Great work, this is really good. The strain mechanic is excellent and allows a bit of tiring or damage to be applied slowly over the course of an adventure, very cool.
I think I would add in a houserule to roll double the attribute die when the character's Role is applicable to to the task. Example: George is a thief and attempting to figure out a trap to disarm it. His Mind is d6, with his thief role, I would have him roll a 2d6, taking the highest to overcome the difficulty. I could see where this could result in a player trying to justify how his role applies to nearly everything, but that is why we have GMs. ;-)
That's a good idea, thanks. The game this core mechanic was taken from has a Momentum/Karma mechanic where characters earn 1 Momentum on each full success. 3 Momentum turn into 1 Karma and characters can have a max of 3 Karma.
Karma can be spent before the roll to:
- Decrease the difficulty die (no lower than d4)
- Increase the attribute die (no higher than d12)
Karma can be spent after the roll to:
- Avoid taking strain
I really like that mechanic and it's fun at the table, but there's quite a bit of record keeping involved AND it was way too much to explain in this one page pamphlet!
Perhaps I should create an addendum of optional rules and put that in there (along with the 2 attribute die when the role applies if you'd allow me to use it).