Light — RPGaDay #9

It would be fair to say that The Dee Sanction is system light.

It isn’t entirely intentional, but I’ve never liked heavy. I mean, I can read hundreds of pages, but can I keep them all inside my head. And would I expect anyone else to do the same?

The Cthulhu Hack has two mechanics—Saves and Resources.

In the mix of throwing ideas around for how you might make it even simpler, I decided to roll the Saves with the Resource dice. I mean, it probably isn’t far from something like Cortex or similar, in that you throw a bunch of different sized dice. However, I wanted something that emulated my early idea about vague competence, the roll-a-7 mechanic of 214.

Roll a die and try not to roll a 1 or 2. On a d4, that’s still 50%. I mean, when I played 2nd edition Call of Cthulhu back in the mid-80s, most of my skills were lower than 40% never mind 50%! Why not keep it that simple.

I also liked the incredibly stripped-down damage mechanics of Numenera and Gumshoe, so why not have weapons do 1 Hit and you have 3 (as a beginning character). If you need more granular damage, add Consequences that render a weapon more or less crippling when it inflicts injury.

Simple. At least, I hope so. I’m still finessing. But, definitely light.

Every day during August, I’ll be writing something new on The Dee Sanction and aim to connect the word prompt of the day with the development of the game. Check out the concept, the list and the graphics over at AUTOCRATIK.