Quick Design #1

06 Nov, 2026

I have older posts that should 100% be in this “quick design” series, but I’m going to pretend this is the first

I was reading Only on Paper’s post about the gamefeel of fixed target numbers, and an idea popped in my head. I figured I should blog while the iron is hot

What if failure had a two-step verification?

Specifically, what if when you failed a skill check, you had to roll a save?

Many popular games use “to hit” rolls paired with “damage rolls,” which is essentially a two-step verification of success. I believe game scientists call this “a real bummer”

Now, imagine a game where your skills are leveled 1-5. To make a skill check you roll a D6, hoping to get a result that is equal to or under your skill level…

…Then, if you fail a skill check, you need to make a saving roll. To make a save, roll a second D6, hoping to get a result that is equal to or higher than your failed skill check roll…

Not all skill checks would deal/take damage, or f*** it maybe they do! You could take the route of Index Card RPG and give health bars to tasks, or you could take the route of Dungeons & Kittens by treating social conflict as combat.

Cursed Boots of Speed

About a year ago I had an idea for a dungeon minigame with a cursed magical item that forced you to literally speed run a mega dungeon. The original mechanics used coins instead of dice, but let’s just use this new system

You Need: two six-sided Dice, and a deck of Playing Cars

Roll “2D6, drop the highest” for each skill:

♠️ OVER
♥️ UNDER
♣️ AROUND
♦️THROUGH

You just put on a pair of boots of speed which makes all of your movements as fast as running, but unfortunately these boots are cursed… If you stop moving, they will explode!!

The deck of cards represent obstacles in the dungeon, and the suit on each card represents the path with the floating coins

Repeat this process for each room of the dungeon.

This game is “pay to win” so once you collect 100 coins, you can pay the cursed boots to get off of your feet