D&D ish game with no dice.

Hello, I've been around the forum for a while. I'm an artist and designer. Some of you might remember my game "water to water" from last year. I don't often have new game concepts to share, this however is an idea I've had that I've wanted more community feedback over.

I've had this idea of creating an RPG/miniatures system that doesn't use dice in the mechanics at all. In fact I've thought about it being much like a deck-building game. The idea however is mostly to try to create a nice RPG system that succeeds where others fail, and doesn't need a great dungeon master to lead you, where turns are short and adventure is constant, and Action is high. I'm going to try to lay out here how it might work but I would love for you to share ideas that might help to create a new kind of RPG. Even let me know where RPGs have let you down and maybe It can help me to create a better system.

Each player has a "attack rating"(AR) card or cards that function much like the dice in D&D. When one is used it is turned face down until all the player's AR cards are face down (then they are turned face up again). Typicly players will turn one AR card face down on their turn when they attack. Players will have some AR cards that are good and some that are bad and they must choose the order in which they wish to play them. If your AR card is greater than the opponent's defensive AR/armor then damage is dealt.

Each player has a weapon card or cards (or spell card) that has a given amount of damage - this is the damage dealt when the AR is higher than the monster's AR.

The whole system then works in reverse for the monsters, but they will likely only have one AR number and one damage number (so the monsters do not have to have their own set of cards).

Other stats are also contained on cards:
Mind (For defensive Spell AR)
Knowledge (for supplementing spell and healing amounts)
Might (For supplementing Weapon damage)
Nimbleness (Defensive AR)
Health (spent when hit)

As players progress through the game they will draw "loot" cards for each monster they kill, but these cards will also have an "experience" (XP) value. The XP Values can be spent to "purchase" stat cards, AR cards and other class abilities. The loot will also contain items.

An interesting thing that this provides is that the decks can be "stacked" so that lesser abilities must be purchased before getting access to grater abilities. The same applies to the loot. The low XP loot must be picked up before the high XP loot can be picked up. I'm even thinking that if there are character "levels" then the next level is reached when all the "level 1" loot cards have all been picked up.

Healing characters would likely heal for the value of the AR card that they turn face down (+knowledge).

Damage spells will function like weapons, but can be purchased with XP rather than needing to be found.

The game will require a big box of cards(150-300), plus miniatures (or character/monster tokens), and some dungeon maps (mats) to play on (Thought I'm highly considering a kind of Tile-system but this might be too costly).

This could have some PVP elements easily, but I'm thinking of it as a team PVE.

Each "level" might need to be its own box set not costing more than $15-$20. Or level 1-5 is in a big box set then additional levels are add-ons. Maybe it has different sets for different races too? Certainly seems like the kind of product that a million add-ons could be made for.

Let me know your thoughts, maybe it has been done? Any Themes I should consider (though I might stick with medieval-fantasy)?

I know it might not sound like a terribly original idea, but I'm mostly trying to develop an RPG system that is more accessible than D&D but much more rich than Munchkin.

I'm open to most any suggestions other than the addition of dice :-) Let me know if you have any questions.

Regards,
Matthew Kiehl

http://mdkiehl.wordpress.com