At one point, I also ran a 3E D&D game that I really enjoyed for the interaction between the PCs, the interesting NPC organizations I made up, the fun set pieces, and the relationships that developed between the PCs and NPCs that were originally thrown in for background extras (it was a Spelljammer game and I gave each of the NPC crewman on their ship a different identifying feature and personality quirk). What I didn't enjoy was making up stats on the fly and having a player ask "Why can't he do X if can do Y?" It made sense to me that a character wouldn't know a feat like "Improved Haberdashery" without knowing the prerequisite "Haberdashery", but the system often linked things in chains that didn't really seem necessary. Thinking back on this, I realized that I really prefer to GM in broad strokes, so I wanted to make a system that would allow that. By coincidence, I was studying the works of Vincent Van Gogh at the time of this realization. I particularly liked his dynamic brush strokes and the way he makes such evocative scenes without using excessive detail, so I decided "Van Gogh" was a good name for the project that would keep me focused on those goals. But other than working in "broad strokes" for easy statting on the fly, what are the design goals of Van Gogh? These are the initial notes I jotted down when I started:
- Each stat is a dice pool of one to six D6s. But a score of 6 should be really unusual.
- No more than 6D6 need to be rolled at once. The result is determined by counting successes to keep the addition simple, quick, and visceral. Players can read the results at a glance. Each die that rolls 3+ is a success and 6s are two successes. This means that the average roll of a dice pool is very close to the number of dice in the pool, so it's easy to roughly estimate one's capabilities.
- For non-opposed actions, the difficulties normally range from 1 to 5. Matching the difficulty is a basic success. Exceeding the difficulty brings additional benefits (extra damage in combat, extra details on a knowledge roll, etc.).
- For opposed actions, compare rolls. The winner is the one with more successes. The winner enjoys extra benefits for having more than one success over the loser.
- There are 4 Attributes (Might, Finesse, Cunning, Will) and 20 Skills (not all of which will be needed in every setting).
- Skills are their own standalone die code (i.e. it's not an “Attribute+Skill” system). Skills are cheaper to purchase at levels below their relevant Attribute, so people with a lot of natural talent can more easily achieve a given level of skill but someone with more skill than them will be better (even if they had to work harder to get that superior skill).
- Drama: Giving 110%. Tapping into inner reserves of willpower. Being in the zone. Using the Force. Whatever you want to call it, most of the settings I enjoy playing in have some situations where characters go above and beyond their normal limits for the sake of an exciting story. These extra resources are represented by Drama points. When a Drama point is spent before a roll, then all successes are doubled, not just the 6s. Drama points can be earned in play as a reward for good role-playing or as compensation for trouble caused by a Drawback or other unfavorable circumstances. The most reliable source of Drama points are the character's Passions, personality traits that indicate which situations would drive them to try a little harder than normal.
- Drawing on experience: Experience isn't just recorded as faceless “XP points” that can be spent on anything. Some games (like D6 and Savage Worlds, two of my favorites) have experience points that serve as a resource that can be spent on temporary boosts in play or as a permanent boost to buy new skills and abilities, but they can only be used for one or the other and they don't necessarily get spent on abilities that make sense considering how they were originally earned. In Van Gogh, that's not the case. Experience is recorded as “exploits”: a single sentence that describes a significant event (success or failure) in the character's adventure which can serve as a learning experience. In future adventures, the character can draw on these previous experiences by tapping an exploit and explaining how it helps their current predicament. “Drawing on experience” in this way gives the character an extra die for a roll. For example, a fantasy warrior is fighting a minotaur and struggling to land a telling blow so he draws on his exploit “Cleaved a troll chieftain from shoulder to hip in a single blow” and says “I cut a damn troll lord in half! Butchering a stupid two-legged cow is nothing!” then rolls his next damage roll with an extra die. Exploits can only be used once per session and they are checked with a slash as they are used. They can be checked permanently with an X to buy a permanent increase to the character's abilities. For example, the trollslayer in the example could cross out that exploit (along with a few others that demonstrate his strength) to buy another point of the Fighting skill or the Might attribute so he can hit all of his foes harder.
- It’s all relative. Numbers are relative to the rest of the world. For example, movement is a number without units and combat rounds do not last a specified amount of time. In a gritty modern urban setting, a movement of 1 may mean jogging 10 meters in a 5-second round. In a high-flying, high-kicking kung fu epic with bullet-time combat sequences, it could be jumping dozens of meters in a one-second round. In a game set inside a computer where anthropomorphic programs struggle to defend their system against viruses, it could be 1 drive sector in a microsecond. Likewise, the attributes and skills are relative. In a game where the PCs are humans (or something on a similar scale), the average person may have a Might of 2. In a game where the PCs are giant alien robots, even exceptionally tough humans will have attributes resembling tissue paper and will need special equipment like power armor to have Might 1.
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