Advice on Wheel Character System
I got the idea to design a d6 system where the character sheet itself uses a hex grid. This would be mirrored in gameplay with encounters and exploration also using hexes. The sheet will show the player their reach, range, and movement.
I’d also like the sheet to double as a clock. The player can track ability durations, initiative, and the phases of the day when exploring.
A roadblock I’ve run into is how to present the different branches of a character’s abilities.The first two images are the current draft of the sheet and the second two are some older ones.
When making a character, the player will assign 2 points to the inner colored ring and 4 points to the outer colored ring. The grey tiles will be used for background skills like crafting or knowledge.
Whenever you need to make a roll, start from the center hex. This will be a luck/void 1d6 that you always roll no matter what.
Then count outward to the next row to the color that most closely matches what you want to do. The inner ring represents the classical elements, opposed by their opposite element. Clockwise from the top in yellow is Air, Wood, Water, Earth, Metal, and Fire. If you put a point here, add another 1d6 to your pool.
Then count outward one more hex to any tile touching that inner tile you chose. If it’s a colored tile with a point or a grey background skill, add another 1d6 (for a possible total of 3d6). If it’s empty, you’d only have 2d6 from your inner tile or 1d6 if you had no applicable points.
In the second image with a filled in example, a character firing a ranged weapon would use the Air path and roll 3d6. But if the wanted to use a heavy melee weapon, they would follow Earth which would give them only 1d6.
In turn, these points also set the target number for affecting the player! With 3 points in the air/yellow branch, 3 successes would be needed to affect them with an ability targeting them. But if an ability would target the earth/purple branch, only 1 success is needed.
Where I’m stuck is how to present the outer ring. I want these to represent six different ways a player interacts with the world, as well as how the world interacts with the player. These could be something like the six DnD ability scores, or emotions, or particular hubs (eg. Wood/Green is how you interact with nature, Metal/Red is interacting with technology, and perhaps Fire/Orange is magic?).
My current thought is like this;
-Yellow is interacting through agility and talent. Stealth, acrobatics, ranged weapons, evasion.
-Green is interacting with your senses. Searching, listening, intuition. This sets the target number for sneaking up on someone.
-Blue is interacting with your speech and charm. This sets the target number for deceiving you.
-Purple is interacting through strength and force. This is the target number for shoving or restraining you.
-Red is interacting through logic. Deciphering, researching, disarming traps.
-Orange…this is my problem. What am I missing? I could have this represent constitution like in DnD. It would set the number needed to poison/debuff you. But what is the *active* use? What’s a 6th way to interact with things?
I considered splitting up the social interaction so that orange is strong emotional responses like intimidation and inspiration, while blue is more nuanced uses like diplomacy and deception?
Outside of that, any other cool ideas yall can think of that would employ the shape of the character sheet? I plan to have fairly simple equipment and abilities that could be recorded within a tile or two. I’m also working on a very simply 3 action system that can be tracked on the sheet as well.