One of my only claims to fame is that I was an early supporter of the game 13th Age, which if you don't know is a sort of successor to Type 4 D&D in the way Pathfinder is to Type 3.5, though not quite. 13th Age plays a lot more loose, doesn't use minis or any kind of tactical movement system, but Monte Cook said if he had had full creative control for Type 4 then 13th Age is what he would have made, I guess.
Anyway so I was a contributor, and that means my name is on the second page in the long list of other contributors, so that's neat. It's also a pretty hefty book, yet I've only run one game with it and it was underwhelming. It is a powers-centric game, like 4e (sorry Zak, Type 4 is too much of a mouthful) and, I dunno, just wasn't quite what I was expecting, I guess? If you've ever looked through the fan made Final Fantasy d6, it feels a lot like that (you should go google FFd6 though, it's pretty rad).
My last game was a brief foray into LotFP, but I don't think I am brutal enough to run that game on all cylinders, and besides I can't get people to commit to a game, so what to do?
I don't remember where this idea started, but I got it in my head that it would be great to run a stripped down D&Dish game that my 7 year old daughter, who is good at math but can't read, could follow along with. Anyway this idea ballooned from there, and I dug around on the internet for similar styles of game and found one that was a stripped down 4e for children and it gave me enough of a mental starting point to get this going.
Working title is the Apprentice Engine, since 13th Age claims to use the Archmage Engine. I will probably change that name though because apprentice just doesn't have enough bite to it.
Here is the rundown of the system. There are 3 ability scores, Strength (or maybe Physique), Dexterity and Intellect. Constitution is rolled into Strength, Wisdom is rolled into Intelligence, and I assume that instances of the Charisma skill can be metted out on a case by case basis. I know that I want most (if not all) NPC interaction to be handled purely through role play and some hand-waving.
Combat and Skill checks will basically run on the same system. 13th Age already gives you a dice pool for damage based on level (3rd lvl Fighter rocking a longsword does 3d8 damage, etc. Spell damage is fixed but I'll get to that). Extrapolating that, skills also get a dice pool based on their skill, with the dice size set by the character's 'power', which is derived from their attributes. d6 is average, d12 is like having a score of 20. Speaking of scores I think they will be rated either 1-10 or 1-12.
Ok so you want to make a skill check. Instead of setting a DC all checks are opposed checks. I imagine two or three d6 being the standard opposed roll. Both sides roll, drop all but the highest die, ties go to the defender. There will be bonuses for rolling doubles, runs, other Yahtzee kind of shenanigans but I haven't worked that out just yet.
So that's the core mechanic. I didn't want to muddle around with d20+attribute bonus+skill+situational/magical modifiers+god only knows what. You have your pool, maybe you get an extra dice in it depending on how you set the whole situation up, but that's it. And since swinging a sword, sneaking around, decrypting a wizards spell book, all use the same core mechanic it puts more weight on the narrative. This is where thinking about running a game for children has my mind really humming along.
I was reading through the very nice remake of Palace of the Silver Princess over at Playing D&D with Pornstars, all while thinking of this system, and as I read each room this is what came to mind. "How would this whole scene played out if it was part of an episode of Adventure Time?" I have only seen a couple episodes but I know it is exactly the kind of gonzo weird fantasy that old school D&D is famous for, excpet that it is also kids show so nothing too terribly bad ever happens. The main kid never gets eaten alive from the feet up by inbred mutant ogres, as just an example off the top of my head.
So now I am thinking how can I put each of these rooms through a filter where all the weird is still there, but without the lethality. First thing is monsters have to be a lot more talkative. Like, everything is probably an NPC. If you watch these shows even in the ones for 'boys' fighting is often not the best course of action. Balance that with a show like My Little Pony, where fighting only worked in one episode I can think of. Traps are way less deadly and way more goofy. Magic items can do whatever seems cool. Treasure will be scaled down to just readily useful items, snacks (which the players trade in for healing between battles), and coins. Buying stuff will be boiled down to the bare minimum of complexity. Most stuff costs one coin. Some cool stuff costs two or three. You don't need to find more then three or four coins in a dungeon to make it worth you time.
When they do fight, the 4e for kids adventure had a great idea that gels well with the way 13th Age monsters work. They are simple, for one, and two they all do interesting things. The example the author of said adventure likes to tote is the bulette, which can swallow you whole. You can then tickle the inside of the bulette's stomach to get coughed up, which means now you're all slimy and move a little further if its in a straight line because you slide. Something I thought up are skeletons which, each time you hit them, one of their body parts flies off and now they have to hop around on one leg or go chase their skull around. Another would be a zombie, which tries to jump on you and chew on your head. If it does then now you're a zombie, which is the same as not being a zombie except now you want to chew on people's heads and that might be inconvenient, so best get it healed.
Finally a note on spells. No spell descriptions, we are catering to a child who can barely sound out a single word. So that's all a spell is, one magic word. What does it do? Well, do you know what the word means? What are all the possible ways you could cast a spell with just the word 'Night' or 'Fire' or 'Friend'. We are looking at creativity and freedom, more rules would not be appreciated by this crowd.
So that's the core idea. Players will also get to pick a class and race as per normal D&D, but they too will be boiled down. I also want to keep 13th Age's One Unique Thing rule, where each player describes, in a totally free form way, one unique thing about their character, which can be anything that doesn't have a mechanical effect. When we played my oldest, who is 13 now, made a paladin who, as a right of passage, cut off his arm then found the biggest undead he could and tore its arm off to replace his old arm with.
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