So the basic idea is just an Ironclaw-style system except that your result is the sum of the top two dice rolled. So your maximum possible result is 24.
I *think* that ties will be rarer... there's a wider range of results, although the sum of two dice makes things potentially counter-intuitive. It also means that rolling double large numbers is extra cool.
The damage system I'm thinking of is similar to Waste World. Add the amount that you hit by plus X to get your damage done. No separate soak rolls, to speed things up.
Difficulty- how does strength affect damage then, without a damage roll?
Damage could be roll vs soak, in which case we'd just have to tweak the damage dice appropriately and make sure that the numbers balance out. I don't want someone with a d12,d6 strength to always blow through someone with d4, it just needs to USUALLY happen. But it might be better as just a flat value.