So I came up with a nifty game mechanic last night, but I'm wondering two things.  One, has anyone done anything like this before?  And two, how can I make a game of this?  I'm not even sure it would apply well to a roleplaying game, but might just make an interesting dice strategy game.  Here it is...

Supplies

• Four d6, each a different color (I'm using white, black, red, and blue)
• A 10x10 grid, marked with an X-Y axis, numbered from +5 to -5 along both axes
• A marker representing each player or opponent to place on the grid.

Each of the dice and each end of the axes represent one of the classic RPG stats.  Furthermore, each stat is paired with a complimentary, but opposed stat, like Strength and Agility, Intelligence and Wits, which we'll use as examples.  So, we assign the white die to Intelligence and the +X axis, the black die to Wits and the -X axis, the red die to Strength and the +Y axis, and Agility to the -Y axis.

Now, roll all of the dice.  Pair the white die with the black, and the red die with the blue.  Add each pair.  Remember that the black and blue dice are each treated as generating negative numbers.  The result is an X-Y coordinate that represents physical attributes interacting with mental attributes.

Let's take a sample roll:
   White 4
Black 2
Red 1
Blue 6
Pairing the white and black dice gives us 4-2 = +2, or 2 on the Intelligence axis.  Pairing the red and blue dice gives us 1-6 = -5, or 5 on the Agility axis.  Together, the coordinates (2,-5) suggest a result that the individual is approaching a problem using a little intellect and a lot of finesse.

Now, let's look at a possible opponent to the roll above:
   White 3
Black 3
Red 5
Blue 2
Pairing the white and black dice gives us 3-3 = 0, or 0 on the mental axes.  Pairing the red and blue dice gives us 5-2 = +3, or 3 on the Stregth axis.  Together, the coordinates (0,3) suggest a result that the individual is approaching a problem using pure brute strength.

Okay, great.  Now what?  How do you compare the two results?  How do you determine whether one result is better than another?  It's neat that it can generate results that scale Strength-Intelligence, Strength-Wits, Agility-Intelligence, and Agility-Wits results, but what does it all mean?

Now, any or all of the axes can be replaced with whatever characteristics you want to scale, and I'm thinking that individual characters would have mods that would scale results one way or the other.  I'm still trying to figure out how to put this neat mechanic into functional use, though.

!i!