Substitute 3d6 System

I like the idea of learning to play paper and pencil rpgs by substituting a d20 with three standard six sided dice (3d6) because they're very common and you might not always have access to your fancy specialty dice. In other words, a 3d6 system. There are some differences between a d20 and 3d6 that will surprise and confuse you if you don't review the math. Refer below to this magnificent chart I made based on probability of outcomes rolling 3d6. Rate means rate of meeting or beating the result.

Let me simplify it like this:

1. An easy challenge is an 8.
2. A medium challenge is a 10.
3. A hard challenge is a 12.

But choosing a target number is not that simple. 3d6 is unlike the d20 which essentially makes 5 easy, 10 medium, and 15+ hard. Be aware, with 3d6, moderate results (8 to 13) become common and extreme results (3 to 6 and 15 to 18) become rare. Rolls are more likely to barely succeed or barely fail. Dice rolls are more predictable and chance is less of a factor.

Target Numbers
Pick a target number for a skill check based on the probability of success and adjust based on the player's modifier rather than an arbitrary DC based on easy, medium, hard. For instance, let's say your player is performing a skill check. You determine that the task should be challenging such that they have a 50/50 chance to succeed. A 10 is the same as 50/50. They have a +3. Tell them to roll 13 to succeed. Bear in mind, someone without any bonuses will have an approximate 17% success rate performing a skill check with a target number of 13.

A Game with Small Modifiers

To play an rpg by substituting 3d6 for a d20, you need to re-scale all the numbers including armor class, challenge rating, bonuses, penalties, and other modifiers because any small modifier matters a lot.  You'll probably have to adjust numbers impromptu too. A +2 is enough to make a hard challenge into a medium challenge and a +4 is enough to make a hard challenge easy.

Critical Success and Critical Failure

You have an approximate 4.5% chance of rolling a 5 or lower and likewise to roll a 16 or higher; therefore, treat a natural 3, 4, or 5 as critical failure and treat a natural 16, 17, or 18 as a critical success.

Advantage and Disadvantage

Rolling a 4d6 drop the lowest / highest is going to feel like the 5e advantage system, but that is going to increase rolls by an average of 3.5 which is substantial. Consider assigning a more modest +2 bonus for advantage and a -2 for disadvantage.

 

d66 for Tables: 

Roll 2d6 for a 6 base percentile die. Treat one d6 as a tens place and one d6 as the ones place, and you can roll any number from 11 to 66 excluding numbers with 7, 8, 9, and 0. You can roll 36 different results.

Breath of Fire II Hints and Tips

Cooking Recipes
     Crafting is an illusion in many RPGs. What you're really doing is interacting with a custom shop that accepts specific items instead of money and returns specific other items. It's essentially ye olde timey bartering. The problem with the wife of the carpenter who makes western style houses is that she doesn't tell you what items she'll trade. Below is a list of all the stuff she cooks that I think is good. The ingredients can be conveniently purchased from Hanz in house 5 and Daiye in house 6 in Township, and the item shop in Guntz.

HEALING ITEM   EFFECT         INGREDIENTS          
WiseBL         +100 AP        Stamina + 2 Tuna
Biscuit        Cure 4, Def.Up 2 Dinkers
Extract        +all HP        4 Herbs or 2 HelpBL  

STAT ITEM      EFFECT         INGREDIENTS
PwdFood        +1 Strength    3 Shave Ice or 2 Medicate
Stamina        +1 Stamina     F.Spice + 2 Tuna
Dinker         +1 Agility     2 Frizbee or 2 Cond. Up or 4 CuraAl
MisoSoup       +1 Wisdom      2 F.Spice
LuckCndy       +1 Luck        mix any 2: F.Spice, Shave Ice, Frizbee
GutsBL         +Guts          2 Shave Ice
 
MISCELLANEOUS  EFFECT         INGREDIENTS
GoldBar        sell for 6k    3 Cond.Up or 2 Frizbee + 2 Dinker
                               or 2 F. Spice + 2 LuckCndy
GoldBar x2     sell for 6k x2 3 Cond.Ups + 1 Tuna
G8bait         catch anything 2 Tuna
Octopus        Atk-Up: party  2 PileWm + 2 Roast

Fishing Shops
     To be honest, I hate mini-games, but the incarnation of the fishing mini-game in BoF2 is simple, so I don't hate it much. Strangely enough, their are merchants that can be fished in this setting. You have to find a rare fishing bait called Gold. You must catch the merchants to shop. Gold is dropped by some enemies at really low drop rates and is found in maybe one or two locations, so be prepared to buy everything you need in one visit. The merchants usually have better stuff than other shops or they have unique stuff.

Northeast of Coursair
MERCHANDISE   PRICE    EFFECT
SilverDR      1200     Atk+14, Damage: Holy
IronML        1400     Def+20, Vig-6
KnightHT      790      Def+8
SilkGL        1200     Def+7
IronSH        1200     Def+10

West of Wild Cat Restaurant
MERCHANDISE   PRICE    EFFECT
BusterSD      2200     Atk+50
WiseRB        3000     Def+18, Vig-4
NationHT      1800     Def+15, -Fire

North of Whale Beach
ITEMS         PRICE    EFFECT
Cond. Up      1000     Improve Condition
F.Spice       100      Cast Flame
ShaveIce      100      Cast Freeze
Frizbee       100      Cast S.Boom
Medicate      500      Cast Atk-Up
FireRock      800      Cast Fireball
KamikzeBL     800      Cast Typhoon
IceChunk      800      Cast Hail

Sea travel required

West of Tunlan
ACCESSORIES   PRICE    EFFECT
Charm         1000     Immune to Curse
IronBR        1000     Def+10
D.Earing      1000     Immune to Sleep
WiseHoop      1000     Wis+10
GutsBT        1000     Increase Guts

Northeast of Akky's Hut (West of Sea of Trees)
ACCESSORIES   PRICE    EFFECT
FastShoe      10000    Vigor+10
HolySF        5000     -Encounter Rate
HeroBT        2000     Atk+10
KramerBR      2000     Immune to Zombie

West of Thieve's Tomb (South side of river)
EQUIPMENT     PRICE    EFFECTS
BrassST       8200     Atk+56, Casts Cure1
ThndrRP       8400     Atk+65
LopOffWP      2000     Atk+10
MystryHT      3100     Def+20
SlashGL       4100     Def+15, Atk+5

Flying required

Island Southwest of Tunlan / Northwest of Guntz
EQUIPMENT     PRICE    EFFECTS
DamageSD      12000    Atk+92
EmblemRP      12000    Atk+79
WorthRG       9500     Atk+52, Casts Death
SlicerDR      20000    Atk+90

Southwest of Cot Land    
*On an island accessible only by Great Bird or Big Frog. The fishing spot generates after a battle on mainland.
EQUIPMENT     PRICE   EFFECTS
BraveAR       10000   Def+60, Agi-6, Atk+5
SpiritRB      7500    Def+12, Resist: Fire, Thunder, Holy
MedusaSH      50000   Def+55, Casts AtkUp
ThndrGL       9000    Def+27, Resist: Thunder

Combat Zones for D&D & Pathfinder

I'm a minimalist. Some people call that being lazy. I've recently discovered zone combat terrain for D&D and Pathfinder. See a whole video about it here: Combat Zones For D&D & Pathfinder (Ep. 136) . This is a great idea. I was inspired to make my own using a rule (with holes), a marker, a big sheet of foam board, and an x-acto knife. Total cost is probably less than 10 dollars. Crafting time is 1 minute. See picture below.

Thank you Professor DM!