DRD

Core Rules

Resolution mechanics

Any task has it’s 🛡️ Resolution Class to succeed in the task you need to surpass it with your 💪 Resolution Ability or add the result of a 🎲 Resolution Dice - a 2d4 roll

Risk and strain

Some actions are risky, requiring a ⚠️ Risk Dice a d6 roll where 1 leads to harm of self and 6 leads to collateral damage. Any form of harm to the character is loosely represented by ☠️ Strain. Some things are always risky, like energy usage in 🧙 Casting

Casting

Casting is the ability to cast energy into effects on the physical world. Use the cast charts in your character sheet to determine how the cast is made

Legend

🛡️ Resolution Class

Ranks the difficulty of a task
Unaffected by the person undertaking the task.

💪 Resolution Ability

A bonus or a penalty from expertise, equipment or circumstance that determines success in completing tasks.
A higher Resolution Ability secures automatic successes if it surpasses the Resolution Class

🎲 Resolution Dice

A 2d4 roll that is added to the Resolution Ability to determine outcome.

⚠️ Risk Dice

A d6 roll determining the potential negative consequences of dangerous or reckless actions.
Outcomes can be harm to actor (1) to collateral damage (6) or safe (2-5)
For energy generation in Casting : harm to actor (1) harm to source (6)

☠️ Strain

Indicates fatigue, stress, injury but also karma, luck and plot armor.
Levels of 4 or 5 result in incapacitation or complete loss of the character, respectively.

🧙 Casting

High-risk, high-reward, powerful and unique abilities
Based on cast chart, see the resolution class of the desired action. Surpass it with Resolution Ability or consume energy to increase it while increasing risk

🔋 Energy

Continues energy can be generated from your own muscle, adding 3 Resolution Ability, and one Risk Dice
Combustible energy can be generated by consuming sugar of any kind (including ash) adding d4 to Resolution Ability and one Risk Dice

🦸 Legendary Acts

At the end of a session, with a discussion amongst the players and the DM, at least one character gets a legendary act due to an awesome action they did during the session. (this system’s equivalent of level up)
A legendary act can be anything from a bonus, a cast, etc.

🧙 Casting

Any living entity (and some inanimate) have a pool of energy inside them that may contain combustible or continuous energy for a short time. For most, having the pool contain anything actively is a risk that grows as time goes on. Anyone can charge their own pool with continues energy using their own muscles or with combustible energy by consuming simple carbohydrates (common source is ash)

Combustible energy - Use immediately on cast

Continues energy - Used while the spell is maintained, requires concentration, meaning that if you get hit, you might lose the cast

When casting, add the 🛡️ Resolution Class

(RC) from each category together, that’s your total RC, you need to surpass it with your 💪Resolution Ability. To do so, you may need to consume energy.

Example : to use Calida’s Thermic Touch to make my 10 foot thin rope conductive, my mass will be 2Rc as it’s heavier than a coin but no heavier than a rock. And my Conductivity change will be 3Rc, as I want it to be conductive but it doesn’t need to be extremely so. Together that means I need 5Rc. My base resolution ability is 3, so to reach 5 I need to use my muscles to generate continuous energy, even though it’s risky. So my cast succeeds, and I throw a Risk Dice to see if there are negative consequences Note, the casting itself does not involve dice,

Abilities

Abilities represent the character's ableness to deal with any situation. When a situation requires resolution, the player will usually add one or two relevant Abilities to their Resolution Ability (can add the same one twice)

👁️‍🗨️ Sense - alertness, perception, vision, hearing, touch, attentiveness
👥 Social - diplomacy, etiquette, leadership, intimidation, persuasion, seduction, social cues
💪 Physical - strength, endurance, agility, dexterity, speed, balance
🛠️ Mechanical - engineering, repairing, solving mechanical problems, building, crafting
🧙 Casting - casting spells/casts, using magic, channeling energy, using magical items

DRD changelog

0.2 - A plan doesn't survive contact with the enemy. It’s the same for rpg systems when they meet the players

Resolution dice is no longer a d6, it’s now 2d4.
When two or more risk dice are used, failure is catastrophic
Resolution ability is now added multiple times based on applicability of ability on resolution. Base is twice.

Enemies no longer throw dice in battle, each enemy has their RC (resolution score) base, then based on the abilities they use and their situation, up to 3 is added or subtracted
When casting, can no longer add resolution dice,
When casting, risk dice is no longer required for the spell, but is required when using up energy.
When casting, resolution score is resolution ability + energy
Using 15kg of muscle energy, adds 3 to resolution score + 1 risk dice
Using ash adds 3 to resolution score + 1 risk dice
Using external energy can go higher
When throwing risk for energy usage, harm to self means harm to caster, collateral means harm to pool/source (can also be caster)

0.3 - Simplification

A new ability called “Sense” which will be responsible for alertness, perception, vision, hearing, touch, attentiveness, etc.
Drama tokens are no longer used as narrative injectors, instead they are used to add a d4 to any resolution including ones that don’t require resolution dice like casting
Narrative injectors are now loosely limited to one per player per session
Continues energy usage is no longer rigidly tied to 15kg of energy, it’s now a more loose connection to strength
Carrying ash is no longer trivial, the vials are heavy and big, cannot carry more than roughly ten of them on your person or fifteen if you have a pack, without some careful management and creative solutions

0.4 - Killing my darlings

Risk dice is now d6 instead of d8
1 On risk dice always means at least 1 strain on actor instead of potentially
6 On risk dice is equivalent to what 8 was, collateral damage.
Narrative injectors are removed, a player may still inject narrative, this is now delegated to the dm and the players instead of to the system itself
Drama tokens are removed, while the idea and the logic behind them is solid, in practice they had minimal effect on gameplay, my current theory is that verbal positive reinforcement of great roleplaying goes further in the same goal.
Risk dice on casting is changed, now 1 will always mean strain to actor, and 6 will always mean strain to source. This, along with the dice change means that producing energy for casting has become a lot more dangerous. (33% chance as opposed to 25%). Note, if the source is you, the two are identical. If the source is ash/sugar, 6 (harm to source) means that more is consumed (double) if more is close to the original source. Nothing happens otherwise.
Producing combustible energy is now no longer a consistent 3. It is now changed to a d4, meaning less consistency and less energy on average. Remember, because energy production comes before energy usage, one can always generate more, at higher risk.
Reckless action is removed as a mechanic. A player may still choose to do something more dangerous to get bonuses, just don’t need a name for that.

Change my mind!