Let's build an RPG together.

So for example let's say I roll: 3,3,4,6,6 (22 total) I put each one of those numbers into one of my stat slots:
Muscle: 3
Dex: 3
Smarts: 4
likability: 6
Conviction: 6

and put an 8(30-22) into my magic power. I might have a measly 3 in strength, but I can also shoot mind beams (or whatever)

Kick ass weird power: 8

I'm not too sure I get it... Isn't 30 the max you can roll on 5d6? So unless you roll the max, you've just rolled a mental stat?

Oh, ok. I get it now. That's a lot of dice to roll for attributes, and the magical which works differently makes the character creation mechanics a bit wonky.

Use the K.I.S.S. principle: Keep it simple stupid. a straight 2d6 roll for each attribute, giving a score between 2-12 sounds much simpler and already cleaner.

Another simple option could be 1d6+3 for each attribute, giving a score between 4 and 9...

So on and so forth...

Yeah so like a super Jock-y Genius would be like, the fighter. But your weakling would be the super wizard.

Okay. We're probably putting the cart before the horse anyways. I guess you have to figure out what the game mechanic is before the stats become very meaningful anyways...

Pretty much, yeah. :P

Since I pretty much gave up on my Zombocalypse game, perhaps we could see if there are any mechanics which could be salvaged here? Basically, you roll your attribute dice + your skill level, you need to beat a set TN, 7 for average difficulty.

Haha. A cool system might have a gimick, and be simple as well. For example, how about d8s as a base? Then, do you want successes, or a target number? Like, maybe roll some d8s and 6,7,8s are a success, rest are fails, and you may need 1 success for a simple action, many for complex.

Or a target number: like roll x d8s, and you need to total 10 for a normal action, more for harder.

Roll 2 dice, you succeed if you don't roll doubles. Crappy skills roll d4s. awesome skills roll d12s.

If this game is ostensibly about fighting a secret war with evil forces, maybe the central mechanic should have something to do with the tradeoff between victory and secrecy.

This is a rough idea (and more narrative-focused than tactical), so let me know what you think:

There is a dice pool of d6s that represents "the power to defeat evil" and 5,6s are successes. You can make this dice pool as large as you want, BUT every 1,2 represents not only a failure but you being noticed. The secret escaping. You can usually find the power to defeat the evils you need to defeat, but can you prevent others from discovering the truth of this war?

Interesting mechanic. This could also be applied with my "rolling doubles screws things up " idea from previously. You roll your dice, try to get success, but each doubles (or triples, etc.) means you were careless and left traces of yourself. stealing a bit from O.R.E., the higher teh doubles, triples, etc., the worst your mistake was...

Then you not only have to worry about losing the battle, but how to clean up after yourself.

A system for battle is comparatively straightforward, but how to make a system for allaying suspicion...

I will say, ignoring how AMAZING this idea is, the more specific a game we make, the easier it will be to generate ideas coherently. Given it's our first go, generic is ideal, but harder. Consider, the first game Jim McClure is releasing (though he's made a number of them), is VERY specific: a story-telling RPG between two players who play Samurai in their final battle.

Also... this don't roll doubles mechanic is NEAT! Damn you people smarter and more creative than me!

I've just read the thread, and, aside from the crunchy system parts, the whole thing screams FATE to me.

It's just that I don't think you could leave traces of yourself only by failing. I think you could still succeed, but somehow got caught on CCTV footage, a casing of your special super-secret ammo could have rolled behind a filing cabinet and been left there, etc. Also, I believe doubles protects the player a little bit more to "bad rolls nights" than only 1s and 2s...

Here's an idea I had last night while I slept. Attributes could be listed from 1d4 to 1d12, skills could be listed from 1d4 to 1d12, equipment could be listed from 1d4 to 1d12, and finally, modifiers could also add or subtract 1d4 to 1d12. The more dice a player decided to roll could increase his chances of beating a target number/difficulty level, but also increase his chances of messing up somewhere and leaving traces of himself/being seen/etc. Then the system becomes a delicate balance between victory in the fight to free humanity or getting discovered by a humanity which is unaware of what's really going on and getting arrested for various crimes or risking exposing the secret organization, etc.

Needed to be careful with interpreting probabilities there. Rolling doubles will be relatively common.

Depends on how small the dice are and how many you roll.

2d4
1-1
1-2
1-3
1-4
2-2
2-3
2-4
3-3
3-4
4-4
Chance to roll a double, approx: 40%.

2d6
1-1
1-2
1-3
1-4
1-5
1-6
2-2
2-3
2-4
2-5
2-6
3-3
3-4
3-5
3-6
4-4
4-5
4-6
5-5
5-6
6-6
Chances to roll doubles: approx. 28.57%

2d8
1-1
1-2
1-3
1-4
1-5
1-6
1-7
1-8
2-2
2-3
2-4
2-5
2-6
2-7
2-8
3-3
3-4
3-5
3-6
3-7
3-8
4-4
4-5
4-6
4-7
4-8
5-5
5-6
5-7
5-8
6-6
6-7
6-8
7-7
7-8
8-8
Chance to roll doubles: approx 22.22%

2d10
1-1
1-2
1-3
1-4
1-5
1-6
1-7
1-8
1-9
1-10
2-2
2-3
2-4
2-5
2-6
2-7
2-8
2-9
2-10
3-3
3-4
3-5
3-6
3-7
3-8
3-9
3-10
4-4
4-5
4-6
4-7
4-8
4-9
4-10
5-5
5-6
5-7
5-8
5-9
5-10
6-6
6-7
6-8
6-9
6-10
7-7
7-8
7-9
7-10
8-8
8-9
8-10
9-9
9-10
10-10
chances to roll doubles: approx. 18.18%

2d12
1-1
1-2
1-3
1-4
1-5
1-6
1-7
1-8
1-9
1-10
1-11
1-12
2-2
2-3
2-4
2-5
2-6
2-7
2-8
2-9
2-10
2-11
2-12
3-3
3-4
3-5
3-6
3-7
3-8
3-9
3-10
3-11
3-12
4-4
4-5
4-6
4-7
4-8
4-9
4-10
4-11
4-12
5-5
5-6
5-7
5-8
5-9
5-10
5-11
5-12
6-6
6-7
6-8
6-9
6-10
6-11
6-12
7-7
7-8
7-9
7-10
7-11
7-12
8-8
8-9
8-10
8-11
8-12
9-9
9-10
9-11
9-12
10-10
10-11
10-12
11-11
11-12
12-12
chances to roll doubles: approx. 15.38%

granted, mixing and adding dice will change those chances somewhat, but so far, I think this system has merits... also, keep in mind that the higher that double is, the worst it will be. so, while that d4 might increase your chances to roll a double, this double will be relatively low.

Those statistics are not correct. On 2d4, your chances of rolling doubles is 1 in 4, d6 is 1 in 6, d8 is 1 in 8, etc.

No, those are your chance of rolling any result on a single dice. Just because you rolled a result on your first dice does not mean your second dice will automatically roll the same result again. When trying to figure out your chances or rolling your double on two dice, you have to list all the possible combinations and divide the ones which comes out double by the total number of combination to find your % chance of rolling doubles.