3dX More Dice, Less Math, Endless Possibilities

The Five Pillars of 3dX

Easy Customization

3dX does not have predetermined ancestries, backgrounds, classes, features, or skills outside of the standard attributes and abilities. This leaves the ways in which the players interact with the world via their characters nearly limitless. Don't get bogged down in whether or not an action is permitted given a combination of character options. If it makes sense for a character to do something, give it a shot and get drawn into the world and the characters’ place in it.

More Rolling Dice

For nearly every roll in 3dX, there are three dice rolled: the Vitality die, one of five attribute dice, and one of at least twenty-four ability dice. Which dice are used depends on the condition of the roll (disadvantage, normal, or advantage), making it easy to determine what the results are as well as encouraging collaboration as other players may choose to help, potentially changing the outcome.

Less Math

I am one of those people that actually likes math, but crunching numbers tends to take everyone out of the action. 3dX avoids this by reducing the math necessary to determine the outcome to whether or not the numbers of the dice being used are higher than the target number and by how much.

High Collaboration

All the players and their allies act at once; no more waiting for your turn to act. This allows you to work together to accomplish your goals. Be careful, though; once someone rolls their dice, they cannot be rerolled and their actions cannot be changed, so plan accordingly.

Rulings Instead of Rules

The rules are intentionally minimal and meant to serve as the springboard to get you into the adventure. If a situation arises where you're not sure if it is covered in the rules or not, make a call and run with it! Chances are, whatever rules do apply to that situation will be left open to interpretation anyway, so don't let the rules take you out of the moment!

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank everyone that played a role in inspiring and developing this ruleset, knowingly and not. I took inspiration from many creators within the TTRPG world as they introduced lesser-known systems, presented homebrew and house rules for existing systems, documented their progress on their custom system, or simply dug into the mechanics and statistics behind dice-based games as a whole. 3dX is the combination of many incredible ideas that have allowed it to come into its own.

How to Read the Rules

The rules provided below are meant to provide a solid foundation on which to get you right into the adventure and keep it going. If there are any rules that don't add to the experience, feel free to alter or ignore them. If you are trying to adhere closely to the rules, whenever there is a conflict between two or more rules, the ones that apply to the most specific set of circumstances take precedence.

Dice in 3dX

Rolls and Saves

A roll is whenever the Vitality die, an attribute die, and an ability die are rolled together. Each of these dice can be a d2, d4, d6, d8, d10, or d12. For a d2 you can either use a coin or another die where either odds count as a one and evens count as a two, or the lower half of the results count as a one and the higher half count as a two. Each of these increments is referred to as a die size. In circumstances where the attribute or ability die is zero, roll the other die and treat the results of the unrolled die/dice as zero.

A save is where just a single die, most often the Vitality die, is rolled.

Roll and Save Conditions

Each roll or save can be made normally, with advantage, or with disadvantage. For rolls, the middle result is used if the roll is made normally, the highest result is used for advantage, and the lowest result is used for disadvantage. For saves, the result of the save is used for normal saves, two of the dice are rolled and the highest is taken for advantage, and two of the dice are rolled and the lowest is taken with disadvantage.

When reading rules that specify which dice are used to determine the outcome or outcomes of a roll or save, the rule is assuming that the situation does not have external factors applying advantage or disadvantage. When these external factors are applied, there may be situations where a roll or save that already has advantage or disadvantage should have an additional level of advantage or disadvantage applied to it. In these cases, use the following rules.

Determining Success

If the result of the roll or save is equal to or greater than the target number, it is a success with how much it exceeds the target number by being how successful. If it is less than the target number, it fails with how far below the target number it is determining by how much.

Taking Time

If a character wants to take additional time to accomplish a task, they can gain advantage on the roll. How much time needs to be taken to accomplish this depends on the ability being used as well as the circumstances, leaving the exact amount up to the GM’s discretion. For an additional increase to the roll, the character can choose to take that time again, increasing their advantage result by one per use until reaching the maximum possible value of the roll. For actions that are typically executed during a single turn in combat, an additional turn executing the same action is enough to gain advantage.

Critical Result

If all three of the dice rolled as a part of a roll are the same, this is a critical success and makes the overall result the equal to the highest value of the dice rolled, unless all the results are 1, in which case this is a critical failure and results in a zero.

Multiple Rolls

If a character is attempting to take an action that uses multiple abilities, determine in what order the rolls should be made and then proceed. Depending on the results of a roll, the following one may have advantage or disadvantage per the GM's discretion.

Skill Rolls

Skills are abilities not provided on the character sheet or are a combination of multiple abilities. When two or more abilities are combined, only one roll is made. To determine which dice are rolled, find the average die size for the applicable attributes and abilities, rounding up if the average isn't an even number. The Vitality die is also rolled as the third die as it is not changed regardless of how many abilities are combined.

Character Sheet

by Dan Leitch

Character Creation and Advancement

First things first: you need to create an avatar through which you will experience whatever world you are playing in. The order in which you decide who your character is and how they fit into the world is up to you, but here is a recommended order in case you are not sure where to start.

Ancestry

A character's ancestry is simply the answer to the question, "who are your ancestors?". This focuses primarily on genetic ancestry, though additional details can be incorporated in it if they are not covered by the following two elements.

Background

What did the character do before the start of this story? Are they new to adventuring or have they already been on an adventure or two. This won't change the character's starting level, but it will help inform what abilities, attributes, and skills the character should have.

Culture

Where did the character come from? What languages do they speak? What traditions do they observe? What abilities and skills did they acquire from growing up in that part of the world?

Levels and Character Advancement

Starting Level

How much experience does the character have? The character's level is the average of their attributes rounded up. The primary purposes of this value are to determine how many attributes and abilities the character starts with, keep track of the character's progress as they gain experience, and help the GM with balancing encounters and setting target numbers. A good rule of thumb is that an NPC with a target number equal to a character's level will prove a tough, but winnable challenge, though this does depend on how the character has distributed their attribute and ability.

Below are all of the levels with their corresponding starting attributes, abilities, and epic dice. Discuss with the group where they would like to start.

Novice Adventurers

Intermediate Adventurers

Experienced Adventurers

Seasoned Adventurers

Master Adventurers

Character Advancement

The default character advancement rate is increasing one ability by a die size after each session and one attribute die after five sessions with the caveat that once an ability is increased, it can not be increased again until the next attribute increase. This rate can be adjusted to best fit the campaign and the ground.

Vitality

A character's Vitality is a measure of their overall health and wellbeing. Unless stated otherwise, everyone's Vitality should start out as a d12. The primary way Vitality is reduced is by failing a Vitality save, which occurs after being subject to an effect that could negatively impact the character's healthiness such as taking a wound, being poisoned, overexerting themselves, or going a too long without sufficient rest.

Attributes and Abilities

Each character has five attributes: Athletics, Dexterity, Intelligence, Presence, and a fifth attribute that depends on the setting (in this ruleset, the fifth attribute is Spirit, which determines a character's magical aptitude). These represent the character's natural aptitudes, corresponding with the maximum value of the die assigned to it.

In circumstances where an attribute or ability is reduced, whether due to a special attack or other effect, make sure to keep track of its original value. Restoring a reduced attribute or ability requires rest.

Each attribute, with the exception of the fifth one, has six abilities each, which represent particular actions, skills, or talents the character has developed. The degree of proficiency a character has with each of these abilities corresponds with the maximum value of the die assigned to it.

Athletics

Block: Used when a character is attempting to absorb or deflect an attack.

Carry: This does not involve a roll but increases the number of inventory slots a character can fill before experiencing encumbrance. The die size assigned to Carry is how many additional Slots a character has.

Grapple: Used when a character is attempting to grapple or avoid being grappled by an opponent. Agility or Might can also be used to avoid or break free from a grapple.

Might: Used when a character is performing a feat of athletics or strength.

Strike: Used when a character is attempting to hit an opponent with a strength-based melee attack.

Throw: Used when a character is attempting to hit an opponent with a strength-based ranged attack.

Dexterity

Agility: Used when a character is attempting to perform a feat of acrobatics.

Dodge: Used when a character is attempting to move out of the way of an attack.

Finesse: Used when a character is attempting to hit an opponent with a dexterity-based melee attack.

Precision: Used when a character is attempting to hit an opponent with a dexterity-based ranged attack.

Stealth: Used when a character is attempting to hide, move silently, sneak, or otherwise evade detection or go unnoticed.

Thievery: Used when a character is attempting to perform an act of thievery such as lockpicking or pickpocketing.

Intelligence

Intuition: Used when a character is attempting to deduce unknown information about an event, mechanism, phenomenon, or situation.

Knowledge: Used when a character is attempting to recall information they may have encountered before. It is also used for learning rolls.

Linguistics: Used when a character is attempting to interpret a language they are not proficient in.

Medicine: Used when a character is attempting to treat a wound, end the dying condition, or otherwise diagnose or treat a medical condition.

Navigation: Used when a character is attempting to navigate through unfamiliar terrain.

Search: Used when a character is attempting to identify or spot something in their surroundings.

Presence

Calm: Used when a character is attempting to deescalate an emotionally charged situation or pacify an agitated character or NPC.

Deceive: Used when a character is attempting to deceive, fool, or lie to another character.

Intimidate: Used when a character is attempting to intimidate, scare, or threaten another character.

Persuade: Used when a character is attempting to convince or persuade another character.

Social: Used when a character is gauging a social situation.

Theatrics: Used when a character is attempting to perform or put on a show.

Fifth Attribute

The fifth attribute is intentionally left blank on the character sheet and includes space for the attribute die, a special resource, bonus dice, and ten abilities. This allows for characters to develop an attribute and abilities that can be specific to the setting or even specific to that character. Keep in mind that characters can also develop skills, which use existing attribute and ability dice, so fifth attribute abilities should be ones that wouldn't fit with what is already contained on the character sheet.

Bonus Dice

Each Attribute has an associated bonus die that can be used to increase the condition of a roll or save. If the attribute is a d6 or greater, it gets an associated bonus die equal to that attribute's die. If the attribute is a d12, it gets two uses of its d12 bonus die.

Each character also has a special bonus die called the epic die. This is a d20 and when it is rolled, it must be the highest of the dice already rolled. If it's equal to or lower than a die that has already been rolled, reroll the d20 until it's higher. Each player starts with an epic dice and gains an additional one when the character's reach level 5, 10, 15, and so on.

Bonus dice can be regained from resting.

Movement

Most characters have three movement speeds: climb, run, and swim. Some ancestries can replace or add new movement speeds, such as dig, or fly, if appropriate. To calculate each movement speed, add the character's Dexterity, any ability increase put into that movement, and their Vitality together, and then divide it by two. The player must pick one to be their primary movement and one as their secondary with the remaining movements being tertiary. For their primary, the result of this calculation is that movement's speed in meters; for their secondary, divide the result in half; and for their tertiary, divide the result by four. Always round movement speeds up to the nearest whole meter.

When using ability increases to increase speed, they must be in increments of two and cannot exceed twelve, following the same rules as ability increases.

Additional Movement Options

While in combat, a character can take the Dash action, which allows them to move one and half times their movement speed. However, when they have disadvantage on all defense rolls until the start of their next turn.

If a character is crawling, they can move up to a quarter of their run speed.

If a character wants to make a vertical jump, the height they can reach is equal to the average of their Vitality, Dexterity attribute, and Agility ability dice divided by two.

If a character wants to make a horizontal leap, they need to first determine how much of a running start they have to determine how far they can leap.

The total movement taken in a turn can be split between multiple movements, including jump and leap.

Inventory

A character's inventory consists of slots, with each slot being able to hold a half stone of equipment, which is equal to seven pounds or just over three and a sixth (3.175) kilograms. To calculate how many slots a character can have filled without suffering any penalties, add together their Athletics, Encumbrance, and their Vitality, then divide it by two. A character can have more slots filled than this value, but for each additional slot filled, they must take a die size penalty to either their Athletics, Dexterity, or their fifth attribute if applicable. Of note, a penalty to Athletics does not reduce the calculated number of slots a character can have filled without incurring penalties.

Skills

In addition to abilities, characters have skills, which are either a custom ability, a language apart from the one they grew up speaking, a proficiency with a special tool or weapon, or a particular circumstance or condition in which they have advantage. There is no limit to how many skills a character can have, but they can only have a certain number of them active at any given time. This number is the result of adding the character's Intelligence attribute and level together. How many skills each character starts with is up to the GM. Active skills can be switched out after completing a rest.

Custom Abilities

Custom abilities are ones apart from the abilities provided on the character sheet that uses existing attribute and ability dice. For a skill roll, the Vitality die, the average of the associated attribute dice, and the average of the associated ability dice are rolled. When using the average of either the attribute or ability dice, round up to the nearest die size. Custom abilities can not be increased directly using an attribute or ability increase, but the associated attributes and abilities can be increased to increase the averages used to determine which dice to use.

If a skill does not have either a fitting attribute or ability die, consider turning it into a fifth attribute ability.

Proficiencies

Proficiencies are when a character has developed, whether as a part of the life before adventuring or while adventuring, in which they can gain advantage on rolls and saves under certain circumstances or with certain items. Work the GM to ensure that these allow characters to excel at certain tasks without making them overpowered.

Learning

For characters that want to learn new custom abilities, languages, proficiencies, or any other skill, they can place them in the learning section of the character sheet and make learning rolls whenever they use downtime to learn, practice, research, study, or otherwise work on developing that language or skill. Depending on what the fifth attribute for the setting or even individual character is, learning can be used to acquire new abilities for that fifth attribute. To maintain balance and pacing, when a character has acquired enough learning points to gain a new ability, they put a 0 in it until they can apply an ability increase to make it a d2.

A learning roll uses the character's Vitality, Intelligence attribute, and Knowledge ability dice. The result of the roll is how many learning points a character acquires per uninterrupted hour spent learning.

How many learning points are required to gain a new skill depends on a number of factors but below is a general guide.

Additionally, a character can learn by rolling a twelve or higher on a roll associated with something they are learning, gaining a number of learning points equal to the result of the roll.

Relationships

As characters interact with the inhabitants of the world, they can build relationships, both positive and negative. This space on the character sheet allows characters to quantify their relationships with particular individuals or organizations. The value assigned represents the target number and character would need to roll to influence the actions of that individual or organization. This results in lower values indicating more positive relationships and higher willingness to cooperate while higher values indicate more negative, even hostile, relationships. Where these target numbers begin when the characters first make contact is up to the GM, but below are some guidelines.

Only record relationships for important individuals or organizations, such as companions, local authorities, and rivals, increasing or decreasing the number appropriately based on their interactions with the characters.

Combat

Turns

Instead of individual characters taking a turn in combat, the combatants are split into at least two groups based on which side they are fighting for. This means that in a combat where a party of characters faces off against a group of enemies, all the characters will act at once on their turn and all the enemies will act at once on their turn with each turn taking five seconds of in-game time. This reduces the time spent waiting for your turn and better facilitates collaboration and teamwork.

Initiative

3dX does not have a built-in initiative system. Instead, it is suggested that the GM determine which group would strike first and start combat from there. Alternatively, the characters can each roll whatever attribute save or ability roll would allow them to act first, take the average of that, and compare that to the average of the target numbers of the other group. The higher of the two goes first in combat.

Actions

In combat, each character can take only one of the following actions in a turn.

Act

Take any action not covered by one of the other options. In most cases, these actions will be made with disadvantage if they are combined with up to half of the character's movement.

Attack

Use the Aim, Finesse, Grapple, Strike, Throw, a fifth attribute ability, or offensive skill to attack an opponent.

Defend

If the character wants to focus on defending themselves against the next attack, they can forgo taking any actions on their turn and gain advantage on any defense rolls they make during the opponents' next turn.

Help

Use an appropriate action to help another character with their action. As long as the result is at least half the target number, the other character gains Advantage. The effect of this helping roll is still applied. Once the dice are rolled, they cannot be rerolled and the Action cannot be changed, but which character gains advantage can be changed. If a character or NPC was granted advantage by another's Help action, they can not use their result to Help someone else.

Move

Use up to the character's movement speed. They can also choose to Dash, moving one and a half times their movement speed, but imposing disadvantage on all their defense rolls during the opponents' turn.

Ready

Prepare to take an action on the opponents' turn given a specific set of circumstances. If those circumstances are met during the opponents' turn, the readied action is executed without penalty. If those circumstances are not met, the readied action can still be taken, but with disadvantage.

Steady

Similar to Ready, except that the character is preparing to take an action on their coming turn instead of during the opponents' turn. This grants advantage on that action during the next turn, but it also imposes disadvantage on any defensive actions during the opponents' turn and they lose their pending advantage if they are wounded or otherwise interrupted.

Offense

Multiple Attacks

When a character makes an attack against a single target with two light or one-handed melee weapons, multiple light or medium ranged weapons, a ranged weapon with multiple projectiles, or are otherwise able to make multiple attacks in a single turn, they make a single roll to determine how many of these attacks hit, dividing the number of attacks between the three results as evenly as possible. If the number of attacks is not divisible by three, including if there are just two attacks, assign the remaining results to the result the corresponds with the condition of the roll.

Multiple Targets

Making multiple attacks to try and hit multiple targets uses the same multiple attacks rule, except with disadvantage.

Reactions

Characters can take a single action, excluding movement on their opponents' turn to take advantage of an opportunity, such as exploiting an enemy turning their back and fleeing or an enemy following prone or otherwise being unable to defend themselves. These actions are made with disadvantage.

Range Increments

All ranged weapons have a range in meters at which they are intended to be used at. With the exception of non-melee weapons being used in melee, which always have disadvantage, ranged attacks made one range increment closer than their assigned one are made with advantage and ranged attacks made one range increment further than their assigned one are made with disadvantage. Ranged attacks made two or more increments closer or further are made with disadvantage.

Defense

On the opponents' turn, characters and NPCs can take the Block, Dodge, or a defensive fifth attribute ability to defend themselves against incoming attacks. Whatever action is used applies to all incoming attacks during that turn.

Defending Against Grappling

If an opponent is attempting to Grapple a character, they can make an Agility, Block, Dodge, Might, or appropriate fifth attribute ability to avoid the intended result of the Grapple. If a character is caught in a Grapple, they can make an Agility, Might, or appropriate fifth attribute ability to try and break free.

Multiple Attackers

If a character is being attacked by multiple enemies at once, only one defense roll is made. For advantage rolls, the highest and middle result are applied to one enemy of the character's choosing each with the remainder applying to the disadvantage result. For normal rolls, the middle result is applied to one enemy of the character's choosing and the rest are applied to the disadvantage result. For disadvantage rolls, all attacks use the lowest result.

NPC Saves and Target Numbers

If an NPC attacks a character or defends against a character's attack, the NPC uses a target number against which the character's roll is compared. If an NPCs attacks or defends against another NPC, the attacking NPC makes a save, rolling a die with a maximum value of twice their target number. For NPCs with target numbers greater than six, roll a d20 and reroll if the value is greater than twice their target number.

Damage and Wounds

Whenever a character or NPC is subject to an effect that would likely result in a wound or other negative consequence, they make the appropriate roll or save and compare that result to the target number. If the attack roll or target number is greater than the defense roll or target number, the attack deals a number of wounds equal to the difference between the values.

NPC Wounds

An NPC can take a number of wounds equal to their target number without suffering any additional consequences. However, for each wound they take in excess of their target number, their effective target number, which is used for determining the results of their actions and what die they roll for their saves, is reduced by one. When their effective target number reaches zero, they fall unconscious and begin dying. [p/]

Damage and Wound Reduction

In instances where more than one wound is dealt by a single attack, the character or NPC can take one or more of the below reactions to reduce the incoming damage by one each to a minimum of one wound.

Heavy Hits

In most circumstances, a character will make a single Vitality save at the start of their turn after taking wounds. However, if a single attack deals at least five wounds, that attack requires an additional Vitality save for every five wounds it deals.

Falling and Fall Damage

If a character begins falling and they are not in combat, the group should enter the same turn-based timing system used in combat. The character will not actually fall until the start of their next turn, allowing them and their allies to take a turn trying to rescue them. However, if they are unsuccessful, they will fall until they either land or use an action to stop their descent. If they land, they take a number of wounds equal to the distance they fell in meters divided by ten up to a maximum of twenty wounds. If they stop their descent by their own action, the number of wounds they would have taken is divided in half.

Non-Wounding Damage

In instances where an effect could harm a character but not deal any wounds such as poison, sickness, or suffocation, having the characters make additional Vitality saves, potentially once per turn until the effect is ended. This allows the character to still suffer the effects of the effect without accumulating wounds. For NPCs, simply award wounds as they cannot make Vitality saves.

Armor and Shields,

Armor

A single piece of armor takes up on inventory slot and can be broken to reduce incoming damage by one. A broken piece of armor remains in the character's inventory, but not longer provides any protection. As long as a character is wearing at least one piece of armor, their reduce incoming damage by one per incoming attack.

Shields

A shield takes up an inventory slot and is requires a free hand to wield. While a character is carrying a shield, they have advantage on all defense rolls as long as they are aware they are being attacked. Additionally, when the character takes the Defend action, their shield serves as a piece of armor.

Those that take time to develop offensive capabilities can learn the following skills.

Weapons

While the majority of weapons deal the same amount of damage, they are differentiated by how many hands is required to wield them, how many inventory slots their occupy, how they impact Block and Dodge rolls, and what unique skills their wielders have access to. Exception to the same damage rule include weapons with elemental, explosive, or magical properties that can cause additional damage or inflict additional effects.

Weapon Ranges

Each weapon has a range at which it can be effectively used. For ranged weapons, attacks made against targets closer than the listed range are made with advantage and attacks made against targets further than the listed range a made with disadvantage. The exception to this is any weapon that does not have the melee range is used with disadvantage when used at melee range.

Weapon Types

While many weapons may not fit into these categories or may have alternate properties, below are the basic weapon types for 3dX and their properties.

Weapon Skills

Below are skills take up that characters can gain to maximize the effect of their weapons. It will specify within the text of the skill which weapons it applies to.

Vitality Saves

At the start of each character’s turn, if they received at least one wound since the start of their last turn, they must make a Vitality save.

When a character's Vitality is reduced, be sure to make the appropriate reductions to anything that uses Vitality to calculate its value, such as Movement and Inventory Slots.

Dying

Dying Characters

If a character’s Vitality drops to zero they fall unconscious and begin dying. While dying, they gain one wound at the start of each turn.

There are two ways in which a character can exit the dying condition. Any treatment or healing outside of these two conditions can be used to treat or heal wounds, but it does not end the dying condition.

Dying NPCs

If an NPC’s effective target number is reduced to zero, which is the result of them acquiring a number of untreated wounds equal to twice their target number, they fall unconscious, begin dying, and take an additional wound at the start of each turn.

Like with characters, there are two ways to remove the dying condition from an NPC and any treatment or healing outside of those two conditions can be used to treat or heal wounds, but do not end the dying condition.

Rest and Recovery

Whenever a character completes a full rest, typically eight hours of sleep depending on the ancestry and setting, they make a Vitality save to determine how many rest points they gained from that rest. If the result of this save is less than the number of untreated wounds the character has, their Vitality is reduced by one die size, otherwise, their Vitality increases by one die size up to a d12.

Rest points can be used in the following ways.

If a character goes a day without getting enough rest to make a rest save, their Vitality automatically decreases by one die size and they do not gain any rest points.