There are some nice ideas in the new dark Heresy 2nd ed game- I feel Warhammer would work well, going back to a percentile system, but using the 3rd ed as inspiration.
SYSTEM
Make a percentile roll against a relevant characteristic (each rated 1-100), based on the test. Then add your Skill bonus. Skills are ranked from 1 to 5:
Rank 1: -10%
Rank 2: 0
Rank 3: +10%
Rank 4: +20%
Rank 5: +30%
Each character starts with Rank 1 for all Basic Skills. Skills may be paired with any of the 6 characteristics, so using Athletics to climb may require a Strength test, while trying to impress someone with your athletic prowess could be a Fellowship test. If you have a relevant skill specialisation, you may also add 10% to your chance of success.
The Gamesmaster may now modify your skill attempt using this as a guide:
Simple task: +30% or more
Easy task: +10 to 20%
Average task: -
Hard task: -10 to -20%
Daunting task: -30% or more
If your roll is less than or equal to your combined characteristic plus skill bonus, you succeed. Use the 10s dice to determine the degrees of success; each tens unit lower than the required number is a degree of success (so rolling a 23 against a 57% chance of success counts as 3 degrees of success). Degrees of success are used to determine how much damage you inflict in combat, as well as additional benefits.
CHARACTER CREATION
Step 1. Select Race
Ogre Characters
To reflect their brutal upbringing, ever-consuming guts, and unique physiology, ogre characters have the following racial abilities:
- Thick Skin: Ogre hide is tougher and thicker than the smaller weaker races. Ogres gain +1 Soak.
- The Great Maw: Ogres can and will eat almost anything – their hunger is legendary. In fact, ogres must eat a pound of meat every hour or begin to starve. An ogre who fails to eat suffers -10% to all checks for each “meal” he skips. He keeps suffering accumulative penalties until he is able to eat enough meat to make up for his skipped meals. If the penalty due to hunger ever exceeds an ogre’s Toughness score, he either descends into a desperate, murderous, rage, killing and eating everything around him, or slumps helplessly to the ground until fed (player’s choice). Ogres gain +20% to resist ingested toxins, diseases, or any other hazard encountered through eating.
- Fearless: Ogres treat the difficulty of all Fear ratings confronting them as 1 less than normal (to a minimum of 1). In addition, Terror ratings confronting them are treated as Fear ratings instead (but do not have their rating reduced).
Wound Threshold: 12+ Toughness Bonus
Corruption Threshold: 10 + Toughness Bonus
Halfling Characters
To reflect their small, nimble stature and avaricious nature, halfling characters have the following racial abilities:
- Roguish Pursuits: Before investing any experience points during character creation , a halfling may gain 1 rank in any one of the following skill for free – Ballistic Skill, Guile, Skulduggery, Stealth.
- Naturally Sneaky: Halflings often escape notice and as such all Observation checks to detect the halfling suffer -20% .
- Night Vision: Halflings reduce all penalties due to darkness or lack of sufficient light by 20%.
Wound Threshold: 7+ Toughness Bonus
Corruption Threshold: 15 + Toughness Bonus
Ostlander Characters
To reflect their stubborn nature, and long enmity against the forces of Chaos, Ostlander characters have the following racial abilities:
- Stubborn: Ostlanders’ mental characteristics are considered to be 10 higher for the purposes of determining whether that characteristic is distressed.
- Fighters against Chaos: Ostlanders treat the difficulty of all Fear ratings of foes aligned to Chaos as 1 less than normal (to a minimum of 1). In addition, the Terror ratings of foes aligned to Chaos are treated as Fear ratings instead (but do not have their rating reduced).
- Diversity: At character creation, Ostlanders may increase any two characteristics by 5%, or increase a single characteristic by +10%.
Wound Threshold: 9 + Toughness Bonus
Corruption Threshold: 5 + Toughness Bonus
Step 2: Determine Characteristics
Man: St 2d10+20, To 2d10+20, Ag 2d10+20, Int 2d10+20, WP 2d10+20, Fel 2d10+20
Dwarf: St 2d10+30, To 2d10+30, Ag 2d10+20, Int 2d10+20, WP 2d10+20, Fel 2d10+20
Halfling: St 2d10+10, To 2d10+20, Ag 2d10+30, Int 2d10+20, WP 2d10+20, Fel 2d10+30
High Elf: St 2d10+20, To 2d10+20, Ag 2d10+30, Int 2d10+30, WP 2d10+20, Fel 2d10+20
Wood Elf: St 2d10+20, To 2d10+20, Ag 2d10+30, Int 2d10+20, WP 2d10+30, Fel 2d10+20
Ogre: St 3d10+30, To 3 d10+30, Ag 2d10+20, Int 2d10+10, WP 2d10+20, Fel 2d10+10
Edited by Phantomdoodler