Designing custom role-playing game mechanics during a short game jam

Designing custom role-playing game mechanics during a short game jam is not a good idea in case you were wondering. The game ended up being kinda boring so I don't intend on finishing it at this point. But there were some interesting ideas and I thought discussing the process might help other developers or at least be more interesting than the actual game.

So Prospect Town was originally going to have four character paths -- two upstanding and two morally flexible people with rivalries and potential friendships possible to make things slightly more interesting. There was also supposed to be a way to take out your enemy and to take out your friend's enemy, all of which would raise your chance at success. Let's go through this in detail for the two character paths that made it into the game. And they don't have names so I'll just capitalize their title.

The Outlaw's goal is to retire early and take his kid sister with him when he leaves the gang. His rival is the Sheriff and his potential friend is the Madam. After establishing a friendship with the Madam, she could potentially aid in a showdown with the Sheriff. If that is successful, the Outlaw will have a greater chance at successfully robbing the bank. (The current Sheriff could either be injured and less effective or there would be a new Sheriff who isn't as good at their job.) His friend's enemy is the Banker, but I hadn't thought about what helping her defeat him means for the Outlaw. Perhaps she could use her influence to distract him and also increase the success rate of robbing the bank.

The Madam's goal is also to get out early but her motivations are different. I had a couple ideas but couldn't decide if it was because she wanted to buy a gold mine she had heard rumors about or if she knew a railroad was going to bypass the town and put her out of business. Her rival is the banker who likes to drink at her saloon but snitches on her to the Sheriff when she stays open too late. The Madam can get assistance convincing or possibly blackmailing the Banker so he stops snitching on her and increase the chance of successfully staying open late to help make more money.  If she helps the Outlaw take out the Sheriff, they will install a new, corrupt Sheriff who is more likely to ignore the saloon staying open late.

I had originally considered making the gunfights into a mini game but decided it was too ambitious. What I didn't realize until I got into it was designing a custom role-playing game mechanics is also ambitious. I decided upon the stats of Gunmanship, Legerdermain, Perceptiveness, and Influence. Then, it was pretty easy to determine who would have the most and least points in these stats. A lot of work went into the simple d6 based encounter system to make it challenging but fair.  The rewards per encounter have their own d6 roll that determines whether the reward is low, medium, or high. Rewards are much lower on the safe path vs. the risky path. I wanted the player to not be able to win by playing it safe all the time and require them to take some risks. There was going to be a chance of utterly failing and dying to put some actual risk on the risky path other than just losing money.

The game goes for 100 days and it should, but doesn't currently, end early if you meet the goal before that. Each day goes through a potential random event which can be a +/- luck roll or just an extra event that gives or takes money. After the random event plays out, the player selects a safe or risky path for the day. The safe path is also where you would have established your friendship. The risky path is where you would have encountered your enemy (or if you have made a friend, their enemy). So when you see numbers before the text, the game is showing you the rolls vs. the encounter difficulty, including your luck chance (and would have included your friend's roll or bonus in special encounters).

Random event example roll: d6 + player's 2nd best stat (2) - 2 = attack vs. 5 (attack needs to be 5 or better)

Safe path example roll: d6 + player's best stat (3) - 1 + luck (-1, 0, or 1) = attack vs. 4

Risky path example roll: d6 + player's best stat (3) -2 + luck (-1, 0, or 1) = attack vs. 6

Enemy showdown example roll (not implemented): d6 + player's 2nd best stat (2) + 1 for friend bonus + luck (-1, 0, or 1) = attack vs enemy's best stat (3) + d6.

Friend's enemy showdown example roll (not implemented): d6 + friend's 2nd best stat (2) + 1 for player as friend bonus + luck (-1, 0, or 1) = attack vs friend's enemy's best stat (3) + d6.

Lucky days are better for the risky path, including the reward. If that enemy showdown ever made it into the game, the best day to try it would have been a lucky day after making a friend.

I hope this was interesting. Had been debating finishing the game for a while, but really this is the most important thing I wanted to get out there -- the game mechanics and the thought process. Take a look at the attached PDF for more information on the game mechanics. Let me know if you have any comments, questions, similar experiences, etc.