3d6 Minimalist Tabletop Standard

 A bit like "weirdways" but I like 3d6 a bit more than 2d6, sorry y'all.

This is my standard framework for quick-start and quick-play tabletop games, as well as anything that focuses more on the "fiction" than the "mechanics". You can definitely do longer term games with this, which I intend to eventually.

The mechanics that exist are primarily there as a concrete "foundation" to turn to. Something there so you can make rolls.

"Ruling not rules" is kinda the name of the game, with a core set of "rules" that more so exists to facilitate that philosophy.

(This is tagged "FKR" because its sorta meant to facilitate that kind of thing. Just go with it even if its not 100% accurate.) 

 

I couldn't think of another image to use. 3d6 outcome spread, from Anydice

Action Resolution

Actions are not abstracted into generic unspecified actions of a broad type. Describe them. Do not have your character "make a light attack", have them swing the sword, or take a defensive stance, or bite their lip until it bleeds so they can call upon the bloodthirsty dark powers they recently communed with. Something actually embedded in the world the game takes place in.

Action resolution is very simple. The core roll is a 3d6 roll on the following table, which represents not the absolute result of the roll, but rather how well the character made use of their capabilities. 

• 3: Minimal
• 4-5: Terrible
• 6-8: Bad
• 9-12: Average
• 13-15: Good
• 16-17: Excellent
• 18: Optimal

The result is then taken into account along with any number of traits the character has (attributes, skills, powers, tools they're using) that are relevant to the action and being made use of (a tool does not add to it unless it is actively being used). Thus, average does not mean some arbitrary "average for the universe" or "average for humanity" result (unless the PC is themself average in these respects), but rather average for the PC.

This is context sensitive. If the entity is trying to attack something, then it might take into account how strong they are, the weapon they use, how coordinated and swift they are, how dexterous they are, etc. But the weapon may also influence what is given more weight. Strength is a lot less important than leverage when wielding most swords, for example (though it contributes).

Note that this applies even for "contested" rolls, where two entities roll against each other. Rather than comparing the direct numerical result, what each entities respective results mean for that entity are compared. As an example, a "bad" outcome for a wrestling match for someone thrice as heavy than you, and fully able to lift twice their weight, will probably not result in a failure state for them even if you get a "good" result, unless you are significantly strong and skilled enough to close that gap. 

Entities in the game can also either "Boost" an action, or take an "Unrolled" action. Unrolled actions forego rolling, instead landing in the "average" range no matter what. The exact result does not matter, so no roll is necessary.

Entities can always take "Unrolled" actions, unless otherwise stated by an effect of some kind. This is generally the assumed default, though this may vary based on the players and GM. If an action would basically always succeed, this is what happens.

Entities can also almost always "Boost" an action, often more than once! This requires that you make rolls and so cannot be done as an Unrolled actions. When boosting, one or more d6s is added to the pool of dice. Only the highest three dice are read, however. Note that there are diminishing returns the more you put in, as these boosts only serve to push the entity towards the higher end of their own capabilities.

Boosting comes at a cost. The first few are often "free", but it taps in to some form of endurance or stamina, and will exhaust you the more you do it. This may look different for different kinds of actions (physical exhaustion vs mental exhaustion for physical vs mental actions, and weirder things for more esoteric things). More esoteric boosts may be things like blood sacrifices, magic drawing from your life force directly (same result more or less), loss of precise control over the outcome and so on.

Some qualities might actually have the mechanical effect of increasing the number of boosts you can do for "free" (and thus the number needed to actually progress the "exhaustion"). I would also generally limit boosts you can put into a single action to the amount you can do for "free" unless some quality, context, power etc allows for more. This means you cant just dump your entire being into guaranteeing you can make a single roll, unless its justified in universe (or in the narrative, if its that sort of game).

Some contexts may provide genuinely free boosts. If your psychic powers are easier to access in high stress situations, strong emotions may provide boosts. You may have to make an argument for some of these. In some contexts I would also rule that you have to make a rolled action, rather than an unrolled one (because the emotions make you a bit less consistent either way), unless you have some quality letting you deal with it. This choice would forego the free boost, since that requires a roll.

An important underlying note is negotiation. The GM gets the final say, but if you really think you should get a better (or worse?) outcome, then you can make a case for it. The GM has more information than you most of the time (though I would not recommend GMs keep information to their chest for the sake of it) so they can still overwrite your arguments, but negotiation is expected here. It will vary from table to table (even scene to scene) of course.

Other mechanical twists can happen. Some strange things may allow you to flatly increase your capabilities temporarily (or permanently but that's not the topic of this part). This doesn't affect the rolls (boosting is just for accessing your capabilities more reliably, these would be something else), just the interpretation of them. Basically only mess with the actual mechanical core if you want to disrupt how the game "feels" on a fundamental level for some reason.

In other words, the actual game-play happens on the in-universe level, the rolls here are literally just a convenience tool too access some element of randomness. Player characters can choose to either act at their reliable average, or gamble for a better result at the risk of a worse one.

 

Clock table, This is actually a font iirc. (Source)

General Mechanical Stuff

I tend to track time based on the context. Things which demand immediate attention are in a quick-action moment-to-moment scale ("rounds"). Local exploration/hunting/tracking/other stuff might use 1 or 10 minute "turns" depending on the context. I might track travel and downtime using hours, days, weeks, months, seasons, years etc. Depends on the context.

"Initiative" could be a roll or just comparing traits and only determining if the actions run into each other.

Something I am fond of using no matter the context is "clocks" or "trackers". Set the count (number of segments), and increment (fill the segments) as needed. Great for tracking the worsening of wounds, the progression of curses or diseases, the progression of a complex spell, the amount of a resource left, the awareness of security, exhaustion and so on. Nest them, link them, do whatever you need. Very convenient. If I were to write this as an actual book and needed to pad the page count, I'd include a whole chapter about these (Blades in the Dark popularized them but I don't know if they "invented" them).

For physical and mental endurance/stamina, I generally use a three segment clock. This represents the "free" boosts you get. Each one you use, fill a segment. Once the clock is filled, boosting starts to cause "injuries" (status effects, see the next section). Id rule these as not too serious until you get a couple of them (maybe as much as segments on the now filled clock?), then they start actually becoming really bad, maybe even "permanent" (until such time as you can overcome them).

You could use the opposite of a boost as a mechanical tool, a Suppression. For those you add additional dice but only read the lowest ones. This would represent something that doesn't reduce your maximal output but makes it a lot less likely to happen. Hence the name, "suppression". Just like your lowest outcome is still possible with a boost, so is your highest still technically possible with suppression.

Never roll both at the same time. If you would, they cancel out one to one. A 1 dice boost and a 2 dice suppression would cancel out partially and result in a 1 dice suppression.

However the use case of suppression feels a little limited compared to typical status effects and injuries, since these impact the "in-universe" or "interpretive" layer directly, rather than the mechanical overlay. It would have to represent something rendering access to your average capabilities shaky, but not totally barred. As a "status effect" it would be most impactful to have it also prevent the use of unrolled actions.

For resources you could also use the "usage dice" of the black hack. That introduces more dice than this minimalist system generally supports (d6s can be salvaged from just about any tabletop game which is why so many things use them) so I wouldn't recommend it. Clocks are better for this system in my opinion, though you could do something similar to the magic dice of the GLOG to keep with d6s. I wouldn't bother with that though and I'd either track directly or use clocks. The mechanics are just tools so...

For magic/paranormal stuff its probably optimal to develop a system using the Arcana philosophy I've posted about before. Either in a broad or limited sense. Again, focus on the fiction and the rules of the world, rather than hard "game mechanics."

 

Depictions of wrestling from Beni Hassan tomb, egypt (source)

Combat and Wounds 

Combat works the same way. Entities act in hostile ways, either make Unrolled actions, normal rolls or "boost", determine what that result means based on the fiction and then compare actions.

Damage is not a loss of some abstracted "pool", but rather a series of in-fiction descriptive outcomes.

The severity and effect of damage is based on the type of damage, location and various qualities, all of which are based on the fiction and the combat results.

Weapons improve the lethality of damage and have specific damage types (reflecting the nature of the damage they deal). Armor reduces it. For example, plate armor in a medieval setting will render you impervious to most damage, rendering it trivial or even totally ineffective. Arrows will smack into the breastplate with little effect, and so on. Even low caliber ballistics will "ping" off the breastplate.

High rolls with high enough dexterity/skill may find gaps in armor. Depends on the described actions. If its just "I hit it" it may not. Aim for the weak spots. Describe actions. Get fun and strategic with it. Fight dirty if you have to.

Damage is essentially "debuffs" and "status effects". It is descriptive, and contributes (negatively) to the action resolution the same way qualities and skills do (but in reverse). Additionally, they may have worsening effects (cuts bleed, fractures worsen, organs fail). Damage will look different to different things.

In my first draft of this, I was compiling a list of tags for wounds. However I realized that a set list of tags clarifying severity and type/effect wont be the most useful for this "fiction first" philosophy, as wound severity starts to get a bit arbitrary/multidimensional at a point. A major gash or disrupted organ is more immediately dangerous than losing a bit of your outer ear, though the gash/organ may heal more totally than the ear, and something made of stone will have a completely different way of "taking damage" than a biological organism. It all depends.

I am however fond of distinguishing between totally ineffective damage, and "trivial" damage. Totally ineffective doesn't really do anything, while trivial damage can have secondary effects tied to it, or eventually exhaust your character or exacerbate into something worse. Again this can be done through description, and the two aren't even really totally separate anyways (since a bug sting is "trivial" and can inject non-trivial venom, but a bug that can damage the skin but not reach far enough still did something even if it wasn't enough to do that so...)

So as usual, the system is descriptive rather than prescriptive, and the fiction comes first. Much of this section is mostly to help me get into the proper mindset of this system and others may have less issues than me with getting over that "bump".

 

I just kinda wanted some cool looking art/diagrams for this section. (Source)

Characters

I'm fond of a "five question" or even "life-path" approach to character creation. The five questions may have multiple answers ("what people were you born to" may just be the culture you live in, but it might also account for fantastical peoples and social strata/class as well, as separate but interrelated answers) or not.

Life-path is a bit harder since it requires a bit more of a session 0 for each player, but is potentially more rewarding. It may cause some friction/be non-viable if its a high-lethality game however.

Character traits/aspects are less "a list of skills" and more "a description of the answer to a question/the characters capabilities". Think less "archery +2" and more "A skilled bowman". Or perhaps, "A skilled huntress", with more of a description of what that means in context. These will of course, imply different things, and each will offer multiple skills.

Even in that case, I prefer something more descriptive than "A skilled huntress". Give some context. Who trained you? What was the training like? How did it impact the physical appearance and psychology of the character? 

I usually also say that a PC gets at least one "Item" per "Answer" based on what it is. With life-path that's a bit different, of course, but this keeps things easy. As with anything else here, you can do it a different way.

Remember the actual traits are what contributes to the interpretation of your rolls. Negatives can still get you things though, and not everything will be linearly "good" or "bad". Some might be a re-assessment of capabilities. 

Character Improvement is multidimensional and nonlinear, based more on in-universe events than anything. You may get scars, diseases, curses, lose limbs etc, but you also may improve your skills and your qualities, develop otherworldly or inhuman abilities, collect treasure and agreements and so on. A lot of horizontal changes. You may, of course, just improve linearly in some way, but that will also be justified (far more practice with a bow, if using the archery example, or maybe being blessed by a spirit or goddess or something. Depends on the game).

The only real limit to improvement is the limit in-universe, which might be more a "Plateau" or "Bottleneck" depending on the context. In a sci fi game maybe your natural skill and attributes can only get so effective, but maybe you can break these limitations with cybernetics, biological enhancements and psionic powers.

Maybe a more fantastical game could have a more abstracted form of power you can "harvest" from enemies (or even victims?) like the various forms of "experience" spread through the soulslike games.

You don't have to be vague and wishy-washy on the details of the character, just use more real descriptions than "strength 40". "200 kilos and can lift 3 times his body weight overhead with little effort" is far more descriptive. The way you describe this will likely also be impacted by the exact game and setting too, as it should. The above example may become "heavy as a gorilla, and strong as a bear" in a stone age game, for example. 

 

Notes 

I mostly wanted to get this out so I could reference back to it for any other game that uses it. The first version of this was specific to Kith and Kin but I realized I wanted to use it more broadly, and didn't want to necessarily have people look through a larger game/setting article every time I wanted to link them to this framework.