Rob

Dude, that's Shadowrun, but on crack. Shadowrun had d6s, number of dice was equal to your skill level. 6s explode. With d4s it's even more hectic.

Let's try out a few things in Portland. I'll pack some dice if I can remember.

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Where you stand right now (i.e., the system as currently written up, not this d4 business) is the fundamental mechanics of 2nd Ed D&D. Rolling high to hit/save, rolling low for checks.

One alternative solution, where you want to roll high for everything, is 3rd Ed D&D, where putting points into a skill gives you an add. Sorta like Tunnels and Trolls (except T&T didn't have skills), which is why you hate it- both games end up being about crazy adds, whereas you like rolling lots of dice.

I'm not sure there's a great solution to this, where you want to put points in something but still roll high.

The other alternative is to always try to roll low, and then you get to the mindfuck situation where +1 is worse than -1.

Not sure you can be consistent here.

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I forget what the exact problem with Shadowrun was. Actually, this is also Vampire (but Vampire and Werewolf use d10s), especially with your 5 pt cap.

Let's call it "d4 Vampires"!