I’m pretty sure somebody has already thought of this. Heck, I might posted about it before on the old blog or somewhere in the archives of this one. But I think it’s cool to go back to the idea and play around with it a bit more.

So White Box uses the X in d6 mechanic for a lot things including skills. Well, so does Lamentations of the Flame Princess but with a little more detail. So why not kit bash these two ideas?

For the first point, let’s start with Attribute Checks. I like using x in d6 for these in White Box using a simple breakdown that lines up with Attribute modifiers so it come out like this:

• 3 to 6: 1 in 6
• 7 to 14: 2 in 6
• 15 to 18: 3 in 6

Plus I like throwing in a bonus (increase the chance by one) based on Class. This maxes a character out at a 4 in 6 chance.

• Fighter Types: Strength or Constitution
• Thief Types: Dexterity or Charisma
• Cleric Types: Wisdom or Charisma
• Magic User Types: Intelligence or Wisdom

Now on to skills. This isn’t a complete list. You can go with as many as you want or that fit your campaign. Here’s where you can run to LOTFP and just grab that skill list.

Healing, Languages, Mariner, Skulduggery, Stealth, Survival, Thievery. Most are self explanatory except Skulduggery and Thievery. This is my own idiosyncrasy. Thievery is against the environment or objects like pick locks, and finding and disarming traps. While Skulduggery is against people like picking pockets, sleight of hand, and disguise. The exact list that you use in your campaign is up to you. And there’s nothing wrong with asking a player what they want their character to be good at.

All the Skills start of at 1 in 6. Thief types increase Skulduggery, Stealth and Thievery to 2 in 6. If you’re allowing Rangers or Druids then they would increase Survival to 2 in 6. Now use higher of the character’s Intelligence and Wisdom Modifiers. Since this is White Box, the best you’ll get is +1. So increase one skill by one.

When a character levels up then they pick a skill and roll a d6 like a normal skill check. If they FAIL then the skill goes up by one.

So go out there and hack those rules and make them do what you want for your campaign.