A New Way to Handle Exploratory Tasks

[tombowings]

I made a blog post regarding a new approach I've been trying to handing exploratory skills, such as searching for secret doors and stealth. It's been working quite well these last few weeks so I thought I would present it to the community.

I'm looking for some feedback and questions so I can being to think about ways to improve this technique.

[jblittlefield]

Mar 25, 2010 13:00:32 GMT -6 tombowings said:

I made a blog post regarding a new approach I've been trying to handing exploratory skills, such as searching for secret doors and stealth. It's been working quite well these last few weeks so I thought I would present it to the community.

I'm looking for some feedback and questions so I can being to think about ways to improve this technique.

Here's how I've been doing it since '78...btw, I don't allow demi-humans in my games and I only use two classes -- Fighting Man and Magic-User. Different archetypes are represented by making minor changes to these classes and by developing somewhat detailed backgrounds for each hero.

The basis of the system is that anyone has a 1 in 6 chance of accomplishing any task and certain characters are better at certain tasks than others -- this depends on their character background.

So, for example, a player creates a Fighting-Man and develops a background for him that represents him as a "ranger" (i.e., able to survive in harsh environments, skilled at combating the creatures in his "home territory", and possessing a decent level of healing ability). In game terms I'd allow the ranger to roll two attack dice and take the best roll when fighting against said creatures, allow him to bind 1d4+1hp worth of wounds (rather than my standard 1d4), and enjoy +1 bonus on survival/tracking/hunting/foraging/etc... rolls.

IMHO, a simple +1 or +2 bonus to certain "exploratory tasks" based on background is simple and easy method that works seamlessly within the scope and spirit of the rules.