I super simplified icrpg to play with my niece and nephew. I gave three stats guts, smarts, and spirit. They ranked them high to low (+1 to +3). The standard target DC was 5 use a 1d6 plus relevant stat. No damage roll just a 1 or 2. Creatures had rolls with bonus between +0 and +3, and couple of wound points. They typically dealt 1 damage, but might have two attacks. My nephew told his dad when he asked why he didn't go into an area, "There might be a monster." The dad said, "Well go kill it." My nephew said, "It is not about killing monsters. It is about making good choices." He is seven...

Like the ideas! It seems to me that you could have matched all the colours of the dice for the first system better. Damage dice for both GM and PC are red, so the other colours could be paired in the same way: the basic dice as white, and the green for both sides being advantage from circumstance/environment (or blue, in case of the red/green colour blind).

Hank is a Charismatic(adjective) Rune Master(Noun) that plays D&D like a big ol' badass. (verbs)

17:12 I love how after you do a bunch of onomatopoeia and pretend to chop someone's head off or something you have this moment where you sorta stare off into space like "wait, what was I doing?" before continuing on with your explanation. It really shows how much you love this stuff. You're just fully committed to the scene for a moment, and it takes you a sec to return to reality.

I love the psychological shift in player-only rolling. It seems to me this invests greater agency in the players, and removing a sense that things are happening to them. It also means that it is always some player's turn!

The value in narrative dice is that the D6 represents luck, the d8 attributes, and the D12 is skill. On the flip side the D6 is bad luck, the D8 is difficulty, and the D12 is a technical difficulty. When you succeed with luck that effects the story, as well as with an attribute or a skill. When you add threat and advantage, triumph and despair it effects the story. Just looking for success or. Failure means it's easier to just roll one dice and look for a target number

What makes the dice interesting is to say - you succeeded with a despair. The magic missile hits the green slime and does 4 damage but this causes it split in half and now there are two..

you have changed my life. before I saw this video I have not heard the term "diy" roleplaying. I've been buying game systems and tinkering with them for a long time but never finding something I completely LOVED. but tonight, after watching this video, I will be reviewing all the games I own and combining the best parts of each to create a game that is really truly MINE 💜 I am bugging out to my partner rn, I wish I could like this video multiple time. I just want to let you know how much of a difference you've made to me, thank you thank you thank you 🤘

re: Narrative Dice Demonstration -- That is really interesting. I see your point about the dice: The dice that succeed don't just provide a +1 towards the total, but they also tell you how, why, that point was provided, based on the color. That IS really interesting.

Another clever RPG system you might find interesting is Maschein Zeit, an indie sci-fi/horror themed game. Like Numenera, it has consumable stat pools, but where it innovates is that it reframes action resolution away from "Did you roll high enough to succeed?" to "How badly do you want this to happen?" The player decides a combination of attributes/skills (called "Elements") and adds them together to form a percentile chance which they roll against on a d100. Alongside this are "Personal Elements," or character details represented by a rating of 0 to 25. Each time a player does something requiring a role, they must choose one Universal Element (equivalent to attributes in D&D) and one Personal Element, plus any optional, consumable "Dramatic Elements" to calculate the difficulty number they roll against. In other words, it forces players to roleplay each time they have to roll, keeping their actions rooted in their character's unique motivations and characteristics.

I love game mechanics! I love just reading rule books and settings. I don't even plan on playing some of the games I have bought. Maybe I am a wierdo! So I bring this up because I thought I was the only person that thought like that! Keep making great videos, and keep thinking!

On the one hand I love discovering new game mechanic. On the other it stings a little when a popular game has already come up with something you just spent days inventing

Hell yeah man, I'm knees deep in Genesys and I love it.

This is reeeeealy cool. I'll be coming back to post the system I developed for my TTRPG. It's based of Vampire 5e and just uses d6 for EVERYTHING! From flying to trying to charm a person.

Just got into Genesys. I really love it. Thanks for another great and thoughtful video.

Dope video. I appreciate your unbridled enthusiasm for exploring different systems. Your ability to hype up and talk about what makes different systems really sing is why I ended up getting into both Dungeon World and Blades in the Dark. I'll definitely have to check these out.

Absolutely, I am endeavoring to create my 5th homemade games

This is awesome! Thank you, this is right up my alley of fun game play ideas.

I agree with the FFG narrative dice mechanics: I find the advantage, triumph, despair and threat rolls aid so greatly in describing the outcomes of actions and the unintended consequences of those actions.

Love the video! I run a super homebrew campaign over on my channel, and we've owed a lot to your channel over the years. The thing the party enjoyed the most has been the d4 "suspense dice" and 3D terrain for combat! Keep it up!

Bro. Just found your channel. Watched the video. Had my mind blown. Subscribed. Respect. Keep going. You RULE!

I'm starting to learn Star Wars and the dice system is very cool and fresh for me And I'm running a Fallout game with Cypher System...I have never played a game that runs so fast...like this system a lot

this can solve my "boring feel" on cypher solo combat :D THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK YOU i'll try this

Love the idea, definitely going to steal it. The idea that the dice account for different factors and thereby drive The narrative as well as the outcome is genius.

NDS I think has some of the best mechanics out there. Opportune failure, success at a cost, the Obligation/Duty mechanics, the way they do gear - it's damn good!

As always, another awesome video, Hank. I am currently playing DMing FFG's Star Wars and I really enjoy narrative dice. Applying difficulty to a roll as a DM is really intuitive and the little details of the action consequences that you can read from the roll give a lot of joy for both DM and players. Another element of Genesys system that me and my player really appreciate and enjoy during play is Story Points (Destiny Points). It is simple little resource that allows both Players (it is a group resource for Players) and DM to modify the roll (Player can make his/hers roll easier and GM can make the roll harder for PC or DM), DM and PCs can spend them to add new elements to the plot, but the REAL magic of this mechanic is that it brings great interaction between DM and PCs (as a group) as once the point is used by PC it goes to DM's pool and it goes back to PCs once it is used by DM. I works really great during play. And brings a little "manage your risk" element to the game :)

I like segmenting AC into different bonuses (eg. Dodge/Armour/Shield/Cover). So if an attack would've hit you if not for your shield, then you blocked it with your shield, etc. Purely narrative effect, but I find it helps you feel your equipment making the difference. :) (If you play systems with touch/flat-footed AC, you could use those to say whether an attack was dodged or blocked by armour)

Incredibly inspiring. Gonna GM tommorrow and I've got to implement this! HUZAR!!

Reminds a lot of some of our home brewed Heroquest/Shadowrun back in the day. Kinda reminds me of the fumble/success rule I really loved from Shadowrun (You could still fumble while succeeding if half your dice pool was 1's but you still scored enough hits to pass eg: you jump the hurdle BUT you clip it with your foot and knock it over slowing you down slightly etc)

Great video - Numenara has been on my wishlist for a while but I think you've nudged me just enough to finally get it.

Videos like this! Thanks for all the inspiring insight you provide! It is truly enriching. Every single video on this channel is gold

Cool video, one of my favorite for sure. I really liked the DIY part about the narrative dice instead of talking about the genesys system itself, smart move. ^^

Very large badass reporting in...

That Roll at 18:38 was amazers. Hank, you rock.

After playing the Star Wars system with narrative dice, I have been thinking how to integrate them into D&D but still keep it D&D for the D&D 5e crowd of players.

This video is great! I love how you collect mechanics and alter them to fit your DM style. These are interesting mechanics too!

Just ordered some blank d6s, 2 each in 7 different colours. Time to experiment!

Yeah , I get it, when I read the cypher system it took me a whole day to get it, but when I finally got it, I loved the system.

Very interesting as usual. Thx Hank!

LOL, I kinda want a tattoo that says "Keep it Real, Don't Steal, and You'll Always Get a Deal!"

I can't upvote this video enough. It's so great!

Love your videos man, thanks for all the wisdom. May it remains for the ages

This is the video I've been waiting for. Best Drunks n Drags in a while!!

Love this even more on my third rewatch

Great video, nice work explaining the new mechanics.

Excellent video. I love to read and think through rpg systems as well. Reading and enjoying others systems is a big part of the hobby (and can be done without any other players: it is rpg-ing for one).

Just found you! Great video! I love outfitting and adding extra techniques to my out of the book rpg. Subscribed

just found this channel because i want to build in narrativ3 dice into my d&d game. i think i found the right crazy bugger who has the same kind of experimental mind should watch some more of your stuff

I can see the Genesys influence in the pool. One thing I like about Gensys is expressing difficult in number of dice, 1-4. On your DIY dice, looks like you could just take different colored d6's, with "Successes" being counted on 4-6 (which is a really simple, really cool way to port Genesys over to the table [which I've been considering in my home campaign]). One thing missing is Advantage/Threat and Triumph/Despair, but that could be done with an additional die. At the risk of carrying on with this, I put together a system that uses Genesys Dice in a similar manner, but utilizes Advantage/Threat as "Maneuver Points" which can be accrued during Encounters, then spent on a chart similar to that presented in Fantasy Age (FAGE). The idea is that, the longer the Encounter goes on, the more tactical information you bring in. If you stockpile enough MP's, you can deliver all sorts of additional moves--faster reload, more damage, grant a Boost to a companion, and so on. I'm re-thinking the system now, using the color-code idea you have here, because your idea is much simpler to enact and interpret. Plus, d6's! Cheap and plentiful. So, long story short, thanks for the inspiration! I'm one of those "lumpyheads" who cobbles stuff from multiple systems. Downside=things can get too complicated. Stuff like this is extremely helpful. Thanks, and thanks, and thanks again, man.

Great video! So much ideas!

Thanks for a great video, introducing me to Numenera. Sounds like an awesome system that I'm eager to try.

Thanks Hank!

It reminds me a little of games like Descent with the attack / block dice. Although I appreciate the narrative aspect of it being a full RPG mechanic makes it interesting.

Hankerin', your show is part of my balance when current events cloud the positive perspective! Well done video once again.

Awesome. I have so many ideas. I love this channel.

Thanks for explaining how narrative dice work, Hankerin! I'll be borrowing on your DIY narrative dice idea. Got some blank colored dice from Amazon, along with a simple electric engraver and some paint markers. I'm going to have fun making my own custom set of dice!

Numenera definitely has a cup full of bomb-diggity between the covers. The world is effing brilliant, but it is Monte Cook. Hehe. My local group wasn’t feeling a game of Numenera at first, so I had their Warpshell drop into the Numenera verse for a one-shot. Gave some of the cyphers a quick ICRPG wash for loot and let them Hero it up for a few adventures. Numenera is now part of the lineup. 🤘 Great vid, HF. 👍

I love the narrative dice system that Fantasy Flight did for their Star Wars line which is the same as Genesys.

dude i couldn't click out. this is a straight up humble ass sub. keep creating man im digging the culture

Great video, I love looking at our game systems and mechanics and seeing what I can add to the games my group is already playing. Numenera to me will always be something that looks really good on paper but it didn't really play how it was pitched. We played Numenera for a few months and there is a lot of really cool features and innovations they add (LOVE character creation and the variation it brings) but ultimately when the players got familiar with the system it got too metagamey. Having to spend abilities on the same pools as your health essentially comes from always rubbed the players the wrong way. An example I would hear from players was "why would I spend 3 points of my speed pool to try to dodge 4 points of might damage because if I fail I am in a much worse position" If I could figure out how to add the character creation system into a more traditional format, that would be a huge win to me.

Great stuff. I totally feel the same about exploring other game systems and unique mechanices. To that end, I would recommend the following; The One Ring by Cubicle 7 and Alternity by TSR (not the new version they're working on, the one from 1999). Very interesting mechanics in both. Oh, bonus recommendation, Underground by Mayfair Games from the 90's. Check them out for some very interesting mechanics.

Numenera has another interesting mechanic, Intrusions, basically the DM says "suddenly X bad happens" the player can say "Okay cool" and he and another player get XP or he can say "No Way Jose" and you automatically pass challenge (but you don't get XP. and your friends hate U). It's interesting mostly because of the XP system the game has, where 1 XP is allways worth the same, and you can spend XP to get some short/mid term benefits rather than "leveling up". But maybe it can be tweaked for games that don't have XP or in games where you need a lot of XP to level up, like for example maybe you and another player get a free healing, or you get a spell slot back, or you can use an item again, etc. My main problem with "different die mechanics" is that it can slow down the game, if you have combats with lots of attacks and checks you maybe don't want to make every die throw into a quiz.

Still like a dice pool of d6’s, players might have for example a 4 in a weapon skill, so usually average challenge is hits on 4,5 or 6, add advantage can be done adding another d6 to roll, or change challenge difficulty to 3 or higher for easy or 5 or higher for hard. Also we roll a different coloured damage die at the same time, no need for a separate roll. Also you can count the hits (or success on non-combat tests), so if you roll 3 hits, at a glance you can see not only that you hit, but how successful you hit. Add the success level to the damage dice rolled.

Great video, Hank, you touched on some of my favourite topics in RPG design. I did want to point out though - Dungeon World, and, in fact, most Powered by the Apocalypse games, have no GM rolling at all, just the players roll, so this isn't so much an innovation in Numenera. This being said, it is an awesome system and setting.

I love you. I've been in a rut, looking all over for ideas. It was always the same generic stuff. I found your video. Holy crap. The system you've talked about is JUST WHAT I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR. Good vid btw. You're very entertaining. Cheers. Necroed, sorry. Lol

Loved this video

Good stuff Hank, I look forward to more videos driving into innovative mechanics and your silly hijinks!

I finally bought a starter set, and found Numenera to be way less burdened by "game language" as Dungeon World is. Because of the"game-ee-ness" if the system and terms in DW, for me its chief value is as a "how to DM training guide" and a strong reminder to consider gradations of success beyond simple pass fail.

Appreciate the video dude!

Players roll all the dice in Symbaroum too. Intriguing mechanic.

Thanks man, fun method. Even though I am a huge fan of D&D, one of the things I am not a fan of is the linear feel of D20 results...I think something like this might be better. It also reminds me a little of the system I am working on ;)

gonna give this a go. Thanks Hank! Nice hair by the way. Im gonna shed my winter coat this weekend myself😁

I would love to see a full blown example of how to use your DIY Narrative Dice with either Index Card RPG or D&D 5E or as it's own standalone game system. I was able to whip up some stuff with the knowledge of End of the World and the NDS from Genesys then using some other elements from Cypher and a bunch of other stuff.

I'm not interested in the narrative dice mechanic but I love the Numanera mechanic. The players fate is never in the GM's dice but THEIR OWN. Combined with fixed damage I could see this being a fast and exciting system. 😎

Hank is kinda like a cool version of Phil Dunphy from modern families

i realy like descent and star wars empire assault dice system, and I included these in my GMing . This is paired with a 2d6 rolls system with stackable advantages and disadvantages. quite fun and a lot of variation in rolls between characters profiles

To me, die mechanics should be like the meter and rhyme scheme of a poem. They are instrumental in setting tone and feel but should ultimately work subtlety from behind the curtain and not be the focus of game play.

Cool video as always Hank. Keep the vids up. Oh, can you do a video on West Marches style games?

Entertaining and interesting..... Nice!

I think my biggest gripe with narrative dice is the naming, I don't feel like they actually doing any narrative work, I would call the them descriptive dice, since that is what they do.

Great stuff

Fate Core has a similar narrative flow. Dice rolls are always opposed. It can make for long combats sometimes.

The take away from this is that you can take a single minature micro tactical strategy game like (any version of) a d20 game and add some roleplaying or creative outcome aspects to it. This sounds how D&D originally evolved out of miniature army games (akin to Warhammer). Unfortunetly that evolution stalled in 1974 with D&D and the idea of actual dynamic roleplaying was picked up by other games that now treat roleplaying and dynamic storytelling as being of equal import to the otherwise eternal grind of combat. If you have to hack a system to make it dynamic, maybe the system simply needs to be replaced instead of adding one more level of complexity to an already needlessly complex system that's really only designed to tactically push your one minature across a battlemat. The beauty of Genesys, Numenera, etc is that they are trying to teach roleplaying to those who have the misfortune of only knowning tactical dice chucking by using a system that is designed from the ground to prevent an amazing adventure from being almost ground to a halt due to endless math and character sheet micromanagment. If your an accountant, endless math might be fun but for true heroes, not so much.

@Runehammer: It would be really cool to have a video about almost all the dice systems used across all the rpg books. Not an easy task but for us, DIY rpg crasy person ;), it could be very useful to have kind of a summery or a global view of what system to use for our homebrew rpgs projects.

The Genesys type of rolling is similar to Shadowrun with d6's. You compare the amount of 5's and 6's you and the GM roll, or "hits," from a varying dice pool depending on different factors (similar to the example of Environment dice, high ground and such.)

Brao. The Numenera système is the only système i can play now. So easy on the Dm

As Always, world class theory. But that's a hell of a shirt!!!

Very apocalypse world inspired mechs :) liiike

Interesting ideas, I wouldn't mind running or playing a game with you. My old group was way to up tight.

I'm not sure if it's meant to be played this way, but I've always had players roll "all dice" when playing Genesys/Star Wars RPG. So this way, the GM/DM doesn't ever roll against the player. That way they can just calculate the roll results as well. and if the result is negative, then the GM gets to explain how the Fails/Threats play out.

Didn't played Genesys but played FFG Star Wars and Warhammer 3e, which is essentially the same mechanics and I gotta say it works a charm. For starters, it's REALLY fun to build up your pool and throw a handfull of dice at once (for the D&D hardened, each roll feels the same as when you cast a lvl 10 fireball :P). The non-binary results is so great. Can succeed with an added advantage, can crit, can succeed with disadvantage, can succeed with a crit fail, can fail with a boon, fail with a disadvantage, so many possibilities. The only thing that I didn't like is you never know at a glance what is the result of your check. You throw a bunch of dice and then wonder and move dice around for 15-30 sec before you actually evaluate what's the result of the check. Numenera, the setting is freaking awesome but wasn't a big fan of the system though. Like, I dislike that the DC is on a 1-5 scale and then you need to multiply by 3 to get to a D20 scale... Just gimme the damn d20 DC already :P

Traveller has been using 2d6 and a fixed difficulty since the 80s...

New name. Same style. Still a little on the other side of "Just a little bit nuts." This is going to be a great episode.

I still play 3.5e. Im DIE-HARD 3.5e LoL I like the 4e and 5e books but I only incorporate the new info and rules, ect into my 3.5e world. I dont use the 5e classes myself but I allow players to use any edition classes they want. But I stick to 3.5e rules for running the game. I incorporate new stuff like Reputation, Action Points, Skills, Feats, I consider Talents as Feats but they must be picked in their tree order still. Stuff like that. I LOVE D&D ;-) Been playing since 2nd edition, for over 25 years now.

Awesome video, and love that game board! Did you make it, or buy it? If the latter, do you have a link?

Did you say "lumpy heads"? lol. You teach interesting set design. =) Never tried narrative dice but are certainly an interesting thing to toy with when designing a game.

Narrative dice are cool & loving this vid I've been tinkering FFG's dice & come up with my own D6 methods Running WEG Star Wars with it soon

How is a stat pool different than the old dice pool games? Guess now the dice pool is more categorized? I like the idea of player only rolling as it gives my players more agency. But how do you handle things like discovering secret doors where the DM needs to roll in order to prevent meta-gaming and keep building suspense? Love hearing about this kind of stuff! Thanks for the great video.

Undoubtedly two books to have at home...

Lumpyhead here! 😅 I do something similar but with a "FASERIP" type action table.