Skills

This one is mostly for me. 

We're gonna use 2d6 from now on, like, I think Apocalypse World and Monster Heart and stuff.

Everyone modifies their rolls by ability score modifiers. Rogues get the edge because they get skill points as they level up, to spend on skills, and thereby become more skilled at the given skill. So it's kinda a hack of Apocalypse World and Lamentations of the Flame Princess.

So, you roll your 2d6. You crunch dem numbers.

If the result is less than 6 you have FAILED sirrah FAILED.

If the result is 7-9 you have succeeded but with some hitch, condition or consequence. Like, say you were having a check for some traps, you get an 8, I get to have a roll to see if you inadvertently set the trap off. Or, like just a general spot-check, you get a 9, so I'll say "you hear voices" or "you see a dark shape in the sky", had you gotten one higher I would say "you hear three voices conversing in what sounds like orcish" or "you see a dark shape in the sky. By its expansive wingspan and distinctive tail it looks like a FRICKEN' DRAGON". So yeah.

Oh! IF YOU TRY AND PICKPOCKET A GUY AND GET A 7 IT'S D20 MINUTES UNTIL THE MARK REALISES HE'S BEEN ROBBED.

But if the result is 10+ it's an unconditional success. Brava!

So let's have some exampley fun.

A fighter is trying to get the drop on a hobgoblin sentry, sneaking up behind him. He has a dexterity of 13 (so +1 to his checks). Cool. But he's still wearing his coat of mail, which is a -3 to a stealth check. He gets a 6, which, thanks to the penalties from his armour become a 4, so he's failed, clattering and clanking all over the place. The hobgoblin sees him. Awkwaaaard.

Had he stripped out of his metal armour beforehand the roll would have been a 7, he is successfully sneaking BUT it's a conditional success, so the hobgoblin gets to make a perception check back, he gets a 5, so he pricks his ears up for a second but then does the ole video game "Probably just a rat" and goes back to dreaming gentle dreams of callipygian hobgoblin women, the penultimate thing to go through his head. The last thing is probably gonna be the fighters axe.

But had our goblinoid friend rolled higher, and gotten a success, he would have grown wise to the fighters presence. The highest roll wins. In the event of a tie dice off. Cool? Cool.

But what if in the same situation everyone's favourite ailurophile alpha-bitch elf Kësa* was doing the sneaky sneak. Well for a start she'd probably just shoot the fucker BUT SHUT UP BILLY. She has a single point in Stealth plus her +2 from her high dexterity for a bonus of +3. Her armour is non-metallic so no worries there. She rolls a 7, totals up for a 10 and the guard doesn't know what's hit him.

So we're gonna try this out. 

*Seriously, take Rachel McAdams in Mean Girls, Arwen and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTTwcCVajAc this chick, and blend them  together and you've pretty much got her down.