A Simple d6 System and an Alternative Set of Abilities

    RPGs are improvisation story telling games with rules. You can make up anything. Everything can be simplified and abstracted and reasoned in different ways. Here's an example of an alternate set of abilities and a simple system to compliment it. The abilities listed below represent very board categories or skills and abilities. Things like Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity, Charisma, and etc. could easily apply to any of them depending on how the player describes how the ability applies to their character. At character creation, players pick one category to excel at and they start at an intermediate level (ability of 2). They are beginners (ability of 1) at everything else.

• Mind: Represents your reasoning, intellect, and learned knowledge. Your mind stat influences speech and skills related to material knowledge. Someone with a higher mind stat could argue they think faster and can react mentally faster. Someone with a high Mind might be a wizard, alchemist, craftsman, or researcher. In your world, Mind might be important for some types of tools, weapons, powers or magic.
  
• Body: Represents how strong, fast, fit, and healthy you are. Your hit points are improved by your Body. A higher body stat makes someone more skilled at tasks requiring physical strength, endurance, reflexes, agility, balance, and coordination. Someone with a high body might be a warrior or soldier. Someone with a higher Body is probably knowledgeable about subject matter pertaining to athletics or combat. In your world, Body is important for fighting with weapons.
  
• Spirit: Spirit represents your intuition, wisdom, and your affinity for and general disposition towards the supernatural. Someone with a high Spirit might be a priest, a mystic or a psychic. People who are receptive to spirituality might find your speech more compelling. You're probably more knowledgeable and skillful with matters sacred to you. In your world, Spirit might also be important for some types of powers or magic.

Roll Under
    You roll a single d6. You can succeed at a task by rolling equal to or under your ability score. The higher your score, the better your chances to succeed.

Ability Scores
The numbers for ability scores will be small due to the size of the die used and the scores are explained below. The GM may rule that if you roll a 6, you automatically fail and if you roll a 1, you automatically succeed regardless of skill or difficulty.

• 1 means you're an average person or a beginner.
  
• 2 means you're above average or have received training. You're intermediate.
• 3 means you're experienced or advanced.
• 4 means you're an expert. Few people achieve this level.
  
• 5 means you're a master with peak ability. This is a legendary or world class level.

Difficulty of Challenges
The GM will tell the players the difficulty of the a challenge they're rolling for and assigns a bonus or penalty to the players roll. The concept of difficulty is relative, as in "This task will be hard for you." The DM may need to balance the challenges for the players based on the probability of rolling a number on a d6. Rolling a 1 is likely to fail, rolling a 5 is likely to succeed. Try to assign a difficulty bonus or penalty to give the players a fair challenge. A +2 is generous at low if you have a low ability score, and a -1 is harsh if you have a very low score.

• Rolling a 1 is about a 16.67% chance of success
  
• Rolling a 1 to 2 is about a 33.3% chance of success
• Rolling a 1 to 3 is about a 50% chance of success
• Rolling a 1 to 4 is about a 66.67% chance of success
• Rolling a 1 to 5 is about a 83.3% chance of success.
• Rolling a 1 to 6 is 100% chance of success.
  

The difficulty bonus or penalty applies the ability for that roll. For example, if you have a 1 in an ability and the challenge is very easy, the GM may tell you to roll with a +3 bonus. This means you will have to roll a 1 to 4 on a d6 to succeed. The difficulty bonuses and penalties go as high as +3 and as low as -3. If the penalty exceeds your skill level, the GM may determine that you simply cannot attempt the challenge or that you automatically fail. The GM may also determine if the bonus applied to your skill is high enough, you may automatically succeed. A character's armor effectively imposes a difficulty penalty to an attackers rolls. Light Armor is a -1, Medium Armor is a -2, Heavy Armor is a -3.

• +3: Easy difficulty, but still requiring concentration and effort.
• +2: Medium difficulty. A beginner has a 50/50 chance.
• +1: Hard difficulty. More than half of all average people will struggle and fail.
  
• No bonus or penalty: A Very Hard difficulty. Advanced people have a 50/50 chance.
• -1: Very, very Hard difficulty. Specialized skill is needed. Luck is required if you're intermediate.
  
• -2: Extremely Hard difficulty. At this point, there's probably external forces acting against you.
  
• -3: May be impossible. Only a expert or master can succeed. You're probably solving an ancient unsolved puzzle or stopping a great big boulder with your bare hands at the edge of a cliff.

Hit Points
Hit points are an abstract concept representing how much damage a character can take. Taking damage usually means you've been injured or wounded in some way. Player characters determine how many hit points they start with by rolling a d6 and adding their body ability. The GM also determines what happens when your hit points reach 0; either you die instantly or you fall unconscious and start to die but can be saved by first aid or magic.

Damage
A d6 is used to determine how much damage is dealt with a successful attack. Powerful attacks may use 2 or more d6. A d3 is a d6 where 1-2 is a 1, 3-4 is a 2, and 5-6 is a 3 and is used for improvised weapons, weak attacks such as unarmed strikes, or attacks that are intended to deal non-leathal damage. Weapons or spells come in strength categories you can choose, or use the examples below.

• A small or light weapon such as a knife, club, or does d6-1 damage (minimum 1 damage).
• A medium weapon does d6 damage. such as a short or broad sword, a mace, battle ax, short bow, spear, 
• A large or heavy weapon does d6+1 damage such as a long sword, long bow, war hammer, great ax, or pole arm.
  

Improving you Character
Mark any abilities you've use during the adventure if you succeeded on at least one roll. After reaching a milestone such as completing a quest or an adventure, or achieving a character or story goal, your GM will allow you to improve your character's abilities. To do this, you can roll a d6 once for each ability score you've marked and roll over your ability score. If you roll higher than your ability, that ability improves by 1. The GM will also tell the players when they can improve their max hit points. To improve your max hit points, roll a d6 and add your body ability.