I’m bouncing around between work, actually gaming, and various gaming projects. One of those projects is good old White Bones. I know I said it would be a couple of weeks but more ideas and thoughts keep popping into my head.

I started thinking about combat and skills. The general consensus is d20 roll high for combat and x ind d6 for skills. It works. It’s good. It’s simple. But there isn’t much in the way character progression. It also creates a bit of anticpation in the players. When they pick up that d20, they know things are going to get dangerous. Later editions have moved to a more unified mechanic of roll a d20 high. It really doesn’t change that much when it comes to combat (other than modifiers) and it’s more granular when it comes to character progression rather than the x in d6. So skills really didn’t become a thing until the Thief class popped up and originally they used a d100 system.

I fully admit that I’ve used the x in d6 system before. Like I said, it’s easy and it’s simple. But I don’t think it will be end all. Since I’m sacrificing a few sacred cows, I might as well use what I think is best. And the answer to that is both. Here me out.

I’m a fan of having any character try anything. So that’s where X ind d6 checks come in. Based on a character’s ability scores, they have an x in d6 chance of doing something successfully. But for class based tasks, well, that goes to the d20 roll high with ability and class based bonuses. I do have to a little math to balance things out. So stay tuned.

Go out there have fun folks. And don’t worry next week, there will be some actual gamable content. Till next time.