System Recommendations

For anyone making an RPG system, I recommend the following systems/ patterns.

One Roll Per Action

If Alice's PC wants to kick down the door, and Alice rolls a '5', then the roll is '5' for everyone. If Alice's character has a +2 Bonus then the total would be '7', and if another character has a +4 Bonus, then their total would be '9'. But nobody rolls again.

This cuts out a dull minute, while various players try to roll the same action.

It also stops the problem of 'every possible result happens with enough rolls'. If the group want to sneak past some guards, it'll work fine as long as the party member with the lowest stats rolls okay. The players don't all need to roll.

Resisted Rolls, Not Responses

If characters roll to attack a ghoul, and the ghoul attacks back, that's two rolls. If you just make one roll to attack (loser takes damage), then that's half the number of rolls.

• Bonus: you can cut a bunch of initiative rules, since it doesn't matter who attacks first.
• Bonus: 5 players can all make their combat rolls at the same time. Now you can resolve actions five times as fast as before.

Resolve in One Roll

Having separate Damage dice isn't a problem. If player can make an attack roll and roll their Damage in a single roll, then that's fine. But exploding dice always create friction. They're never worth it.

If the system really needs 'exploding dice', consider an alternative to 're-roll on 6'. Consider some other way to breach the standard limits.

• Add +2 when rolling doubles, +4 on trips, +8...et c.
• Each 'top die' result adds +1 over their value.
• If the previous player rolled a top score, you get +2 (pass it on, doubling each time).

Count the Steps till Resolution

Listing every single step, every number players need to add, everything they need to write down, can paint a horrible picture, but more system designers need to see what they're actually writing.

For more on this, see the essay on the faff metric .