[Design] Base mechanic and L5R

[Lev Lafayette]

In the past I've pooh-poohed L5R because of the all
the detail it goes into creating an alternative mythos
for Feudal Japan when Japanese mythology and history
would have done just as well.

However, rereading the rules last night I was struck
by the elegant beauty of their base mechanic, insofar
it managed to simulate exactly what I've been seeking
for sometime, that is, a means to differentiate
between Traits and Skills (which I notice they also
use as their terms).

A character's Trait detemines how many dice they roll
against a target number. A character's Skill provides
bonus dice, but the total number of dice that can be
used is still limited by the Trait.

So for example, if a character has a Trait of 3 and a
skill of 2, they roll 5 dice and pick the best 3. An
unskilled character with a Trait of 4 would simply
roll 4 dice.

Now L5R uses elements (Earth, Wind, Fire, Water and
Void) for Traits and uses d10s for dice, but there is
certainly no reason why the core mechanic can't be
used.

What do people think?

Regards,


Lev


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