Add three Abilities to the character sheet along side the Stats:
With the addition of Abilities to the game, the Stats need to be redefined somewhat:
Several other changes need to be made to the rules to accomodate Abilities. The "meta-rule" is that Abilities replace Stats whenever finesse is called for, while Stats are used whenever brute force is the key element; in the former case, Dexterity replaces Body, Intelligence replaces Mind, and Charisma replaces Soul.
The following replaces the tradition 2d6 mechanism with an Opposed d6's mechanism. To roll Opposed d6's, select two dice of different sizes or shapes; designate one as positive and the other as negative and roll them. Apply the result closer to zero to the character's trait, counting ties as no modifier; so a positive 4 and a negative 3 results in a trait - 3 result, while a positive 5 and a negative 6 results in a trait + 5 result. The GM assigns a Difficulty Number which the character must equal or exceed in order to succeed; a roll of trait + 5 is an automatic Critical Success regardless of the Difficulty, and a roll of trait - 5 is an automatic Critical Failure. For every two full points that the roll is above or below the Difficulty, the character gains an additional Degree of Success or Failure, respectively; the Degrees are Marginal, Minor, Major, Extreme, and Critical.
This approach is equivelent to a 1d6 - 1d6 dice-rolling system such as the one used in Feng Shui, but without the math.
Skills reduce the Difficulty of a task instead of subtracting from the roll. In fact, all bonuses and penalties to the roll increase or reduce the Difficulty instead.
Target Number | Action Difficulty |
---|---|
3 | Trivial. Why roll dice? |
4 | Nearly Trivial |
5 | Extremely Easy |
6 | Easy |
7 | Average Difficulty |
8 | Slightly Difficult |
9 | Difficult |
10 | Quite Difficult |
11 | Extremely Difficult |
12 | Outrageously Difficult |
13 | Practically Impossible |
The table above is set to duplicate the probabilities of standard BESM; however, some of the standard probabilities don't make much sense: someone with an average Stat (defined as level 4) is quite unlikely to succeed at a task of Average Difficulty. This can be corrected for by adjusting the difficulty ratings so that "Average Difficulty" is a 4:
Target Number | Action Difficulty |
---|---|
0 | Trivial. Why roll dice? |
1 | Nearly Trivial |
2 | Extremely Easy |
3 | Easy |
4 | Average Difficulty |
5 | Slightly Difficult |
6 | Difficult |
7 | Quite Difficult |
8 | Extremely Difficult |
9 | Outrageously Difficult |
10 | Practically Impossible |
On this scale, "Trivial" and "Practically Impossible" make sense in terms of someone with a Stat of 4 or 5, but slight increases in the Stat start to make Practically Impossible tasks quite easy to perform; likewise with slight decreases in a Stat and Trivial tasks. You might consider rescaling so that "Trivial" is -5 (so that even someone with Stat 0 would be rolling for a Critical Failure) and "Practically Impossible" is 15 (for similar reasons).
Instead of treating "trait -5" and "trait +5" results as automatic critical failure or success, respectively, roll the dice again; if the result would push the result further away from the trait, add it in. If it's also a 5, repeat the process.