Character generation - solo vs non-solo playtest
Recently, I've made a first playtest of a system I've been working on and off. I decided that the players themselves would create a character using the same rules as I have done. Let's say the characters I've created aimed for the characters' breadth of skills, whereas the players' aimed for the depth.
Context
A skill check is a SUM of d6 pool against a DC, with for each excess die to the result granting an extra effect for the character (Think of it like Momentum mechanic from 2d20).
While the tutorial was meant to be easy, the characters made by the players made it trivial, due to being well ahead of the bell curve (810 dice rolled vs 45 expected for 50% chance). Such problem yielded the combat lethal for the NPCs, as so far as KO'ing a guard with a single punch. The idea with the dice pool in this manner is to make some actions impossible for the unskilled without grabbing extra dice from the pool (see: Momentum).
The question How can fix this? I have several solutions:
- Increase the difficulty across the board by about 50%. Those having many different skills would suffer.
- Impose a tighter limit on how many starting points can one assign to an attribute or skill, but doing so could feel like it's forced philosophy.
- Convert the sum into successes, but it might bring no effect.
- Scrap the current system altogether and make it a proper 2d20 system rather than a hack of it. It would take time to do so.