Roleplaying Systems

[Polyedit2000]

Section 1:  GM and Rolls

The GM/Game Master acts as the primary storyteller and referee of a game.

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-GM-less System:  The main story is created by all players involved and/or the main rules are equally accessible to all players.  For example, two players playing a card game.

-Ruleless System: The GM tells the main story however they want, but the results players can encounter is mainly up to the GM. For example, the GM might decide one player is their "favorite" to wrap up.

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Rolls:  Popularized by Dungeons and Dragons and other tabletop games, a dice is one way to randomly determine the results of an action.  Generally, a d(number) is shorthand for a dice with a number of sides.  Most regular board games have a d6/ 6-sided die.

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-d20 System:

-Dice Check: This is the dice that Dungeons and Dragons use to check the success of a skill inside or out of combat.  Generally, the number has to be above a set DC (dice check) for the skill to succeed, and the GM can quickly set the DC as 5/10/15/20/25/30 to determine how much skill is required to succeed.  For example, a player needs to open a locked door, requiring to beat a DC of 15.

-Criticals and Fails:  Some GMs will consider rolling an unmodded 20 a critical success and unmodded 1 a critical fail.  In some cases, a natural 20 can beat a DC of 30 and/or provide additional benefits (and the same holds true for a natural 1).

-Multi-Part Roll: In D&D, it's generally 6 seconds per round, enough to move and attack. However, some players choose to be extra fancy on their turn, so the GM can decide to make DCs for each part of a complicated turn. For example, a player that thinks he can no-sell an attack, teleport close and restrain them while giving a "you suck" speech and expecting backup dancers to applaud can be subjected up to five rolls.

-Inverse Dice Check:  In this system, a lower number is a better score (where 1 is a critical success).  Two examples of games that benefit from this system is Golf (lower number of strokes to score a hole) and Operation (how far your hand moves versus the size of the hole).

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d6 System:

-Semi-d20:  See d20 rules.  It is also possible to add another d6 to change the success rate of the rolls, with 2 (double 1) as critical fail and 12 (d12) as critical success.

-Fate Dice:  These dices are known for having 3 kinds of faces: +, - and blank.  An average of 4 dices is rolled, adding or subtracting from a base of 0, to determine the success of an action (which ranges from -4 to +4).  If you're using a regular dice, you can convert the rolls if you can draw lines through the dots:
--4 and 5 makes a +
--2 and 3 makes a -
--1 and 6 makes a 0/blank

-Yes/No:  4 and above is Yes/3 and below is No.  Or if you want to have a more specific result:
--6 Yes And- You succeed and you gain a benefit.
--5 Yes- You simply succeed.
--4 Yes But- You succeed but you get a drawback.
--3 No But- You fail an action but you gain a small benefit.
--2 No- You simply fail.
--1 No And- You fail and you get a drawback.

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Cards System:

Some GMs use tarot cards or playing cards.  Unlike dice, cards have a "preset" probability and cards played can be set aside to narrow the remaining cards in play.  In Dungeons and Dragons, this can represent the Deck of Many Things, a magic item with random effects good for 52 uses (aka the number of cards in a playing deck).

War- This card game is played by having a higher number than the other player, with Ace as the lowest number that can beat a King.

Suits - Playing cards have Hearts/Diamonds/Clubs/Spades.  In Alice in Borderland, these four suits represent different challenges ranging from physical activities to games of wits and trust.