New resolution mechanic contest: let me introduce the KUP ARC!
I found this post and decided to submit the ARC (Action Resolution Check) I made up for VI·VIII·X KUP FANTASY RPG and since I have to name it, I will call it ‘KUP ARC’.
The fundamental is the concept of character definition via a 3-level stats framework. Here below a short description of this concept (and here a more detailed post for anyone who wants to go deeper…):
any character performs an action by using his 3 levels of stats;
every level of stat has a score from 1 (low) up to 10 (high);
every level is tied with the upper one: the 3rd level stat is the Exclusive Skill (ES); every ES is tied to the 2nd level stat which is called Unknown Stat (US); every US is tied to the 1st level stat, called Known Stat (KS).
The following chart shows what is summarized here above:
To complete the picture, the KS and US together are the stats that could be compared to the D&D 6-stats concept, whereas the ES are the skills.
Whenever a character wants to perform an action, he needs to succeed in an ARC. The value ARC is the following formula:
ARC = KS score + US score + ES adjustment (*)
(*) for the sake of completeness the GM is free to add optional modifiers according to the circumstance
A character succeeds whenever the result in an ARC is higher than:
the result of another ARC, which is called ARCO (Action Resolution Check vs Opponent - an example can be an attack made with the ES ‘Combat art with heavy blades’ against a defense made with the ES ‘Combat art with axes’);
a threshold based on the situation, which is called ARCT (Action Resolution Check vs Threshold - an example can be the use of the ES ‘Tamper’ to open a locked chest).
The calculation in the ARC formula is the mere addition of 3 numbers:
the character’s score in the involved KS (i.e. a fixed number from 1 to 10)
the character’s score in the involved US (i.e. a fixed number from 1 to 10)
a number which is the outcome of a roll based on the ES used for the check; if the die corresponding to the ES score rolls a result equal or lower than the ES score itself, that result is considered as positive modifier within the ARC formula; in case the result of the die is higher than the ES, then the difference between the result and the ES score is a negative modifier; the table here below shows the overall logic:
To wrap it up, this is the core mechanic applied to any check of a character: combat, non combat and spellcasting actions are based on ARC concept (with adjustments according to the use case).
For further details there is a post dedicated to ARC here; in any case should the reader wonder about the presence of known/unknown stats, that is the KUP model: to the players only a partial set of info about their characters is available (the KS), a part is not available (the US) and a part of the game is to understand by using and testing theirs PCs’ skill along the campaign.
