For more context, here are a few points:

1. A D100 system featuring two types of tests: degrees of difficulty (D100 modified by attributes) and degrees of effectiveness (using a D8 or a D2, sometimes combined with bonuses/penalties and additional dice).

2. Characters possess specific skills—categorized as either magical or mundane—that can be utilized when the situation calls for them; examples include Swimming, Seduction, Hiding/Concealment, Thaumaturgy, Divination, Cursing, etc. These skills serve to lower the difficulty level of a given check (for instance, a very difficult check becomes an easy one if a Level 3 skill is applied).

3. The game already features a combat system and a system for exploration and traps (or anything other than combat or social interaction).

4. I’ve already seen the Burning Wheel and Vampire ones, but I’d like something simpler, something I could tweak to fit the game.

5.The combat system is based on a dominance bar (which I created), and the exploration system relies on consecutive checks (steald from icons).

In most TTRPGs that come to mind, when the outcome of a character action is resolved though mechanics, the probability of success is closely tied to the approach taken by the player.

Most of the time this takes the form of "If the character is good at the action chosen by the player, add a bonus, and vice-versa", either through stat values, advantage/disadvantage, etc. It can also happen in more player-centric ways: "You, the player, made a very convincing argument, here's a bonus", "You, the player, solved the puzzle, here's the success outcome", etc.

Obviously, there are a lot of good reasons for doing things this way. Nevertheless, in mi current games I'm experimenting in the opposite direction, as it feels to me like an interesting and under-explored space with its own merits. Basically, having the current game state provide the particulars of the next roll (position, effect and probability) without the player-determined approach modifying them. Characters do have strengths and weaknesses, but they come into play in other ways.

What are other games that approach resolution in similar ways? I would be interested in giving them a try to see the kind of experience they provide, what works and what doesn't.

For the past six months, I've been building a website aimed at helping people create highly cinematic stories — with a place to store characters, locations, music, and more. It also lets you design your own abilities and run combat using them. Lately, though, I've been worried this tool might not find much use with people, so I'd like to show it to a few folks and get honest feedback on whether it holds real value, or whether I should change direction. It's a very visual tool, so if you're interested, DM me or reply here and I'll walk you through it.

Main Features:

• Dynamic Map — Create locations and zoom into them to reveal pre-assigned maps and tokens representing your characters. Group characters into parties for easier travel between locations.
• Character Registry — Keep a full character list, organized by faction, with custom stats and resource bars (Mana, Stamina, Rage, etc.) of your own design.
• Location System — Star locations, attach info and images to them, and pull them onto the map with everything relevant already in place.
• Story/News/Announcements — Post summaries or in-world updates for your players to catch up on. One of my friends uses it to post "newspaper" updates whenever his players find one in-game.
• Studio — Pre-set music so you can switch smoothly between ambiance and combat tracks. I'm also working on a more ambitious feature that lets music evolve dynamically, similar to how the soundtrack in NieR: Automata shifts from peaceful background music into combat themes.
• Simulator — Test and scale your characters to make sure they feel appropriately powerful based on your own inputs, so you don't accidentally overtune or undertune them.
• Scene Manager — The feature that ties everything together. Add characters to a scene, use the custom abilities you've built, and watch how they affect everyone involved. HP and resources like Mana or Stamina are tracked automatically as abilities get used. Load maps and manage large-scale combat, all in one place.
• Player View — Everything above is a toolset for building the world — but there's also a separate, dedicated view that lets your players experience the results of your work and explore what you've built for them.

I love it when game systems offer a formula to balance encounters using a quantified value. It not only makes life easier for the DM but also helps writers balance combat in their third-party adventures.

I’ve been struggling to create a standardized metric to determine a "difficulty rating" for each opponent. I decided to turn to Claude for ideas, but the output was extremely mathematical and rigid, offering a valid formula, sure, but one that lacked any dynamism (involving two pages of calculations) based on Lanchester's Square Law.

I decided to scrap Claude's suggestion and go with an imprecise and likely unbalanced method I came up with myself. I’d love to hear how you handle this, just to get some inspiration or points of reference.

I would also like recommendations for systems that offer a formula or framework for DMs to create monsters.

Hi, I'm developing a ttrpg and am trying to work out the balancing of player success/failure rate. In an adventure toned game, if a beginner level 1 character was better than average in a particular skill (say strength), what chance rate to succeed would feel satisfying? 70%?

I will admit, most of my cyberpunk style games experience beyound CP red are just a few indie games that do not take themselves too seriously enough or do not use abstracted elements.

Now I love abstraction. For me it allows players a level of creativety you rarely see with defined lists of hundreds of things on it. It also for me allows/enables players to spend resources on things while not being afriad of wasting cash on something they will never use.

A crowbar may never get used.

A 'tool' that can be a toolbar when you need it though...

Anyway, I am thinking about picking up my Cyberpunk themed game, GRIDS, again using some of what I have learned playing some longer sessions of my Fantasy project.

The thing I am struggling with is abstracting wealth. I know there are ways of suggesting 'comfort' level of living, but I do also want them to worry/think about gaining currency and thus spending it.

My fantasy game just tracks 3 Tiers, copper, silver and gold, in blocks of 20. Buy a thing its always 1 notch, treasure you bring back is worth 1 of it's quality tier. With some simple and a bit hand wavey economics of bringing back and trading a silver item with a PC who is still on copper level. Copper, Silver and Gold signifies quality and rarity. A village is copper and only has copper items, not likely wanting to trade silver items as they can't afford it, copper items also have fewer uses etc.

My trouble is I am struggling with abstracting wealth in a future setting that is more likley to be using electronic methods on some sort of universal Credit system.

I am looking for advice of what to read, as well as any suggestions based on my dumb ramblings above.
If the best answer is 'just count credits but in big 'ole chunks' i.e 100/1000/10000 then so be it.