I've slowly been working on my game and the biggest problem I've come across is determining my conflict resolution system. I've been studying many options out there and trying to decide if I want to just use one that exists like a 3D6 variant, or something like a "total successes" system (i.e. Burning Wheel) and it's a really tough decision.

My main goal for the system is to be narrative-first. I don't want the mechanics to prevent the player from doing anything, I just want the dice to determine the outcome of the action. It sounds so simple but for some reason it has proven to be quite the challenge. Let me explain my imaginary system first so I can point out the flaws.

The idea is that when a player wants to perform an action that has consequential reactions, they would need to roll the dice. My game will be based around rolling 6s and 1s - every 6 you roll makes good things happen and every 1 you roll makes bad things happen (Obviously more detail than that but lets keep it simple for the sake of this post). Every number in between would be "succeed with a cost". Notice, there is no pass/fail test, only the world's reaction to the action itself.
Example: Player 1 - "I want to swing my sword at that bad guy" rolls 3 dice, result is a 4,2,6 GM - "Ok, so you do x damage because you chose to attack and you get a special effect because of the 6. However, the enemy also swings at you"

Something like that is what I'm going for. I'd like to not roll dice as the GM and have everything in the player's hands, but I'd also like to prevent attack and defense rolls. I want it all boiled down into one.

Now, the first problem with something like this is it puts a lot of pressure onto the GM to improv a lot of the world's reactions. I like to improv as a GM and I'm making the game I'd enjoy to play but this can be a big deterrence to GMs who aren't like me. I suppose that is ok.

The second problem is a bit more... well, problematic. Let's take a step back and analyze other popular game's dice systems.

Dungeons & Dragons This system works with a D20. A character chooses to do an action and will roll a D20 and add a relevant skill's modifier to the roll, trying to hit the TARGET NUMBER. This makes sense for character progression due to the fact that the skill's modifier will likely grow as the character does. Unfortunately, at lower levels, this means that the dice itself is lending much more value to the result than the character's skills which makes the outcome just feel too random (especially on a D20 where all numbers have the same chance of showing up). This becomes the opposite as the character grows in level. Sooner than later, their skill modifier grows so high, it's almost not even necessary to roll the dice. This system boils down to TARGET NUMBER to PASS OR FAIL. If you don't roll high enough, you just fail at what you're trying to do.

Spire RPG I really enjoy this system. You declare an action and build a dice pool of relevant gear and abilities. Example would be "I want to swing my sword at this dude, so I get an extra die for my FIGHT skill and extra die because we are in an area I'm familiar with". You want to hit a target number and you take the highest die's result. If the challenge requires a 7 to be rolled, the more dice you have, the better chance you have of rolling a 7. Gathering more skills or being in a domain that you are familiar with gives you a higher chance at success. Once again, this system is TARGET NUMBER to PASS OR FAIL. The more dice you roll, the higher chance you hit the number you need.

Mutant Year Zero Another dice pool system. You get more dice for skills and weapons that can aid your actions, but instead of a target number result on the dice, you want to get as many 6s as you can. Challenges difficulty is based around how many successes are needed to pass. "This is a challenge of 2 so you need to roll at least two 6s". This means more dice is better chance to get those 6s. TARGET NUMBER still applies here just in a different way.

So let's talk about my trash system now. My idea isn't to check pass or fail, but to determine the outcome or reaction of the action. Will this even work? "Everything passes lets just see what happens" seems a bit weird but I'm drawn to it. However, how can a character's skills or abilities effect this outcome? If the above systems have mechanics to grow a character to have a higher chance to succeed, then in contrast, I suppose my system would have to have something akin to higher chance to avoid negative consequences. I haven't quite figured out how that is going to work yet but it is intriguing to me.

I have this concept of 1s and 6s for my rolls. When someone wants to do something, any 6 they roll allows them to buy a cool bonus based on their action. Roll a 6 with a dagger? Do double damage. Roll a 6 on gathering food during travel? Get double food. The other end of this would be the 1s. Not everything would have a 1 table, but the gist of 1s is "something bad happens". Roll a 1 on gather food? You got poisoned by some plants. Roll a 1 on a fireball spell? It backfires and burns your arm. These are just examples but it's the thread I've been pulling on for a month now.

So what is the impetus to roll then? If it's just "fiction" at this point, then the amount of dice rolling doesn't matter. Who cares if you roll more dice if the action always succeeds. You may get more chances to roll a 6, but also more chances to roll a 1. So rolling 1 die is the same as 100 sorta. This led me to determine that dice pools wouldn't really matter and a static number of dice to roll is probably best.

How can someone who wants their character to get good at lock picking influence the roll they are trying to make? The general idea of RPGs is that your character can do things better than others. Bringing the vertical vs horizontal progression back into this, vertical would mean they can get REALLY GOOD at something, while horizontal means they have more options of how to solve a problem. It feels a bit weird to just say "no you can't try this unless you have this skill" but I guess that makes sense for more specialized tasks. How could someone vertically progress in a system with no "target number". You can't modify the dice pool (no reason to) and there action succeeds always with bonuses on 6s, negatives on 1s. I suppose you could build a resistance of some sort to 1s?

I really want to make it work, I think I just need the right formula. When the dice are used to determine the consequences of an action rather than the pass/fail of an action, how can a player effect their roll?

Time to keep thinking!