Yes, it’s my third blog post in a day. I’ve got a lot of coffee in me, tomorrow I have off, and I’ve got a lot on my mental plate.

Anyway, I’ve had this game cooped up in my brain and just needed to get some things out “on paper”. So it’s more for my edification, so there’s no real directed questions, but if you have an opinion (even, “this sucks”) feel free to chime in, though don’t feel you need to.

I’m assuming if you’re reading this that you’re familiar with The Shadow of Yesterday by Clinton “All A’s and a B. AWESOME job buddy!” Nixon. If not, then feel free to tune out cause you probably won’t understand (most of my posts are for everyone, but this is specifically for my gaming buddies). So I mentioned elsewhere that The Shadow of Yesterday is my fantasy game of choice (system-wise). It’s white hot. My weekly gaming group played (both versions of) it for about a full year, maybe a little more.

I’ve been having a lot of issues recently with the Fudge Dice. Namely this aspect:

Bringing Down the Pain. Usually gonna involve lots of die rolls. What happens is that with Fudge dice there are a lot of ties. A lot of rerolling to get that +1 advantage. Without switching to an ability (or using boosts, secrets etc that give you a huge advantage) it takes a while.

That’s pretty much my only issue, but it makes me long for the simplicity of numbers, without the “steps” bit from the original game (borrowed from Eden’s house system IIRC). I think I might have come up with a middle ground between both editions, in a way that:

1) Keeps things simple (no extra charts for “steps”).
2) Makes BDTP go faster, in a way that’s still exciting.
3) Adds that fun granularity of smaller numbers over Fudge’s longer steps (note: I’ve loved the Fudge system forever, and don’t usually think much of the “granularity” factor- It normally totally works, but for BDTP it’s personally gotten in the way sometimes).
4) Opens up cool, fun new avenues to wonk around with the nuts and bolts. New ways to create bonuses and disadvantages, basically.
5) I always think of Penalty dice after the player is like halfway in the middle of rolling dice, which is a big problem for me, because in the current TSOY you really have to have that all sorted out from the beginning before you roll dice (as penalties cancel out bonuses, and vice versa). That, again, is an Andy Issue but it turns out I’ve been able to address it in the rules to make a more Andy-rocking version.

OK, long prelude aside. It’s pretty simple: For every roll, you roll 3d4, preferably on those Crystal Caste bones-looking dice (because they’re more elegant IMO than the ‘ol Caltrop).

Then, every time you get a “Bonus Die” in original TSOY, you simply increase the die size of one or more of those 3d4. Like, if you get two “Bonus Dice”, you can roll either 2d4 and 1d8 (1d4 to 1d6 to 1d8) or 2d6+1d4. The max is 1d10. Therefore if for some reason all the stars align, you get full support from buddies, all your secrets max out, you can get up to 3d10 to roll.

Every time you get a penaly die, someone else (GM or opposing player) rolls a 1d4 against you. If you get more penalty dice from circumstances (max 2 penalty dice, just like the rules) or from opponents (they may have secrets that don’t give them bonuses, but rather give others penalties; or they can simply decide to spend their bonus dice to exchange them for opponent penalty dice), you can increase the number of d4s rolled or their die step: 3 penalty dice become 3d4, or 1d6+2d4, etc. (For sake of fun, I might institute a rule something like “To give a 1d8 as a penalty die they must have at least 5 penalties stacked against them; To give 1d10 as a penalty they must have 8 penalties stacked against them; However this will require playtesting to make sure).

…and that’s about it. Here are other things I have sorted out:

1) This system opens up all sorts of new avenues for funky Secrets. Some secrets can give you bonus dice. Some can give you TWO. Some only give the opponent penalty dice. Some may influence the way you get to stack dice (”Any time you roll “2d6″ you get a +3 to the result” or somesuch). Some may just bypass the bonus die thing altogether (”+2 to any roll involving X”. Kinda like how “weapons” work).

2) Skills start at +1 and go up to 9, where 10 still equals transcendent. That way it sticks to the original design goal of “on a good day, the underdog rolling no bonus dice still has that chance of beating the grandmaster on a good roll” (3d4 with a +1 in skill = 13 max, 3d10 at its lowest is “3″, plus 9 skill = 12. Almost impossibly improbable, but it’s still there, just like the original and revised). With this, though, the experience/advance system will need reworking.
Here’s what I’m waffling on:

1) How damage works. I really, REALLY love the original TSOY’s “hit points” system, but love the new system’s way of splitting it across the three pools. I may end up with a hybrid of hit points and wound levels.

2) The target number for actions. Probably gonna be 7. Another part of me just wants instead to have every action (even against “no antagonist”, like “I climb the wall”) be resisted by an opposing 3d4. I’m thinking of saying that Every Obstacle can have the pain brought down upon. Each obstacle would get a simple rating that the GM can keep in her head: like “Cliff Wall? Sure, that’s 3d4, 1 penalty die because it’s raining. And it has 5 ‘POWER’. and ‘1 DAMAGE’ ” So if the player beats it in one roll, they can simply climb it. If they fail, then can stop. But if they really want to push, they
take damage, and the 5 POWER becomes the cliff’s “hit points”. The GM or opponent takes the role of the obstacle almost as an animistic thing (”You’re buffeted against the cliff face as the rains fall, the handholds you saw before just aren’t there anymore. This cliff is out to boot you off of its face. Do you press on or retreat?”).

3) Adding more crap. I’ve been thinking of perhaps making a modular Pool system (changes per campaign, but there’s a solid list of examples). Been thinking of creating a new fantasy setting to tie TSOY: Power In Numbers to, and from there add more crap (a new mechanic for relationships, or a new category for bonus dice based on your personality or other HeroQuest-like adjectives), etc. I might leave an opening for New Crap, some up with some New Crap on my own, and encourage others to make up their own. I’d leave a gap in the character sheet for people to paste in their own New Crap or whatever.

… hmmm. That’s all for now, I guess. More later after I give it a whirl with some pre-gens.