[Mekatra]

So I have been working on a tabletop roleplaying game system that is supposed to be stripped down and a bit more story focused. It's meant to give you more control over what your character is good at while allowing you to actually do a lot more.

I do not currently have a name for it.

You build a character based off of a concept. This just means you choose if you want to be a dingbat detective, broody warlock, mysterious and romantic forester. Whatever you want to play, you can build upon it. Remember, you just have to describe it in broad strokes for now. You'll get to know your character better in the future. You will want to ask your Game Master at this point what kind of campaign they are planning on running. Is it a modern political drama you probably will want to pick a human that does something in the modern real world. If you're going on a quest to rescue the kidnapped elven princess from the evil dragon king you probably have a lot more fantastic choices to make.

You character's background is very important. Where you are going is very influenced by where you have been. Once you have decided on your concept you'll need to decide how they grew up.

Nobility - Nobles, or modern day wealthy individuals. These people have never wanted for anything and were raised with a future in mind. They have great connections, and are generally simply taught that they are more powerful than others. As a result they get a +1 to their Intimidation. Your starting wealth is 5d10.

Slums- Growing up in poverty can harden you. It also teaches you to watch your back, to sneak around, and to try to stay unnoticed by local law enforcement in case they decide you've broken a law you haven't even heard of. This grants you a +1 to your stealth. Starting wealth is 1d10.

Merchants- You were haggling before you cut your first tooth, your life has been spent checking over stock, trying to get the best merchandise and traveling around seeking out new customers. All this has afforded you a +1 to Diplomacy. Starting wealth is 3d10.

Farmer- Milking, Watering, feeding... all these things are just in a morning's work, in fact you were expected to do this all before breakfast. You're a hard worker and all those days toiling in the fields has granted you a +1 to your Vitality. Your starting wealth is 1d10.

Mining- Some of your earliest memories are the tapping of pickaxe on stone. You can break through a wall in nothing flat and have an almost disturbing knowledge of explosives. This gives you a +1 to Combat and starts your wealth at 2d10.

Sea Faring- You can scurry up the rigging and tie a knot faster than most people can say their own name. You grew up fishing, rowing and navigating by the stars. Your very active lifestyle grants you a +1 to Athletics but only 2d10 starting wealth.

Woodland- While others may have moved to the city because it is more convenient, you grew up among the trees. You can name every wild plant in the area and have slept in more trees than you have beds. This gives you a +1 to Acrobatics and 1d10 wealth.

Nomadic- A singular home was never known to you. You have traveled from the moment you were born and have seen more of the world than most people can even dream of. Facing down the hardship of always being on the road has given you a +1 to your endurance and 1d10 starting wealth.

Clerical- Shuffling papers, mixing ink, hunting down a requested book, keeping track of numbers, all these things were expected of you in your youth. Your attention to detail and meticulous notetaking gives you a +1 to Memory and a 2d10 starting wealth.

Mage's Tower/Scholar- You've been a student for so long you're not even sure what the end goal of your studies was. You can spend hours pouring over ancient artifacts, attempting to solve an impossible riddle or mapping out unknown stars. This gives you a +1 to Investigation and either 1d10 or 3d10 depending on if you have scholarships or not.


You have five Abilities that are broken into two parts each. When creating your character you get five sets of point bundles (5,4,3,2,1) that you can spend. You can break the points up however you please between the two categories within each ability, but you cannot break the point bundle up into other ability bases. Like if you decide to spend your 5 point bundle in Power, you have to put all 5 points into either Combat or Athletics, you cannot put those points into other categories. You can put all the points in a bundle into one category or split them up as you please.

Power
Athletics- This how you figure out how good you are at athletic abilities like swimming, running, climbing, pushing, pulling, and lifting things.

Combat- This is all things melee fighting. It's how hard you swing a sword, how quickly you can bring up your shield to block a blow, how accurate you are with a bow, and how great you are at wrestling with bears or something.

Finesse
Stealth- The ability to stay hidden and do things quietly. This is your sleight of hand, disguises, pickpocketing and just plain sneaking around.

Acrobatics- The more graceful side of the body. This is how you can move, tumbling, balance, dodging things, and how well your hand eye coordination is.

Guile
Intimidate- How scary your presence is. Can you bully others into doing your will? Does your gaze alone leave men shaking in their boots?

Diplomacy- To be charming and convincing others to work toward your agenda without harming others. Could be an impassioned speech, or could be just knowing the fine line between flirting too much and just enough to get the queen to release your friends from prison.

Wits
Investigation- How observant are you? Can you find all the clues to a mystery? This is the skill of those that are fantastic at searching, tracking, and putting together all the little pieces no one else even notices.

Memory- Can you recall things that others have long forgotten? Are you good a sussing out all the dusty secrets that have laid hidden for ages?

Health
Vitality- This is the literal lifeblood running through your veins. This is your ability to deal with sickness and heal from wounds.

Endurance- Your ability to take a proverbial beating and keep going, travel when exhausted and withstand poisons.


Everything you do can come back to those abilities. If you want to perform an action you can use your abilities to do so. To determine how well you did while using your abilities you simply roll a d20 and add however many points you have in the category that the skill you're trying to use applies to. You'll tell your GM the total number and they will let you know how you did.

Character Goals

Goals let us know where we are going in life. When you are makign your character you will set two goals, a long term and a short term. These are special to your character and have to be measurable. All goals must be approved by the GM. Achieving a short term goal grants a reward to be determined by your GM. Achieving a long term goal grants an ability point to be put in any Ability or category you want.
Once you have set a goal it cannot be abandoned without good reason and a penalty as decided by your GM.

Some short term goal examples may be:

To steal from every shop in a town without getting caught.

To forge your first sword.

To slay a mountain giant.

While some long term goals may be:

To steal something from a shop in every city in the country.

To collect a tooth from five different dragons.

To forge Mithril armor.


Crafting

To learn the basics of a craft is often easy but it can take a lifetime of practice to really master it. Over time you can learn to create more reliable gear than available in the markets if they are but willing to put in some time. One can of course forego crafting entirely and simply purchase everything premade in the shops at a higher price than materials alone.

The crafting concentrations are as follows:

Weapon Smithing
Apothocary
Leatherworking
Scribing
Enchanting
Clothsmaking
Bardcraft
Carpentry

To put time into learning a craft one must spend an ability point. Crafting is donw with a d6. 3-6 is a successful roll. One successful roll is 10 minutes of work.

Novice - 1 point- Can craft low quality goods in 60 minutes or Medium quality goods in 300 minutes.

Apprentice - 2 points- Can craft low quality goods in 50 minutes, Medium quality goods in 100 minutes or High quality goods in 200 minutes.

Journeyman- 3 points- Can craft low quality goods in 30 minutes, Medium quality goods in 80 minutes, high quality goods in 150 minutes or Master quality goods in 200 minutes.

Master- 4 points- Can craft low quality goods in 10 minutes, Medium quality goods in 30 minutes, High quality goods in 100 minutes and Master quality goods in 150 minutes.

You can set down an item you are crafting and come back to it, you do not have to finish it all in one session. Just make sure you keep track of it.


Aaand... that's what I have so far. I am working on a combat system, but it's just proving to be either too simple or too complex every time I think I have something sorted. Any tabletop players wanna ring in with what they think?

[Espy]

(For the record, I think you might have written Wits instead of something like Presence for one of the attribute categories.)

[Mekatra]

OOps, I did in fact. Thank you Espy!