Background
I am making an RPG that uses poker/Yahtzee like hands from die rolls instead of the normal "dice+mods vs target number" paradigm for determining effects of character actions. Each hand exists one a scale of likelihood to be consulted to determine effects of actions.
Actions have three outcomes; total success, total failure, and other. Determining which hand is required for total success consists of summing influences of factors, where each factor states that it covers some number of hands. Players (or the DM) then "cover" each factors number of hands, in an particular order, from most to least likely. Any actions whose hand hits that factor provides effects based on the factor.
As an example, defending against a physical attack would have the scale covered by the dodge factor and then the armor factor. Any attack whose hand is in the dodge range is avoided entirely, any hand in the armor range can stun, any less likely hand causes an injury.
The Problem
Hitting a particular hand can have vanishingly small chances. The solution I am toying with implements partial successes to modify the target hand required. (Encouraging flavorful things to happen, like stunning, blinding, feinting, teaming up, etc. against tough opponents.)
If a character has a dodge factor of 1 and an armor factor of 1, any attacks hand above 2-doubles (2 hands up the scale) will have full effect. If they are stunned, removing their dodge factor, the player must then go through the covering process again, but now ignoring their dodge factor. Since their armor only covers 1 hand and dodge is negated, their armor factor only covers doubles (1 hand up the scale) and actions with less likely hands are a total success.
It is reasonable that factors change with every action of the players or monsters. This may lead to recalculating these ranges frequently, possibly multiple times per turn.
The Question
Are there any RPGs (or mechanics) out there that have a simple method for tracking ranges of numbers or values which frequently charge?
The ideal solution:
- has a low mental burden: these bounds may shift over a few combat exchanges!
- should be "nice" to a character sheet: it shouldn't involve anything significantly larger than a 8"x11.5" or A4 sheet of paper, be storable in a notebook or file folder, and allow that sheet to be used for hours of gaming time.
- allows for multiple shifts in the ranges to track. (Such as multiple factors suddenly applying or being removed.)
Some Research
The best solution I am considering right now is side-of-sheet trackers and paperclips. The paperclips would mark the maximum hand each factor covers at any given turn and it would be up to the players to move them up/down as needed.
Another solution would be to simply have common alternate states stored on character sheet, much like AC, Flat-footed AC, and Touch AC from D&D 3.5! That forces some design choices, like limiting the number of alternate states.
Another is to simply not modify the range on paper at all, but include something like "act as if your resulting hand is actually of the next-most-unlikely (or next-most-likely) hand."
