Heres an alternative, using playing cards (actually my No Dice system):
Characteristics
Players are defined by the standard 6 characteristics. Each starts at 2, plus a racial bonus:
Humans:
None
Dwarves:
+1 in Strength and Toughness
Wood Elves:
+1 in Agility and Willpower
High Elves:
+1 in Agility and Intelligence
Halflings:
+1 in Agility, Willpower and Fellowship, -1 in Strength
Ogres:
+2 in Strength and Toughness, -1 in Fellowship and Intelligence
Creation Points
Each player now has their normal allotment of Creation points, to improve their talents, actions etc.
Rule system
When making a test, draw a card, adding a specific Characteristic, but if you have any skill expertise, you may add +1 for each level of expertise. If you have a relevant specialisation, you may add a further +1 to your total. If you draw a Queen, Jack or King, these have special effects (see below) and the suit is also important:
This attempt is modified by the difficulty:
Simple Task:
0
Easy Task:
-2
Average Task:
-4
Hard Task:
-6
Daunting Task:
-8
The host may also further modify this roll by +/-1 for each positive/negative situation as appropriate (each misfortune dice is equivalent to -1, each fortune dice +1).
If the draw total is 6 or more, the attempt succeeds, gaining 1 success every full 3 points above 3 ( 2 successes at 9, 3 successes at 12 etc). So for example, a player needs to make a Stealth roll with 1 level of expertise, and 4 Agility, performing a hard task (-6). He makes a draw, getting a total of 9 - that succeeds with 2
successes!
Banes and Boons
If the players draws
♠
, then a bane effect occurs. If the player draws a
♥
, however, then a boon effect occurs. If you draw a court card, and have to draw another card, these can still generate boons and banes, so keep hold of all the cards until the action is resolved - as usual, banes and boons cancel each other out.
Court Cards
If you draw a Jack, the action generates a Chaos Star effect. - bad things happen...Draw another card to determine the effect.
If you draw a Queen, and you have any skill expertise , this counts as Sigmars Comet. If you have no expertise, it counts as a Chaos Star. Draw another card to determine the success of the task.
If you draw a King and you have skill expertise 3, this counts as a Sigmars Comet . If you dont, it counts as a Chaos Star. Draw another card to determine the success of the task.
Joker
If you draw a Joker, you must immediately put the joker back into the pack and shuffle the deck. The Host, if he wishes, can rule that something strange and unusual occurs when a Joker is drawn. There should be 1 Joker in each pack.
Initiative
At the start of each encounter, each participant makes a draw, adding either their Agility, for a combat enounter, or Fellowship, for a social encounter. Treat Jacks as 11, Queens 12 and Kings 13. The resulting value is the characers Initiative for the encounter. Characters act in order from highest to lowest Initiative, each round.
Stances
This has been simplified now. When in a Conservative stance, you may increase you draw total by 1 for each point in your current Conservative stance, but if you draw any Banes, you suffer this bonus to your Recharge for the action, in addition to any normal bane effects. While in a reckless stance, you may add 1 to your draw equal to your current Reckless stance rating. However, if you do draw any Banes, you suffer half this bonus, rounding up, to fatigue or stress, in addition to the usual bane effects.
For example, Gustaf is in a desperate situation, facing a dangerous Skaven. He chooses to go into Reckless 5, his most reckless stance. He then takes the Melee Strike action and adds 5 to the result for a total of 15, enough to hit for +2 damage! Unfortunately, he drew a Jack of Spades, and a 7 of Spades, so he takes 2 Bane results, and a Chaos Star! This triggers the target being able to disengage from Gustaf, and also costs him 3 fatigue! Ouch
Actions
Actions remain, but obviously, there are changes. For the test difficulty, subtract -2 to the test for each Challenge dice, -1 for each misfortune, and +1for each fortune dice. For ranged and melee attacks, the default task is Easy, meaning that the test is made at -2, before further difficulties are applied. But the targets defence is used to resist this, subtracting -1 for each point of defence
For example, Gustaf the thief is about to perform the Backstab action. This has a difficulty modifier of -3, reducing this penalty by 1 for each ally engaged with his foe. Gustaf has Ag 5 and Stealth +1, while the target has Int 4 and Observation +1, so the basic difficulty Easy (-2) (Ag greater than opposing Int), -1 for targets Observation, and -2 (the target is engaged with one target), so Gustav must make a draw, adding 5, but subtracting 5, for a net +0 bonus. Since Gustaf is currently at Reckless 2 stance, he chooses to add a further 2 to the draw
His player draws a 10 of Spades for result of 12, so thats 1 bane, so gains 3 success worth of effect. Since Gustaf is in a reckless stance, he hits for +1 damage, and ignores the targets soak, and suffers 1 fatigue.
Recharge
Rather than keep track of recharging actions, players now need to make a Recharge draw, after using an action. Make a draw - if the result is greater than the actions Recharge rating, you may use it again this encounter. However, if the result is equal to or less than this rating, the action is exhausted, and cannot be used again this encounter. Talents that are exhausted are treated in the same way. For this draw, Jacks count as 11, Queens 12 and Kings 13.
For example, Gustaf the thief has just used Backstab, which has a recharge rating of 4. Everytime he uses it, he must draw 5 or more, or else he cant use it again this encounter.
If an action, talent or effect causes you to add or remove recharge tokens on an action, apply that amount as a penalty to the draw (if adding tokens), or as a bonus (if removing tokens).
For example, Gustaf managed to gain 2 Banes on his Backstab action, so when making his recharge draw, he must subtract 2 from the result.
To be continued...