The farmer is unhurt.
The farmer attempts once more, this time with (4)(6,3). It's not enough.
The farmer is spotted by a local Hero, who attempts to show the Farmer how it's done. The Hero has two Strength and three Finesse.
(5)(1)(6,6,3) The Hero makes a great approach, but trips and falls. He was so close!
...
Hmmm. Could probably use work, or I could try and more directly use something like Battle for Wesnoth's system of damage x attacks at x accuracy...