System
Instead of representing characters using attributes and skills, characters are quantified with "traits" — freeform descriptors, like "Fireman", "Quick" or "Monster from another Dimension", which are created and defined by the player. Each character has one primary trait, two secondary traits, and one flaw. One of the three positive traits is chosen as superior. If a character attempts an action based on their primary or secondary traits, they get (usually) four (for the superior trait) or three six-sided dice to roll.
If a character has a particular advantage, they may add a bonus die — they roll one more die, and discard the lowest roll. If they have a particular disadvantage (such as their flaw), they must add a penalty die — they roll one more die, and discard the highest roll.
For most tasks where the traits don't apply, they get two dice. For a routine, very easy task, the difficulty is 4; for an easy task, 7; for a moderately difficult task, 11; for a difficult task, 14; for a very difficult task, 18; and for a nearly impossible task, 21. If an opponent is resisting the action, the difficulty is their roll.
Read more about this topic: Over The Edge (game)
Famous quotes containing the word system:
“Intimately concerned as we are with the system of Europe, it does not follow that we are therefore called upon to mix ourselves on every occasion, with a restless and meddling activity, in the concerns of the nations which surround us.”
—George Canning (1770–1827)
“The human body is not a thing or substance, given, but a continuous creation. The human body is an energy system ... which is never a complete structure; never static; is in perpetual inner self-construction and self-destruction; we destroy in order to make it new.”
—Norman O. Brown (b. 1913)
“Few white citizens are acquainted with blacks other than those projected by the media and the so—called educational system, which is nothing more than a system of rewards and punishments based upon one’s ability to pledge loyalty oaths to Anglo culture. The media and the “educational system” are the prime sources of racism in the United States.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)