Standard Play:

• Character has 3 skills (let’s stick with the mudang example)

• Spellcasting (4 dice)
• Investigation (3 dice)
• Spirit Sight (3 dice)
• Total dice pool: 10 dice

Skill Recovery System:

• The meditation cooldown + energy points system is quite clever It creates both a free (time-based) and premium (energy points) recovery path
• This could work well for player retention and monetization without being predatory

-> Suggestion: Consider having different meditation times based on how many dice are being recovered, or based on the skill’s initial dice pool

Success Ladder: The 5-30 scale works well, but let’s break down a typical roll:

• With 4 dice (max for your example), highest possible roll is 24 (4d6) Average roll with 4 dice would be around 14 (assuming 3.5 average per d6) This means:
• 5: Very easy (almost guaranteed with 2+ dice)
• 10: Challenging but doable
• 15: Difficult, likely needs max dice
• 20+: Nearly impossible without skill synergies/bonuses

You might want to adjust the ladder or add ways to boost rolls for higher difficulties

Path to Crisis Mode: Normal deterioration through failed rolls Player might strategically “burn” dice to reach the crisis threshold Crisis triggers when reduced to exactly 1 die in each skill

Skill Balance: The percentage effectiveness system is innovative. Example scenario: Challenge: Investigate a haunted house (Difficulty 15)

• Using Investigation (4 dice): 100% of roll counts
• Using Perception (2 dice): 75% of roll might count
• Using Spellcasting (4 dice): 50% of roll might count This creates interesting tactical choices, especially when dice pools are depleted.

HP/Game Over System:

• Using total dice as HP is elegant.
• Some considerations: Starting with 10 total dice across skills means players have meaningful resources to manage
• Crisis Mode Benefits: All remaining 3 dice can be pooled into any single skill
• Full effectiveness regardless of skill appropriateness
• Could even add a small bonus since it represents a “do or die” moment
• This creates interesting strategic choices: Players might intentionally work towards crisis mode for a particularly difficult challenge, the trade-off being they’re extremely vulnerable afterwards
• Creates tense “all or nothing” moments in the story