The Skill Score

This is a skill system.  I tried to design something that was as beautifully simple as the "roll-under" method and would integrate seamlessly with it.

Skill scores are treated like backup ability scores.  They have a (soft) maximum of 18, the same as ability scores.  When you attempt a skill, you roll the skill die AND the ability score die.  If either of them succeed, the attempt succeeds.  If they both succeed, the attempt is a double success, and good things happen. (The action is faster/quieter/reversible/etc or an ally gets a bonus on the same check).

Examples:

Alice has 10 Dexterity.  Tip-toeing silently through a courtyard full of dead leaves requires her to roll a 10 or lower on a d20 roll.

Bob has 10 Dexterity and 8 Move Silently.  When he attempts to move through the same courtyard, he rolls two dice at the same time.  If his ability die is 10 or lower, he succeeds.  If his skill die is 8 or lower, he succeeds.  If both of the rolls succeed, Bob is even able to sweep a couple of cobblestones free of leaves, making it easier for Charlie, coming along behind him.

Modifying Difficulty

Easy/Hard: Treat the ability and skill scores as if they were 2 points higher/lower.

Really Hard: Treat the ability and skill scores as if they were 1/2 their current value.
Experts Only: Anything less than a double success is a failure.

Really Technical: Only roll the skill die.  Only experience can help you now.

Opposed Checks

Opposed parties roll their ability die and their skill die (if they have one).

Whoever has more successes wins.

In case of a tie, whoever has the highest number wins.

Generating Skill Scores

This is the chunky part.  I have some ideas about how to best do this, but I'll save that for a different post.  But if you want to convert X-in-6 to a skill score, then: 1-in-6 becomes 3, 2-in-6 becomes 7, 3-in-6 becomes 10, 4-in-6 becomes 13, and 5-in-6 becomes 17.

Closing Thoughts

The nice part about this is that both ability score and skill contribute equally to success.  And a lower a PC's ability score is, the more they gain by taking some training in a related skill.  But even if you have 18 Strength, you still might want some Climibing skill, because double successes are very nice.  And it naturally caps at 18/19, so there is no temptation to indulge in infinitely increasing DC silliness, a la 3.x.

Are there other systems that use something like this?  Scrap Princess had a sorta-similar something a little while ago, but I can't find any others.

Triggers and Tricks

Hey, I made up another system to introduce drama and heroism into your game!  It's frankensteined from stuff you've probably seen before.

Optional: every player picks a Trigger.  These can be phobias, addictions, or flaws.  Whatever they pick, it should be something that makes their lives harder.  Claustrophobia means that they'll have a hard time in tight spaces.  Alcoholism means that they'll seek out booze when they're in town, and may be drunk when they need to be sober.  Love means that they love someone else, and will react irrationally when their loved one is threatened (or at least take stupid risks) and be depressed if their loved one is hurt.  Wanted means that there's a fat bounty on your head.

Whenever your trigger causes you problems, you get a Trick.  You can't stockpile these, so if you've got one, use it.

Tricks (a.k.a. hero points a.k.a can be spent to help you do tricky stuff.  Spend them on important rolls, like shooting an arrow that Must Not Miss, or when Saving Against Spontaneous Combustion.  If you spend it right before you take an action/save/whatever, you get to roll 3x and use the best one.  If you spend it after the action/save/whatever, you only get one reroll.

Sometimes players appreciate mechanisms that pander to their roleplaying.  Sometimes people want a mechanical incentive to indulge in some character-building.  The nice this about this system is that it is sort of tit-for-tat: when the character's background causes problems, they get a hero point to balance it out.  So PCs who have triggers are balanced with the players who don't.  Sorta maybe.

Lumpy Space Monkeys

Welcome back, agent.  Please remain in the thermal bath until fully stabilized.  Do not remove the intravenous connectors from your arm while the machine monitors your condition.  If you experience any of the following symptoms, please visit a medical bay for treatment: nausea, dizziness  confusion, cramping, tremors, dry mouth, palpitations, weakness of the lower limbs, seizures, hallucinations.  Memory loss is normal, and usually fades in 3-5 days.

 When you have recovered, you may join your teammates in the adjacent cabin for refreshments.  Do not overindulge in the food carts, as the absorption ability of the small intestine is greatly impeded by the persistent side-effects of cryostasis. 

The Axis Mundi thanks you for your service.

Crawling Giants

There are giants in the earth.  And worms, too.

They are not from this world.  They traveled here long ago by following lights in the ground.  Subterranean will-o-the-wisps that glowed with the baritone frequencies of longwave light.  Even through thousands of feet of lithosphere, the dancing lights burned like torches in the tellurium retinas of the giants.  They still see them  sometimes, moving deep in the earth.  But the lights are elusive, and cannot be captured or approached.

So now the giants live here, although they do not belong here.  A fact that is as apparent to us as it is to them.  They are the vagabonds of the underworld.  They are the dispossessed.

The Platonic Dwarf

There comes a time in every man's life when he must ask himself a very important question.  "Should I get rid of demi-humans in my campaign?"  And like all major life decisions, it bears some discussion, lest one rush into a loveless campaign setting that you'll regret years down the line.