Automatic Success on Attempts

Index Card RPG
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Hi all, here’s an idea I had to make combat & other encounters run more quickly in ICRPG. The idea is simple: When you attack or make another Attempt, you don’t roll the D20 - you just roll EFFORT. Likewise, enemies don’t roll to hit the PCs, they just roll for damage.

Why this rule? To speed up combat (no need to compare your check to a DC), and because succeeding is more fun than spending a turn to do nothing.

To balance it, a character or NPC’s DEFENCE score simply reduces the damage taken (DEFENCE of 2 means you subtract 2 from damage you take). DEFENCE would just be the bonus in this case, not 10 + whatever. Of course, this does mean that some attacks will still deal no damage if you roll low, but I think it feels better to “hit and deal no damage” than it does to “miss”.

This does mean you can’t crit on an attack, but you still get to use the ULTIMATE die when special abilities call for it, and when you spend a HERO COIN on it.

I mainly came up with this idea for combat, but you can apply it to other Attempts too. After all, if your thief character is picking a lock, it feels better to make at least some progress every turn, rather than having a chance of doing nothing.

Let me know your thoughts on this. Good idea? Too big of a change? Have you ever tried something similar?

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Into the Odd and games based on that has combat without to-hit rolls much like you describe. It feels a bit strange at first, but otherwise work well. A lot of people like it. With your addition of damage reduction it becomes slightly more complex but also like a middle ground between ItO and roll to-hit. I will probably work well. The only quirk I see is that you get a rather narrow band of outcomes (ie. 1-6 instead of 1-20), meaning that chance will play less role.

Let us know how it worked!

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Going to use this idea. I also have if it’s easy easy it’s an auto success, but you still roll just in case a 1. Same for HARD HARD … auto failure but roll for a Crit. The impossible can always happen

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