I said I liked this idea because it felt complete. It did feel that way, but the more I think about it the more work I realise needs to be done.
Aside: Turns out there is a character class type thing in a game called RIFTS that is also called “Juicer” and functions pretty similarly to juicers in this game. I don’t think I mind too much seeing as the games themselves are very different. But it was an amusing coincidence nonetheless.
So, I realised that the system I had in place actually used a mechanic which I’m not too fond of where the GM has to come up with arbitrary target numbers for each task and I figured I’d change that around.
Instead of coming up with a target number (which could theoretically be any number > 1) they instead decide the difficulty class from a list of 5 and roll the associated number of dice.
1. Mundane (0 Dice): Anything a normal person could do with no trouble. Opening an unlocked door, hitting a non-moving close up target, logging into a computer terminal etc. No dice are rolled, the player succeeds.
2. Hard (1 Die): Within the bounds of a normal person (assuming they have the relevant skillset), they’ve got a reasonable chance of success. Jumping from one building to another, shooting someone from across the room in a high-pressure scenario, hacking a computer.
3. Difficult (2 dice): Within the bounds of a normal person (assuming they have the relevant skillset) but they are likely to fail. Shooting three people in the head in quick succession from across the room in a high pressure scenario, lifting up one side of a car, beating a computer in a game of chess.
4. Superhuman (3 dice): Outside the bounds of a normal person completely. Killing three people on the other side of the room with your bare hands before they have a chance to fire, throwing a car with full force, hacking an AI protected computer.
5. Impossible (0 dice): No one can do this. No dice are rolled, the player fails.
Once the dice have been rolled the number is compared to that players stat. The number of dice rolled is also compared to the number of times that player has juiced that stat. If the number of dice is equal then the player succeeds if their stat is equal to or higher than the rolled number and fails otherwise. If the player has more juice dice than the difficulty dice then if their stat is lower than the number rolled, they fail but still get some upside and succeed otherwise. If they have less juice dice and their stat is higher than the number rolled, they succeed but with a downside and fail otherwise.
A player can still attempt something without juicing, they simply roll 1d6 and try to get higher than the difficulty dice. If they get equal then they fail. This counts as a single juice dice for determining success so they still have a chance to succeed without penalty at any Hard task.
Each character will have one focus stat, probably determined by their species. They can juice this stat 4 times without overjuicing (taking damage) and every other stat they can juice twice without overjuicing (may be slight variations on this per species). Health cannot be overjuiced (well you can try but your heart will explode).
Also the amount by which juice gets reduced should probably be altered from one per juice die to one additional at each odd number (1 at 1, 2 at 3, 3 at 5 etc.). This will have to be playtested but with the overjuicing cap in place it feels better this way.
Each species will also have some special ability, for example Humans will be a healer type class able to give the benefits of a health juice to their teammates while keeping the other effects of the juice to themselves. (Flavour-wise something like: The health juice* is activated when it comes in contact with your blood to prevent stealing, and humans are the only species with non-toxic blood so they are the only ones that can share health juice* but they have to give up some of their blood to do so).
I’m thinking something simple like
Melee damage = strength + weapon die roll
Ranged damage = dex + weapon die roll
Though this necessitates arbitrary health values for enemies. Alright how about this: a table of hit locations and “gore” values written in ascending order used instead of health. You compare the number you’ve got to the table and determine what you want to do. Sounds annoying to have to look up a table but it’s common enough that you could have it on the character sheet as a reference.
1-2: hands or feet broken
7-8: hands/feet pulverised
19-20:Neck snapped/punctured
21-22: Upper and lower body disconnected
You can select multiple things to do and if you’ve already hit that limb then you can upgrade it to the next gore level. So if i’ve broken an arm and then I roll a 3 for my damage again I can choose to rip that arm off. And if you’ve already hit them for 17+ and the GM hasn’t killed them yet then you can mercy kill them on any other damage roll. Sounds brutal in a good way but i’d have to see how it feels to be checking this table constantly.
Armour could just offset this chart by however much armour they’ve got.
-Figure out exactly what the psychic/psychadelic stat does
*The juices will have cool names eventually! health juice sounds so bad
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