The Arcane Engine

This is the Arcane Engine, a tabletop roleplaying game where fantasy and science fiction blend together.

This system is designed to only need a single die, a single d20 to roll for all things.  There are no other dice needed for anyone except the GM, who needs only 2 6-sided die, and 2 10-sided die as extras. You simply roll a d20 and add all relevant modifiers, ranging from skill to possible scenario bonuses against a target number. The closer you come to the target number, within specific ranges, dictates how well the task was completed. There is no success and failure within the strictest sense. There are degrees of success and degrees of failure, but an abject failure is very rare, as even in complete disaster, something is often taken away.

Difference to Target	Effect	
10 or More Below Target	The task is failed completely and possibly injures the character doing it	
5 to 9 Below Target	The task is barely completed in a roughshod manner and is severely tardy	
1 to 4 Below Target	The task is completed, but it takes longer than expected	
Hit Target Exactly	Complete the task exactly as the player described, with no added benefits or hindrances	
1 to 4 Above Target	Complete the task with efficiency, possibly in a little less time than necessary	
5 to 9 Above Target	Complete the task with elegant efficiency, in less time and in better condition than expected	
10 or More Above Target	The task is completed in record time and with legendary quality	

Elements of Character

Attributes	Derived Attributes	Skills	
Strength (STR)
Dexterity (DEX)
Constitution (CON)
Intelligence (INT)
Willpower (WIL)
Perception (PER)
Charisma (CHA)
	Health Points (HP) [100]
Fatigue (FT) [CON x 10]
Physical Resistance (PR) [STR/2 + CON/2]
Mental Resistance (MR) [WIL/2 + PER/2]
Damage Resistance (DR) [STR/2 + Armor]
Creation Expertise (CE) [WIL/2 + DEX/2]
Spell Power (SP) [INT/2 + CHA/2]
Speed (SPD) [DEX/5, Minimum 1]
Initiative (INI) [DEX/2 + PER/2]
	Dexterity     Intelligence	  Willpower	Charisma

Dodge	      Espionage	  Survival        	Performance
Melee	      Locks	  Bluff	       	Social Sense
Athletics	      Mounts	  Medicine       	Command
Ranged					Persuasion
Stealth
Grapple	

Attributes: All attributes are on a 1-20 scale, with the average human at a 5.
Skills: All skills are on a 1-20 scale, and most average humans will only have maybe 1-5 levels in any skill. More skilled people may have up to 10 or maybe up to 15 if they are masters. Skills are controlled by an attribute, and cannot be a higher number than their controlling attribute. (The controlling attributes are in bold above the listed skills)
Health Points: Always at 100, represents the amount of damage you can take. Hit 0 and you die.
Fatigue: Represents your energy. Attacking, casting spells, and doing strenuous actions costs fatigue.
Physical Resistance: Rolled vs. Poisons and Elemental Damage
Mental Resistance: Rolled vs. Mind Affecting Effects and Non-Elemental, Non-Physical Spells and Technological Creations
Damage Resistance: A static number that directly reduces the damage of physical attacks from weapons.
Creation Expertise: Rolled when creating a technological item, represents the attention to perfection of the creator.
Spell Power: Rolled when casting a spell against a resisting target.
Speed: The number of actions one can take per turn.
Initiative: Rolled when entering combat to represent the ability to react quickly.

Roleplaying Elements

To encourage roleplaying, each character must have 9 things to describe their character. 

Three goals, whether short term or long term. These goals help to drive the plot, and keep players adherent to their characters supposed wants and needs. If the character has nothing to do, they should default to pursuing one of their three goals, or a sub-objective in the pursuit of one of their goals. 

Three memorable facets of their personality or physical form, such as a scar or a phobia. These are things that other people will distinctly remember about them, and are things that the GM can use to boost character development. There should be at least one thing about them that is very obvious, which can be seen or discovered without getting to know the character very well, such as a lazy eye or a short temper. The other two can be a little more cryptic as personal, but must be something that the other party members can find out within a year’s time of travel together.

Three connections the character has to the world. These can be people or objects that the character cares very much about, and can definitely be tied into the goals of the character, such as a goal to recover a lost heirloom. These objects or people do not have to be something the character loves, just something they feel immensely strongly about. A connection could just as easily be the characters mother’s locket, or it could be the man who murdered the characters’ sibling.

Combat

Combat in The Arcane Engine is cyclical, with everyone going in turn following a standard combat sequence. This, of course, is not literally supposed to be imagined as people waiting for another to make an action before they take their turn, everything is happening simultaneously. Each character has a number of actions to take per turn, and takes them on their turn.

Combat occurs in turns, each one taking approximately 10 seconds of game-time. An attack roll represents your attempt to strike your opponent on your turn in a round. When you make an attack roll, you roll a d20 and add your appropriate combat skill. The enemy rolls a d20 and adds their Dodge skill against Physical Damage, their Physical Resistance against Elemental Damage, or Mental Resistance against Mental or Enchantment Damage. The difference in the rolls determines the damage done. 

Damage is static for all weapons and abilities, including spells and technological creations. Static Damage allows for predictable damage and quick, deadly combat. A sword will always deal a set amount of damage upon a full hit. In addition, ranged weapons, like guns, include Armor Piercing which removes Damage Resistance, thus making the attack deadlier to heavily armored opponents.