Excelsior Endeavor
Excelsior Endeavor started as my take on the TSR Marvel Super Heroes game using a d6 mechanic. It was initially leaning in a very "clone" direction, but since then I've veered off in multiple directions, such that this idea does not currently have a solid, defined end I'm currently headed for. For now, I'll just document what I have and some thoughts as they form up.
What is the core mechanic?
The initial idea is that you have Attributes that are rated from essentially 1 through 15. Ratings of 1-5 are humans scale, 6-10 are super-scale, and 11-15 are cosmic scale. The tentative benchmarks were set around where the TSR Marvel Super Heroes game sets them. To resolve tasks you basically roll a number of d6 equal to your Attribute Rating, plus a "Null Die" of a different color. Any roll of a 6 on a die counts as a level of success. Should the "Null Die" roll a 6, you are granted a level of success and get to roll that die again, gaining a level of success for each time it is able to roll a 6. Should no dice roll a 6 and the "Null Die" roll a 1, then the attempt is considered a fumble. Then, the idea is that each level of success was similar to success levels in TSR MSH, with 1 level being equivalent to a Green Result, 2 to a Yellow and 3 to a Red Result. Any success levels above 3 were then applied to the effect. For example, in TSR MSH if you have a Good Strength and successfully punch someone, you'll do 10 damage on a Green Result, with Yellow and Red giving you the ability to Slam or Stun the opponent. Under this scheme, if someone scored 4 levels of success, it would be the same as a Red Result, but also the damage would be bumped up a column to Excellent (20 damage). You can see how all of the default assumptions here are from TSR MSH, just swapping in this die mechanic and allowing for results that are higher than Red. It is statistically pretty OK and has the advantage of getting rid of the chart, but allowing you to basically keep the rest of the game if you so desired. Thing is, I don't know for sure that that's what I desire. In any event, below is a table of the probabilities under this system.
Levels of Success
Dice 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
1 83.33 13.89 2.31 0.39 0.06 0.01
2 69.44 25.46 4.24 0.71 0.12 0.02
3 57.87 32.79 7.78 1.30 0.22 0.04 0.01
4 48.23 36.97 11.95 2.38 0.40 0.07 0.01
5 40.19 38.85 16.12 3.97 0.73 0.12 0.02
6 33.49 39.07 19.91 6.00 1.27 0.22 0.04 0.01
7 27.91 38.14 23.10 8.32 2.06 0.40 0.07 0.01
8 23.26 36.44 25.61 10.78 3.10 0.67 0.12 0.02
9 19.38 32.24 27.41 13.25 4.38 1.08 0.21 0.04 0.01
10 16.15 31.76 28.55 15.61 5.86 1.63 0.36 0.07 0.01
11 13.46 29.16 29.09 17.77 7.48 2.33 0.57 0.12 0.02
12 11.22 26.54 29.10 19.65 9.20 3.19 0.86 0.19 0.04 0.01
13 9.35 23.99 28.67 21.23 10.94 4.19 1.25 0.30 0.06 0.01
14 7.79 21.55 27.89 22.47 12.66 5.32 1.74 0.46 0.10 0.02
15 6.49 19.26 26.83 23.37 14.29 6.54 2.34 0.67 0.16 0.03 0.01
16 5.41 17.13 25.57 23.95 15.80 7.83 3.04 0.95 0.25 0.06 0.01
17 4.51 15.17 24.16 24.22 17.16 9.16 3.84 1.30 0.37 0.09 0.02
18 3.76 13.40 22.67 24.21 18.34 10.49 4.72 1.72 0.52 0.13 0.03 0.01
19 3.13 11.79 21.12 23.95 19.32 11.80 5.69 2.22 0.72 0.20 0.05 0.01
20 2.61 10.35 19.57 23.48 20.09 13.05 6.71 2.80 0.97 0.29 0.07 0.01
21 2.17 9.06 18.03 22.83 20.66 14.23 7.76 3.45 1.28 0.40 0.11 0.03 0.01
% of Fumbles
Dice
1 16.67
2 13.89
3 11.57
4 9.65
5 8.04
6 6.70
7 5.58
8 4.65
9 3.88
10 3.23
11 2.69
12 2.24
13 1.87
14 1.56
15 1.30
16 1.08
17 0.90
18 0.75
19 0.63
20 0.52
21 0.43
Assorted Thoughts
- Attribute Layout One (MSH Plus): Combatives, Motor Skill, Strength, Conditioning, Reasoning, Instincts, Willpower, Sociability. Works with keeping things close to MSH in philosophy, just adding "Sociability" to cover social adeptness. I've seen it argued that maybe Instincts could cover social/emotional matters, so maybe? From this perspective, the attributes of original MSH could be seen as Fighting, then Physical/Mental Force (Strength, Reason), Finesse (Agility, Intuition) and Resistance (Endurance, Psyche). Make a rational argument (Reason), appeal to emotions (Intuition), intimidate, command or exert control (Psyche). Resist incitement (Reason), resist convincing (Intuition), resist being intimidated (Psyche).
- Attribute Layout Two (DCH/Rising Forces): The 3x3 Physical/Mental/Social-Spiritual, Power/Accuracy/Resistance scheme as known from DC Heroes, Rising Forces, nWoD. Works for a hybrid DCH/MSH idea perhaps.
- Resolution Concerns One: MSH and this mechanic by default don't really scale with opposition very well. Someone with a high Fighting/Combatives just hits more often, whether they are against Aunt May or Spider-Man. It leads to some strange situations. The MSH way of setting difficulty kind of comes in the form of FEAT intensities. It's not perfect. If I go with the MSH Attribute Layout and MSH assumptions about combat, does anything resist these rolls? Like, Fighting (Fisticuffs), Agility (Shooting), Strength (Wrestling), Endurance (Charging) are just rolls vs. the Attribute straight up? I suppose things can have default difficulties.
- Resolution Concerns Two: Heroic, a MSH-semi-clone currently on Backerkit does something a little like the TSR Conan/ZeFRS where there is a +0 Column, and you roll on whatever column you get shifted to based on your ranks. This could be emulated in this mechanic with the "+0 Column" being represented by 1 Null Die + 3 dice, shifting up or down dice based on resistance (down to a minimum of the 1 Null Die). This might be OK, and might work also in taking things into a slightly more DCH direction.
- Regardless of anything else, I think I'd like "Advancement" to basically be in the form of more tricks, possibly some more skills, and for a lot of the resource to be be used in a DCH/MSH manner on improving dice rolls in a way that feels like gambling.
- I hear a lot about how the original MSH was a resource allocation game primarily (through allocating Karma), and the rolling is a smaller part of things than you might at first imagine. I find this idea intriguing and possibly worth pursuing, even if I haven't played MSH enough to feel the truth of this idea yet. One expression of this is found in this RPGPub post that is part of a larger retrospective of the MSH Basic set.
The DCH/MSH Hybrid
Let's just explore the idea...
- Attributes would be the 3x3 grid.
- Dice rolling would be a base of 3d + null die (modified by resistance)
- Initiative could be like DCH, and rounds run like in DCH, but using a d6 instead to randomize? Or 2d6? Base initiative equals Action Attributes added.
- "Karma" or "Hero Points" and how they might work are totally TBD
- "Health" might just be a sum of the Resistance Attributes?
- In MSH, damage is generally a static number based on Strength/Power Rank. It can be reduced by Armor (etc.). Health is a sum of the ranks of the Physical Attributes. In DCH, damage is based on Strength/Power Rank and that number is generally the most damage that can be done on a strike (barring exceptional column shifts). Health is equal to the Rank of the Resistance Attribute. The Resistance Attribute also acts like Armor. Powers can provide additional armor, increasing the RV for purposes of determining how much damage is received (but not affecting underlying Health).
- One cool thing about both MSH & DCH is that a combat turn is basically always resolved with one roll (no separate "to-hit" and "damage"), so I should strive to maintain that.
- What if damage worked like this? Damage dealt is equal to Strength/Power Rank. It is reduced by 1 for each level of Resistance over Strength/Power Rank. Armor adds to this value for purposes of determining how much damage is received. So, someone with Strength 4 would deal 4 damage to anyone with an Endurance up to 4, but Endurance 5 would reduce the Damage to 3, Endurance 6 reduces it to 2, etc. So, Endurance always contributes to Health, always improves chances to avoid being stunned, etc., and also acts a bit like armor. More than MSH, less than DCH.
- Basically, nearly all DCH mechanics could be ported over I think. Talents could still work basically as in MSH.
- When it comes to Karma or Hero Points... The DCH way would have each HP contributing raising the Attribute/Power same as before. The MSH way I think would maybe have you deciding on a result you want and having to spend Karma for however many Pips it'd take to get there?
- Powers: There is a difference between DCH and Marvel here. DCH is more crunchy, MSH a bit more free-form.
- Pushing: Pushing is different between DCH and MSH. Heck, DCH even has a difference between pushing powers vs. attribues, or active vs. passive actions. Explore.
