Speedplay House Rule

#1

After listening to the recent Mainframes on Lethality and Do Your MECHANICS Matter?—and btw if you aren’t a Patreon supporter, I encourage you to become one at whatever level works best for you, because that there Patreon is packed to the Gilhelms with useful and inspiring GM shtuff—I had this idea for encouraging both Lethality play and just in general a sense of faster play.

Minimizing all other complex dice interaction mechanics, insert this one across the board:
Speedplay Rule 1: If PC or GM rolls the max on a D6 Weapon Effort, D8 Magic Effort, or D12 Ultimate Effort, consider the task completely fulfilled, no matter how many more Hitpoints or Hearts were left to deal with. D4 Basic Effort continues to work as normal.

Optional Rule 2: (For a Fate/DW mixed success vibe) When Rolling a 1 for WE, ME, or UE, treat as a “Yes, But” or “Success at a Cost” type of success. D4 Basic Effort continues to work as normal.

Now obviously this may add an extra layer of complexity if you are tacking it onto to an existing game with a ton of involved Loot—which is why that preamble about cutting out a lot of other dice related game effects. And it can be a big craziness when the dice start dropping players and badguys willynilly. (But honestly that’s where shtuff gets awesome… when there’s a sense of real danger to avoid, react to, and recover from!)

Effectively, it adds the possibility of “critting” on your Effort rolls. And requires the GM to be very agile in their prep and improv.

So this may work better for new games, one shots, and Modern genres where Lethality is expected to be high and Physical Loot Drops low. Another way this Rule could be useful is in defining a Status which may be temporarily assigned to a Boss Monster (Wrath of the Blood God) or to a PC (Jason Bourne Mode…Activate!).

I’m thinking of plopping this into a one shot real soon.

#2

This is nice, exploding dice might be an option as well for added flavor with lower end attacks. This added fuel for thought. With that a D4 effort can do 24 damage, but it is very unlikely.

#3

Exploding dices are my favorite mechanic! It’s very engaging to re-roll and see just how much more damage to a task you may deal!

#4

I really like this idea. I’m thinking Speedplay Level 1 is exploding effort dice and Level 2 is instant success on effort crit rolls. The DM could instate them when the night is getting long and you want to wrap things up.

#5

I’ve been running speed play as there are no to-hit rolls. Everything hits. Armor is damage reduction. Hit points basically function as Stamina (avoiding crit damage). Once HP is gone then damage comes off CON with a save vs unconsciousness each time.

#6

I’m almost afraid of doing that. I’ve thought about this before, but I think people will revolt because they like the d20.

#7

Yeah, my gaming group is in love with the system more than RPGs. XD

#8

I mean, realistically, that system can still have the situation of not rolling high enough effort to progress. This also still allows the d20 to be used to save against critical wounds or massive damage or terrible political consequences.

This means that if they have to lift the d20, it’s for something dire.

#9

Definitely. And short rest of 10 minutes plus food heals up HP, long rest for Stat points.

#10

So here are the rules I compiled for anyone to take a look and see how to step up their NEED FOR SPEED:

Speedplay Rule LV1 : Exploding effort dice; roll the highest number, then reroll to add. Crits still give ULT effort, but that can also Double or triple and so on.

Speedplay Rule LV2 : If PC or GM rolls the max on a D6 Weapon Effort, D8 Magic Effort, or D12 Ultimate Effort, consider the task completely fulfilled, no matter how many more Hitpoints or Hearts were left to deal with. D4 Basic Effort continues to work as normal.

Speedplay Rule LV3 : Do a combo of both when appropriate to up the stakes

Speedplay Rule LVMAX : no to-hit rolls. Everything hits. Armor is damage reduction. Hit points basically function as Stamina (avoiding crit damage). Once HP is gone then damage comes off CON with a save vs unconsciousness each time. That system can still have the situation of not rolling high enough effort to progress. This also still allows the d20 to be used to save against critical wounds or massive damage or terrible political consequences. This means that if they have to lift the d20, it’s for something dire. Spending Turns for Rest recovers HP fully, but then recovering Stats takes longer rest or high powered healing. Exploding Dice may come into play.

#11

The idea of d20 only being used for saves, and to defend when being attacked in a purely player facing die Rolls system is very interesting.

Combining this with Going straight to effort dice With or without bonuses And assuming some bare minimum amount of progress will be made against a Heart of problem every single time could make for a really compelling dynamic with the right genre.

If keeping with the speed play roots of my original post, that D20 defense/save roll Could be tied directly to enemy effort against the player. Something like…_Could be tied directly to enemy effort against the player. Something like… if the player meets the save, no effect, if the player fails the save by X points, there’s a key on the monster or hazard to directly determine A narrative and mechanical game effect.

#12

Auto hits, D20 only being rolled for Saves, and damage going to CON after HP is gone reminds me of Into the Odd. That’s basically the whole system, hehe. It was fun though. :blush::+1:

#13

That’s right. If we are trying to save the Sacred d20, then I would go with either exploding dice or Effort Completion on the Maximum number rolled.

Or potentially make it so that you add the difference of the d20 roll be added to the effort rolled. Example is the ROOM Difficulty is 14. Archer shoots the ogre and rolls 17 in total! That’s an additional 3 damage on the effort roll.

I mean, there is so much that can be done!

#14

Yup! That’s exactly the Into the Odd magic. I’ve pretty much been playing ItO but using ICRPGs Claas-as-Loot among other few things.

#15

So, here’s a concise and wonderful article from Chris McDowall on making combat fast and decisive.

The gist is that combat should have 3 decisions:

  1. Instigation. Should we fight this thing?
  2. Execution. Should I keep fighting this thing?
  3. Conclusion. Well that went well/poorly

Ideally, each of those decisions should be made on their respective turns. No need for unnecessary slogs through combat round after round. And he lists how he facilitates this through mechanics.

#16

So you’re adopting Into the Odd, basically. More power to you, as this is another great, great game!

#17

Yup. I’m experimenting at my table with the Into the Odd mechanics in my ICRPG. They’re two of the cleanest and most adaptable systems I’ve played

#19

This EXACTLY what I’m homebrewing right now. I’ve already spent hours writing a Google Docs about it and only discover this thread now.

I may come back some few days/weeks later to share and gather feedback I guess.