Classless FMC Basic, and why i love Experts

A short home rule for modding FMC Basic to have multiclassed/classless characters. But first random ranting, because I can. >:)

A while ago, Marcia and I had a chat about how the Expert class basically functions as a "classless" option in FMC Basic, both by having access to partial versions of both of the other classes (enchanted weapons and arcane scrolls) and having a class feature built around being a kind of choose-your-own character. 

I actually quite dislike the Specialist class as presented in Lamentations of the Flame Princess and other similar games (including the idea of Experts in One D&D and the skill based identity of Rogues in 5e). One reason being that skills and the abilities that classes get in RPGs are often only really distinct mechanically - its absurd to me to imply that the study and practice of swordplay (or mage-craft) isn't a skill. So having a class whose identity is having MAD SKILLZ is just funny to me - is the implication simply that every other skill is easier to learn compared to swords and wizards? Are wizards and warriors not highly skilled at what they do? Idk its all a little silly, both my argument and what I'm arguing against. The other problem I have is that it often lumps characters into "WARRIOR, WIZARD, AND LITERALLY ANYONE ELSE", which just feels a little lop-sided. GLOG (and similar games like Troika) for all its glory sidesteps this by just having unique character types for whatever you want. Surgeon? Second Surgeon? Labourer? Leper (cheating cause they're a half caster)? Butcher (i ♡ cannibalism)? Nerd Sage? Not to mention the alchemists, monks (the bookish kind) and merchants that pop up. 

Anyway, despite the Expert basically just being the same thing, I really loved it from the moment I read it. Its particularly this line in reference to skills that did it:

Feel free to invent your own, too!

Experts being based around freeform invented skills immediately lends itself to considering all the kinds of characters who don't live for violence or arcane esoterics. I have a deep enamour with the idea of playing astronomers and archaeologists and herbalists and princesses, all those characters who so often have to be crammed into the combat system to have a place in the game (and even then, FMC Basic's magic system decentres violence in a very refreshing way). People who are just kind of ordinary yknow? 

The rest of the system also doesn't really contain "abilities" in the modern push button sense, all the classes are quite reserved in their mechanical weight and complexity, so having skills just be "you can get a second try at the dice flip, or attempt impossible tasks with ordinary odds" fits fine. Also of consideration that by the nature of skills being an Expert only ability, and explicitly only something that increases the characters chance of success (and allowing impossible feats), it means that all characters have an open set of possible actions not limited by having to ask permission from the game in the form of buying skills/feats/abilities etc. Having an expert with the "disabling traps" skill obviously doesn't mean that no one else can disable traps, while a disarm ability or peoples perceptions of the 0e thief's skills (lockpicking, hiding in shadows, backstabbing etc) tend to imply by how they're written that only characters with those skills can attempt those things. 

Also, I think Against the Wicked City's post Notes on a semi-successful skill system has a really interesting sounding take on open ended skill systems. 

Anyway. Sorry, I can and have gushed about this game for hours. 

I think its worth distinguishing between the different things that "classless" games can represent.

Cairn, Into the Odd, and Knave Searchers of the Unknown are great examples of the "purest" form of classless characters. When a game is true-classless, usually subsystems that would otherwise be locked behind character types are free for anyone to try. Everyone is fairly equally capable of each aspect of the game, limited only by trade-offs or in-world investment in each aspect. My name for these would be "unclassed" characters because they function a lot closer to an NPC or a character with a class without their class (lol. in the sense that most men with earrings are just men without earrings with earrings, but Howl is a man with earrings who has earrings).

Howls Moving Castle. Both of us are having a yuri moment

Sexy Battle Wizards is an interesting example because its a mono-class game (everyone is a battle wizard), but classless in the same sense that everyone in Knave are of the Knave class (ne-er do wells who can swing a sword and cast spells from scrolls and slink around the dark etc). So, yeah idk i feel like monoclass games are sort of classless, and classless games are often monoclass games. If everyone is the same class then classes aren't in the game. I'd just call this a mono-class game, though its only distinct from a game of unclassed characters because the Base Adventurer just happens to be someone who is normally a specific class in a classed game - within the assumptions of the game its not different.

Adding Knacks to Knave is interesting, because it still feels distinctly classless but obviously allows you to emulate classes. So, I'd count build-your-own class as a version of a classless game. Black Sword Hack (Chaos Ultimate Edition) is my favourite version of it, with its selection of backgrounds that quite joyously include stuff like Bookworm and Herbalist. Though, interestingly in Black Sword Hack all characters are explicitly Warriors, having exceptional martial prowess even without taking on abilities from violent backgrounds. Ideally with this version of a classless game, you still have an open set of ways of interacting and roughly equal access to the subsystems of the game, with the customisable bonuses merely enhancing your ability to use the systems, rather than gating them entirely. Black Sword Hack does gate certain subsystems behind backgrounds, but by their nature (pact with a demon?) they seem like promises of things that could be acquired through the means of adventure and quest anyway. Buildable class, or class builder game. 

Knave 2e and Runequest OpenQuest are class builder games that just use numbers to represent class-ness stuff. 

Hell, from the right perspective every character in GLOG is essentially of the Adventurer class, and the "classes" are just Adventurer specialisations. Thinking about this line

You can think of the base adventurer as Indiana Jones minus the Archeologist. They're still a capable person, they're just not specialized.

Class templates are just adding the Archaeologist back in, like subclasses. You could play a 5e game using only Fighter and its subclasses to emulate most other classes lol (well, you might need to turn paladin into a subclass but you get the idea. Actually, if you made arcane and magicless paladin subclasses that'd work even better. idk where im going with this). But I'm getting a little absurd at this point lol.

Experts in FMC Basic are interesting because they are both unclassed and a buildable class, being both capable of access to both of the class subsystems/niches (magic and combat) and being customisable as their only unique ability. AND THEyre already in a game with classes! weird right?

Anyway. What if FMC Basic was a class builder game? Thatd be funny. 

SILENT TITANS SHIFT MOUNTAINS WITH THEIR UNSPOKEN WORDS

Art by Me :3

Every character can attune to a magical weapon OR an arcane focus, and can use scrolls (woah OP!). 

When making a character...

Pick:
VALIANT!   - 5 max hit points, and 1 Prowess 
CUNNING!  - 4 max hit points, and 1 skill (pick anything you can think of, I dare you)
WEIRD.        - 3 max hit points, and 1 Mana (renaming Energy and you can't stop me!!! Its even cooler if you come up with a unique name for it for your character).

Use FMC.B rules for Prowess, Skills and Energy Mana

ACARANE DOMAIN
If you ever get permanent access to Mana, decide a theme for your magic! What does it look like, where does it come from, how does it work? Still have to use a consumable container for your spells, but your "scrolls" could be prayers or whispering hermit crabs or crystals. Decide what your BLAST is made of, so when you spend Mana to deal arcane damage it has a cool consistent vibe or specific element (pyromancy and lightning my beloveds <3, but also consider like..... ghost sword). btw, just shooting bright blue ARCANA is really cool, think of pure magic like the "energy" in stuff like halo or star wars or elden ring. 

Elden Bling

Also, optional new house rule: You can sacrifice spell scrolls to generate 1 Mana, and other magical items to potentially generate even more. Let it ooze like technicolour opalescence. Mana BLASTs are either based on the item that was destroyed, or just straight raw Arcane Energy.

Another possibly cool house rule? You can inject Mana directly into your body and your weapon to give you +2 Prowess per Mana spent for a turn. Treat your weapon/fists/skull as doing magic damage, or whatever kind of damage is associated with your Magic Domain/Theme/Whatever. Domain. yes. good word. This is basically only useful while using a magic weapon, or when fighting a ton of enemies at once. Maybe. 

GEAR
And in addition to general equipment, pick 2 of the following (things can be picked multiple times):
1. One-handed melee weapon
2. Shield
3. Two handed melee weapon (but only this, don't pick a second thing)
4. Ranged weapon (best paired with ammo)
5. Magazine of ammunition
6. Spell scroll (invent your own. If you have a theme, make it fit or explain why it doesn't. Cant directly harm creatures, you need raw Mana for that)
7. Toolkit (if you want specialised tools then pick which craft its for, otherwise its just anything youd find in the garage-kit of an average dad. Which I guess lines up with like half carpentry type tools half mechanic tools? Ideally you list out all the tools that are in it, but if you dont care to know then thats fine idc)
8. Book of Lore (pick what you study! My list of esoterica might be good inspo idk. I actually really like this as a solution for skills - knowledge is stored in the books, doing is stored in the character)
9. Instruction Manual (pick a skill! While you have this book with you, you are treated as having this skill. Woah homebrew item? Inspired by a great LotfP houserule)
10. A Big Bomb! (like a fromsoft firebomb, use it like a fire BLAST dealing 2d6 damage to each adjacent figure. I just wanted to add an extra one to get to d10 because I realised the assorted tools an Expert can get lines up with my modified idea of toolkits instead of generic toolboxes. Which is a happy accident)
11. Healing potion! Its just a Scroll of Healing, but you drink it. 
12. Chainmail armour NOTHING HAHAahahah!!!! if you want something cool, loot a corpse or something idk

EDIT: I realised after posting that Instruction Manuals could totally mess with the niche of Experts, but I suspect it wont be a problem in the same way that +1 swords shouldn't mess with Fighters that much (though, they are rare and magical). But if it appears that Instruction Manuals mess with the game too much, just make it so that the user has to have the book actively in their hands while performing the skill (heh try climbing now loser). Alternatively, consider adding Book Attunement - meaning you can only benefit from one book (of lore or skills) at a time. Tbh, requiring book attunement to "unlock" skills at level up (doing and knowing skills?) would be kind of cool. Give that Fighter a sword-arts manual and let them gain a level in Cunning with the "one on one duelling" skill. Possibly more interesting than "unlocking" a skill would be if attuning to a skill book let you gain XP at double rates if you stay attuned for the entire adventure. Argh my girlbrain, this is spawning so many ideas, what if Book Attunement could be used like a temporary trait from any class? So. Turns out FMC Basic already does this, because (based on their origin blog post) Arcane Focus are items that contain Energy, and obviously Magic Weapons are quite similar to item based Prowess. So, perhaps it makes perfect sense for Instruction Manuals to only be usable when Attuned to in the normal magical gear sense, but a single Instruction Manual could maybe contain multiple skills? Add a cursed skull to your game that can be Attuned so that it may whisper the secrets of Remaining Unseen. 

LEVELING UP

Gain XP as usual, but use your time in downtime to spend XP to gain a level, and the bonuses of one of the starting "types". 

How much XP you have to spend depends on what you're buying and what level you're currently at before spending. 

Type

(level you're currently at). (cost to buy the traits of this type)
Valiant

1. 1,500    2. 2,500    3. 4,000    4. 8,000

Cunning

1. 1,000    2. 2,000    3. 3,000    4. 6,000

Weird

1. 2,000    2. 3,000    3. 5,000    4. 10,000

So, if you start as a Valiant character at level 1, you would need to spend 1,000 XP to gain Cunning traits, which would bring you to level 2. If you are level 2 and want to gain a Weird trait, you need to spend 3,000 XP. Hope that makes sense. Btw these are just the values in FMC.B that you need to earn to level up, except presented as costs rather than thresholds.

Also, to cultivate the weird old school vibe that elfs had (kinda the original multiclassers right?), you could decide that you need to pick what type you're gaining XP towards, like you're investing ahead of time. I think it used to be described as "each adventure pick what class youre gaining XP for". 

You know what would be funny? If when you defeated a monster you got Fighter XP, and when you got treasure you got Mage XP, and when you made a friend or betrayed someone you got Expert XP (as though they were a defeated monster).

RESTING! woops shouldnt forget that.
Everyone heals [ max hp ÷ level, rounded down ] per week. Or just 4 hit points if the table doesn't want to do the maths.

DUAL CLASSING

Alternative to this ENTIRE hack, just pick two classes at level one, get the best bonuses from both, half the equipment from each or all the equipment of one, and add the Experience requirements together. It'll certainly be interesting. This is the multiclass system that Cavegirl has in her Cavegirl's Really Simple D&D&D game. This is more strictly multiclassing than a class builder system, but probably much more fitting for a standard game for when you realllyyyy want to build a ranger without just taking weapon skills as an Expert or spell blades without just giving your Mage a sword. Perfect for a cute little astrologer I think.

Simple Skullcracking - Weirdhack?

DEAD AND DYING

When you’re out of Heart Points (HP), you are GUARDBROKEN. Immediately gain a Nasty Scar. Stay standing. 

Every time you take damage, roll the damage against the following instead of your HP.

1-2 Nasty Scar. Coin flip, on heads its wicked cool, on tails its horrifying

3-5 Ruined. Until it is treated, become Deprived and can’t use the ruined body part. If a ruined body part is wounded again, it gets Hacked Off. 

6+ Hacked Off. If it was your stomach or head then you’re dead. Otherwise, taken out of the fight, die if not rescued afterwards. For a week, Deprived if the wound isn’t treated daily.

Also, d6 for location. 1. R leg 2. L leg 3. R arm 4. L arm 5. head 6. stomach

Stomach wounds mean your endurance sucks, head wounds mean your awareness and initiative suck. 

Deprived characters can’t regain HP through mundane means while resting. 

Wounds turn into Nasty Scars once they are treated.

When Non-Player Creatures are GUARDBROKEN, they are at the whims of the players, their sword sent skittering, their morale crippled. Describe what you do to them (run them through, slice their arms off, tie them up, etc). Grand beings may choose to battle on or flee at 0HP, taking wounds like a player.

By me :3

EQUIPMENT AND OTHER SUCH EXTRA STUFF

Medicinal Herbs or Healing Oils. One use treats a wound for a day, OR restores +1d6 HP over a night of rest. Witches or surgeons will sell them for as much as a day of rations, everyone else charges double.

Bandages. Rescue someone bleeding out (usually from a dismembered limb). Double the cost of herbs, but replace witches with soldiers.

You can rip clean clothes into bandages, but roll a d4 each time. On a 1, the clothes are now visibly tattered and can only be ripped into bandages once more before falling apart. 

Note. "Usage Dice" from The Black Hack RPG work best when they're used for things you can't easily count, like chalk or swigs of a drink, as opposed to torches or arrows. Counting things adds to immersion, probably. Maybe.

    Optional rule. Require fresh bandages each day for a week for dismembered limbs, or else risk an infection (1in3 chance). Infections make you Deprived and deal 1d4 damage each day until they're treated.

    Optional rule 2. Require rolls for using bandages or herbs but let people trained in surgery or herbalism skip the rolls. (No party members are trained? Great time to hire a field surgeon)

FURTHER USELESS THOUGHTS ON THE NATURE OF ARGG MY ARM

"[In reference to disabilities] In general it is valuable not to think in terms of costs or bonuses, as games tend to do, but think laterally in terms of how it changes a characters interaction with the world. The taxonomical math nerd urge to assign mechanical reward or mallus must be ignored."

- The Cosmic Orrery on Delegation, Dismemberment, & Disability (a very excellent post that inspired in part the main chunk of this)

Oh also yeah, this system is basically CHOPWOOD OPERA by Bottomless Sarcophagus, except with automated hit locations and traditional HP.

Also, another cool post is the body which knows war. until it breaks under the weight of that knowing. Because you can never have enough cool posts. Its similarly about dismemberment defined more around things that you can't do anymore, rather than just -2 to sword holding or whatever.

Sometimes people wonder why you would want dismemberment in your game. To that I think I'd reply...

Chomp. Princess Mononoke, in all its gloriousness

And secondly, go read this story from the Last Gasp Grimoire cause its so absurd. 

Besides if you think about it, like reaaallyyy think about it, this is kind of less lethal than 5e. Ironically. 

Also, I think its kinda funny and nice the idea of retiring your one legged swordsman... Of to go live in some crumbling folly with his husband... How whimsical... 

I ultimately think, if playing the game doesn't somehow permanently alter your character FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE then why did they go on an adventure at all? Hot girls go into dungeons to come out irreversibly changed.

Shoko my beloved. Ideal Character

Rules for the Ruleless (thoughts on mental stats)

warning: rambling ahead

INTELLIGENCE!

what a weird idea for a stat. imagine playing a game that's entire appeal, challenge, and format is the in the form of challenging your mental capacity and problem solving skills, then adding in a mechanic that measures how smart.... your game avatar is? 

the majority of the time intelligence is used for either spell casting or answering the question of "do i know this?". and crafting i suppose. huh and languages. anyway, considering the quantum knowledge question, id say that irl most people know things related to the things theyve studied, and dont know much about everything else. and in analogue adventure games we know that information is an incredibly valuable asset to any foolhardy ne-er do well, and that information is vital for being able to make informed meaningful choices (remembering that the entire game is choices).*

* not to say that players need to always make well informed choices. just that you cant make choices if you have no information, so erring on the side of more information is generally better.

Manifestations of Ink by Jack T. Cole

anyway, rules. KNOWLEDGE!

if you can see it, you can know it. give players as much information as possible about things they can interact with and observe, and that the average person would reasonably know about.

otherwise, start the game with a list of things your character knows about. backgrounds and classes count towards this (if you were a farmer then you know farmer things), but also consider stuff like..

esoterica. these are the versions of skills that are about knowing things instead of just doing things.

d12

1. Mythology, sagas
2. Courtly decorum, heraldry
3. Poetry, folksong
4. Monstrumology, folklore
5. Cosmology (underworld, astronomy)
6. Glyphs, runes
7. Architecture
8. Law-wise
9. Botany
10. Undercity anti-law
11. make up your own. these are just suggestions doofus

you can expect someone to be an expert on the subject of their knowledge. if in doubt, give more than you would to your players, and give it for free. otherwise, for that deep lore that wont break the game for you to keep secret...

HIDDEN knowledge is known on a 2in6 - or else you know where to look
truly FORGOTTEN knowledge must be quested for. thats why we play the game yeah? go explore that damned world

WHERE TO LOOK...

1. in the nearest place of academia there is a hidden tome, the lorekeeper there wants you to tell zir a secret you have uncovered in return for borrowing it (book heist is, as always, a joyous alternative)
2. you have heard upon the wind that in the nearest enchanted forest or haunted woods lives a weird ancient hermit sage who is obsessing over the very subject you wish to learn. theyd probably just be happy for some company
3. children have a 1in6 chance of knowing what you search for. if its really gnarly knowledge then you probably only have 1d6 kids before the clan starts asking uncomfortable questions back to you about why youre being a creep and poisoning their minds with such thoughts as "why does the moon know the name of every sparrow and what process is needed to allow a heart to continue to beat even without a soul to house it" and such
   
4. consult the trees.
   
• or else the stones, but the trees will be jealous
5. the nearest important wizard knows wtf is up. you will accrue a debt of magic
6. youve known it would be there all along. it must be down there, maybe somewhere deeper, it cant all be for nothing. carved on the walls of the nearest haunted cave or darkened dungeon is the answer to what you seek... and more, so much more

wouldnt you say that makes more sense than a general intelligence score? in terms of integrating it more into the game, if you have a skill system then just split it between practical skills and knowledge skills, or say fuck it because obviously alchemy is both a knowledge skill and a practical skill (like, have you seen a chemist?). or just let players pick 1 esoterica, maybe 3 for wizards or other learned types. or just everyone picks 2 but the nature of which is limited by if you grew up studying or if you learnt things from the trees and the stones? lol what if you rolled a d6 and got than many esotericas or languages, hows that for random char gen viability gambling. 

for doing things that you could imagine keying off a characters in universe intelligence, consider: wtf? i didnt address this earlier but literally wtf is a high intelligence character? people arent smarter or dumber irl, they just either know more about academic stuff or they know more about other stuff. if you need to roll to see if a character can succeed at something that requires using their brain, do a flat roll that simulates normal human thinking, and then let them auto succeed or add a bonus if theyre knowledgeable in the field. **

the main point is that each character will have a selection of things they have some deep knowledge of (be it from classes or skills or backgrounds or whatever), and this should just let them get specialised information for freeeee, and then otherwise you can lock deep arcane knowledge behind some simple luck roll and/or a quest.

every time you roll dice youre introducing the offer that chance will make a choice for you. sometimes its because you dont know the answer, sometimes its because you look forward to being surprised by the answer. remember then, if your game is going to grind to a halt on a failed roll, consider: do you have to roll (can it just.. happen for free)? can you roll and accept that sometimes players will fail on a coin flip if they havent found a way of not ending up at such a risky choke point? can you just reshuffle how your situations are designed so that they dont have such big choke points (multiple solutions, multiple directions, more opportunities for the player to avoid rolling through clever play) ***

crit! double all damage!

PERCEPTION!

also known as wisdom for some G_dforsaken reason.

(i originally wrote this section with the intention of making a system for determining the chance of noticing things based on conditions like obscurity and lighting conditions and attention paid etc. but yeah nvm, heres just some advice and thoughts)

perception. common OSR wisdom is to say FVCK THAT! because more information is always better right? its important for the players to be able to make informed choices about the risks they encounter, and having a chance of just not having information about the environment because of a random roll kinda sucks. also, theres the thing of hidden information - OSR stuff is very much in favour of providing hints of hidden things in how descriptions and environments are structured. thats a good and just thing!

so... then why have perception as a mechanic? well, basically, just the question of if you want there to be circumstances where you dont know the answer to the question of "can the player find/see/notice this" and dont mind the answer sometimes being "nope". alternatively, you could think of it like a chance for a bonus hint?

importantly, if you have a rule like this then it should accompany hints built into the environment and descriptions that invite investigation and interaction. you dont need a "find secret doors" roll if the players look behind the only tapestry in the room. 

with that in mind, i think the main circumstances where perception does make sense to be handled randomly would be

• getting lost in pathless places
• foraging (food, arrows, random junk piles)

basically, things that requiring an astute eye but that we dont want to pixel bitch for by giving out hints and seeing if the players can turn them into something useful. isnt that funny? people should clearly be adding their perception bonuses to these

anyway sorry for the non-answer lol.

BUT WAIT WHAT ABOUT SNEAKING AROUND???

its a game. if there are monsters sneaking up on the player, describe the shuffling sounds, a glint of scales in the darkness, a heavy wet breeze that comes in waves, a hulking shape draped in a cloth with some strange oil pooling at its base. i really dont know if i care for the idea of bad things happening purely randomly, the game is about choices, so if the only valid choice is either dont go in the dungeon or constantly tap everything with a pole all the time then youre not making any choices

heres some examples of hints. its particularly difficult to integrate secrets when discovering them would interrupt an otherwise monotonous time skip, but i think the solution is to either obscure the hint next to a bunch of other unrelated details with some reason to pause on them in world, or to make the existence of something hidden very obvious but not the solution to finding it

Dungeon Maiden: The light of your torches flicker up the walls illuminating firm pillars between which are deep shadowy alcoves. There is a rotting stink in the room, and occasionally your torchlight catches a flash of reflection from within the dark corners. 

or

Dungeon Maiden: While resting, Princess Saltrose you find yourself softly drifting awake late in the night. Owls call, the leaves roll like whispers, a smell of smoke drifts on the air across the camp, and you can hear the familiar heavy breaths of your companions. 

(alternatively, for assassins you can just have one person/everyone wake up just before they get jumped, but with the problem of oh shit im not wearing my armour, quick wheres my weapon fuck i cant see)

or

DM: Partway through your travels within the Well Woods the smell of petrichor begins to stir heavy in the air, and you come across three carved stones scattered in the leaf litter haphazardly. One stone is carved into a snarling face barely visible under moss and dirt, the other a bulging bare stomach, and the last a coiled serpentine tail.

From the Hobbit, art by António Quadros

CHARISMA

tbh, this is kind of just a post on why you should only roll dice if the players do something dumb and risky, or you dont know the answer to a question as a GM.

if you want something from someone, and they dont have any reason not to give it to you: yay! you win!

if they do have a reason not to help you then:

1) if you solve that reason, yay! you win!

2) if you kind of solve that reason, usually by offering something else that they want, and it is unclear if that new thing outweighs whatever the problems/values the NPC has then yay!!! you can roll dice and maybe fail!

3) if you dont provide a reason that addresses any of the values or concerns or interests of the NPC, or do but are utterly unconvincing, then you fail

most of the time the OSR world uses a reaction roll for this, which is fine. kinda cool even. i personally think that binary results are fine here, because either the NPC agrees to help you or they dont right?

but then you run into the problem of consequences of failure !!!! and people often have the problem of "why cant players just keep trying different things until they succeed"? 

welllll for starters, you cant try the same thing twice, theres no way that convincing harder works. 

for seconders, this is largely where you decide the difficulty of this problem. who the NPC is, what they want and what youre trying to achieve, are all things that decide the stakes of the encounter. some NPCs dont have much patience for putting up with bullshit, so maybe you only have a couple of attempts to convince them, or maybe theyre just some friendly wizard who you are pestering. Maybe divide morale by 3 and thats their patience level, x2 for being your friend and half for being your enemy. slowly going down on the reaction roll levels would also work well. 

also, something weird that this reveals is that dice checks are either for discovering if luck and effort was enough for a given attempt, or if the means and power of a character are enough for a given obstacle. to some extent, the latter is like the dice deciding the difficulty of a task. weird huh? maybe that could be the basis of a resolution mechanic...

anyway, LYING

1) if all the evidence the NPC has access to supports your lie, then they believe it! this includes if they only have your word to go off of, and the lie aligns with their perception of how the world works

2) if there are inconsistencies or unaddressed details, then the NPC will ask about them. better have a good reason!

3) if it sounds contrived, time to face FATE and roll the dice

4) obviously if it doesnt make sense then you fail lol

if you dont have a charisma stat on your character sheet...

easy rolls are auto succeeding, we already skipped those parts

difficult tasks are a coin flip

borderline doomed tasks are 1in4

NICE! done.

** cosmology note: in my game things are either people or animals or otherworldly beings. either you can think and talk and have free will, or your a bundle of instincts and emotions, or youre.. idk bullshit superscience enlightened weirdo. in biblical cosmology, angels are made of pure souls, animals are made of pure flesh, desire, emotions, and humans are a being of desire who also have a soul - this is what grants them alone free will.

(to clarify, irl i believe that animals should kind of just be treated like people too, but otherwise its the same, as in humans are all free thinking sovereign beings of HUMAN INTELLIGENCE etc. dolphins are smarter than you though)

*** i assume everyone knows the drill by now: only roll if 1) theres a meaningful chance of failure or chance of success 2) the consequences of failure are meaningful, there should be a reason why the character cant just keep trying until they succeed (either because they get one shot, or theres a reason to revaluate after each failure). if you can just keep trying till you succeed, skip the roll and just let time some time pass. 

interestingly, this actually supports rolling as much as you want in combat, because every failure is a big important opportunity cost because time is a precious resource that you loose as a consequence. its also why old school x-in-6 checks for opening doors and searches and stuff make sense, because in a way theyre just a measurement of how long a tasks takes in an environment where every failure/waste of time is an etch against the encroaching doom of dwindling torch light and wandering horrors.

BLAH BLAH TAX!!!

SIEGE ENGINE CLASS

Equipment: 1 mechanic, 2 operators, 1 captain, 4+d4 rockets (takes a turn to land, turns target to ash, d6 damage against anything nearby), 2d4 combat turns worth of machine gun ammo (d4 exploding dice damage as a reaction to taking damage), 3 repair kits, no instruction manual

Skills: 1. gardening or farming, 2. half remembered academia (roll on esoterica table) 3. formalised military education

1. AUTOMATIC

You churn and you smoulder and you scratch and claw at the earth and trees and stone walls until you leave nothing but rubble and ash. You have no ability scores

- Automatically succeed on tasks requiring mortal strength or intimidation, coin flip on tasks requiring industrial strength or intimidation 

- Automatically fail on tasks requiring subtly or grace

You can heal d6 HULT POINTS (HP) using a repair kit

You eat trees as rations. anything organic works, you just need enough

2. MURDER

You can now use humanoids as repair kits

3. MACHINE

You now count as organic for the purposes of magic

4. LIVES IN MY HEART

Youve discovered a terrible secret. If you can eat another SIEGE ENGINE (or an equivalent grand machine) then you can install disturbingly articulate wings.