Homebrew d6 system for Highschool Modern Fantasy RP: The Taken Sword

[Mister Nobody]

"This story revolves around rival gangs and the schools that they support. Yes you read that right, gangs and schools. There are only the two major schools that we will play from. The schools are the Kazegami school and the Sakuramori school. These two schools are named after the gangs that have power over them. There has always been a rivalry between these two schools but recently that has exsclated to a certain degree. The Kazegami school is known for being the academic hot spot while their counterpart is known to produce athletes. If you haven't guess, yes, this story will mainly be in Japan but that doesn't mean you can't have a foreign character. At each school there are elite students that have demonstrated their prowess in both fields of the physical demanding and the mentally demanding. Fights break out between the schools but are made into a sport. If a student is challenge by the rival school they must bring their weapon and expect to either die in the fight or be honored. If somehow you make it out of the fight defeated and alive then you dishonor the school you fought for and suffer a punishment of either having your sword hand chopped off or the ulitmate disgrace, beg to be brought in by the rival school. The elite students come from the top family of the gang according to their school or their friendship bonds with the family. The other student body cannot associate with the elite students. I do understand that this sounds an awful much like an anime and sure I guess it can be but the difference is that this is supposed to be like if it is reality. I am interested to see how your characters come out in this story. Would you be the loyal child of the family or would you be one of the rebels who decided to rebel. If I may add another note, you are allow to have something like a Romeo and Juliet romance. If you have questions then feel free to pm me since the story worked better in my head. Also keep in mind that your character has to juggle school life and their life amongst the clan. Also the general public turns a blind eye to what unfolds around these two schools. Each character also needs to have some sort of weapon style."

The passage above is from an old Roleplay I had hosted on another site that went dead. However I don't plan to try to rehash the same plot of the old thread. This game will be taking place 15 years later with new schools in play as well a new cast. The events from 15 years still resonate a little in the clans of the Sakuramori and Kazegami. Both their older daughters fell in love with each other and on the eve of their battle they didn't show up instead they left in the middle of the night with the help of some friends. Few years after the incident the Sakuramori welcomed twins into the world this was able to keep their blood strong however their other children having grown up and graduated left to see the world and get away from the fighting between the schools and clans. However the Kazegami didn't have such luck. With the absence of their only child and the betrayal of one of their ninjas, the Kazegami was dealt a heavy blow. Kazegami couldn't produce a rightful heir due to Lady Kazegami having become barren. The only alternative was to either bear or adopt child with one of the clans under their banner. Lord Kazegami elected to do both. They adopted a baby from the Fujimoto clan, a clan who made a fortune from their automobile industry from dealerships to having power in automobile manufacturing. They were the first to swear their loyalty in the long history of the Kazegami family. In hopes of forgiveness from their young Raiden's betrayal, the ninja clan of the Kurosawa offered their most beautiful virgin to Lord Kazegami and thus was born the second heir to the Kazegami throne.

These two clans and schools were the super powers of the metropolis of Daimyo city. But in the past 15 years new schools and clans rose to prominence to rival these two great and old houses. The Gekko Clan and the Kinzoku Clan. The Gekko Clan hosts two schools which are a male private school and a female private school. The Gekko schools are known for their band program and are the most musically incline than the other schools as far as competitions go. Their main focus is mainly the arts. Then there is the Kinzoku Clan whose community high school is known for their volunteer work and their programs to help promote hands on training for more skill trades sort of work. Now the Sakuramori school is more known for producing highly sought after atheletes and of all the schools have the best sports program as well as promoting healthier lifestyles. The Kazegami are known for being the academic powerhouse out of the schools and they also have taken in interest in promoting programs for technology. They also have a robotics team who has been undefeated during their 12 year infancy.

Your characters will be a part of the elite student body who have been trained and groomed for fighting. You will be freshman starting out in one of these high schools bearing the pride and name of the clan you fight for. Maybe you're from one of the clans that serve under these main four. Or your character could be from the main family. Better yet your character maybe a Ronin Who doesn't swear any alligence to either family, only to the digits they put into your bank account to fight for them against someone who they believe doesn't deserve to fight one of their own or worst yet, the challnger maybe stronger than any of their candidates. You could even be one of the many who don't know about this underground fighting circuit between the schools but on one unfortunate night, you are dragged into.

Whoever you are, welcome to the Taken Sword. I will make another post describing the system to be used that is opened to constructive critism and the character sheet to be used. I mainly want to see how much interest this will generate. I plan to start off with a small group then allow for it to grow into a larger group as more characters are introduced. I would like the starting four to be apart of the elite student then I will allow characters not to be affiliated with the families like being a Ronin or someone who was unaware of these happenings. I also like to mention that Ronin could also be hired by a sponser to participate in battles.
More of What a challenge is in the next post as well.

[Mister Nobody]

Now the system to be used takes some inspiration from other rpg engines so you might find something familiar. I mainly wanted to make an easy enough system that could add the variable of chance into play without being hard to get a grasp of. So why I am asking the community for their thoughts into the matter as of how to improve the system.

So there are three main stats that come with 5 types of "situational categories". The three stats are Mental, Social and Physical while The 5 situational categories are Attack, Defense, Speed, Stamina, and Utility.

Mental
Attack: Brillance
Defense: Resolve
Speed: Cunning
Stamina: Willpower
Utility: Knowledge

Social
Attack: Personality
Defense: Presence
Speed: Poise
Stamina: Composure
Utility: Etiquette

Physical
Attack: Combat
Defense: Resistance
Speed: Agility
Stamina: Vitality
Utility: Athletics

Now what exactly does this all mean? Well let me explain the best I can.

What an Attack is if you're actively trying to cause harm on someone or actively trying to affect them. So in case of a Brillance attack let's say you're running away to lure Your opponent into a trap. When you get to your destination you roll your Brillance to spring the trap. Now what is a Personality attack? This attack can be something like trying to intimidate someone into giving you information or persuading them into doing something for you. A Combat attack is when you swing your sword at another person or in other words you are engage in a skirmish with someone.

What a Defense is is you trying to avoid being harmed in someway. Lets go back to the trap being sprang for a Resolve defense. Since he is being attack by a Brillance attack, the target may defend theirself with a Resolve defense. They roll their Resolve vs the other players Brillance and in this case lets say the target of the trap wins. So before the trap is sprang, they notice a few wires glistening in the moonlight. So someone is trying to force their personality upon you and trying to make you give up information on your clan. In this case you will roll a Presence defense vs their Personality attack and it happens that you win the contest so you don't feel intimidated by them. As such with a Resistance defense vs a Combat attack, you roll to see if you avoid the attack or block it. So that swift jab they thought would throw you off, you were able to see it coming and defend yourself from it.

What a Speed check is is how fast you can react or in other terms, your initiative. So for a Cunning speed check we will keep using the trap scenario. Well you notice the trap Now you roll of against each others Cunning. The one who rolls the highest Cunning is able to react first to the situation. So lets say the target loses against their aggressor's Cunning check. So now the aggressor realizes that the target notice the trap and now can try to plan accordingly. A Poise Speed check might come into play if you're trying to break into a house but end up being caught so you roll a poise against their poise and if you when you can act first and try to talk yourself out of the situation.

Stamina check is what it sounds like, how long you can hold out against something or how much damage you take. So a Willpower stamina check maybe something like despite the pain you feel after being shot, you manage to roll a high enough Willpower stamina check to power through the pain and make it to safety. A Compsure social check could be after a nasty lecture from your clan's boss, you roll a Composure check as not to let it affect you. A Vitality physical check could be trying to stave off the effects of the poison you unknowingly ingested.

A Utility check is anything outside the realm of other checks. For example you can roll a Knowledge utility check to see how well you passed your test. Or an Etiquette social check could be trying to make a good first impression with a possible business partner. And an Athletics physical utility check could be jumping from one roof to another during a chase.

Hopefully that helps clear up what you can use those checks for. You will have 15 points to distribute throughout your "Attribute Score Card". You may have only up to 2 points in a attribute. The number of points an attribute has is how many extra d6 you may roll. An attribute left blank only has 1d6 to roll. So an attribute with 2 points can roll 3d6. After the points are distributed, add up the number of points in each main stat. The resulting total will be your "Hp" for that particular category plus 20. So lets say you failed a Resistance roll vs a Combat roll. Whatever the difference between the values is how much damage you take physically. Same with a Personality attack vs a Presence defence. Taking damage to your social stat could make you feel uncomfortable or your reputation takes a hit. A failed Resolved defense roll against a Brillance attack could be akin to making you second guess yourself or making you feel a bit more crazy. If you drop to zero in the Physical stat then you may have ended up unconscious. Dropping to zero in the Social stat could make you a social pariah. Dropping zero in the Mental stat could simulate a temporary lapse into insanity.

Now after your stats are done, you can pick 6 "traits" that define who your character is. The first trait must be your weapon style or martial art or however you fight. For example, your trait can be Boxing. You may view these as a more specialized Utility. These traits help represent who your character is beyond the score card. Once you have 6 traits, you have 5 points to distribute between these and nothing can be beyond a 2 points. A trait could be something like Asian Cooking. That tells me your character has spent time learning how to cool asian food. So your character may have to prepare dinner for someone special and so they decide to make them some Asian stir fry to impress them. So when you roll a Knowledge utility check to make this, you may add additional d6 depending on how many points you have in your trait.

I plan on making a character to show off how to create one however at the moment I am limited to only my phone.

[Mister Nobody]

I have done some revisions to the overall design of the mechanics. I changed Etiquette to Magnetism. Gave 21 points for the scorecard and 8 points for traits. Instead of d6, I changed the die to fudge (+/-). I also added Advantage and Disadvantage. Advantage is of course additional success awarded if a situation warrants. And then disadvantage is an additional failure awarded if the situation warrants. The number amount on your score card indicates how many dice you may roll for that attribute. Advantage and Disadvantage are basically your challenge ratings. On traits, you are awarded an advantage to an attribute of your choosing and you may add that value to your overall roll. Traits can be seen as feats or specialized skills. Below I added a blank character scorecard to play with as well added an example character.

Blank Character Scorecard: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/196rf1sQBKlzwiKXfBGYp-kEQME7gtFlhT_VumTNx1Ik/edit?usp=sharing

Hotaru Kazegami: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JP7ZRRFUW7jn8LE4FVxw_fFdjw-C058IqzdXXsjw2Q4/edit?usp=sharing

[JackalopeLove]

I think this looks amazing but I have never done anything like this before. If you are looking for more experienced individuals with the dice system I understand, but I would be willing to learn and give it a try and if I do fail I can always die quickly!

[Vaso]

How frequently would we post? I'm new to the site and I'm looking for something that I can really dig my heels into. I would be very interested in this.
My experience is limited with play by post, but I have spent the last 18 months playing some role playing game or another at least once a week. I've found my calling. Recently the game has slowed down a bit and I'm looking for something new to cling to.