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I had an idea for a dice mechanic and I wanted to get some feedback. It's a variation on the exploding 6s mechanic, but it would involve custom D6s. I'm not sure if anything like it has been done before and I wasn't sure if it was even that good of an idea, so I figured I'd just toss it out there.

The D6 would have the following faces: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5+

Rolling a 5+ would allow you to roll a further D5+ and add the result to your first die roll. Another 5+ roll would grant another die roll and so on.

This would allow one die to generate an unlimited range of numbers, but with lower probabilities the higher you go.

Also, if you were rolling more than one die at a time you could add the results if one or more 5+ shows up (or pick the highest value if no 5+ is rolled) and if all dice showed a 5+ you could then roll another die as explained above.

So if you had a mechanic where a unit's combat proficiency was determined by rolling a number of dice and you damaged a target by exceeding a certain number value you could have a system where anything can damage anything else, just at varying degrees of probability.

So let’s say a Goblin had a combat skill of 1D5+ and a toughness of 3 and a Chaos Warrior had a combat skill of 3D5+ and a toughness of 11, then the goblin could in theory have at least a slight chance of killing the chaos warrior whereas the chaos warrior would almost certainly make short work of the goblin.

You could use any die type in theory, but I thought a six sided die would make the most sense as adding by 5s would be fairly simple.

So, like I said, this was just an idea I had and was looking for some feedback.

Good news http://www.amazon.com/16mm-Opaque-Numbered-White-Black/dp/B001EQYS48

Ah but that is 0-5 not 0-5+

The concept is known as "exploding dice", where when a specific number (usually the highest face number) is rolled, you may roll another die and add it to the total or attempt further success. Pretty common in modern game systems, actually.

I kind of like 0-5 instead of 1-6. I never liked that 1 was always a failure, when there is still 0.

So what youre saying is you had the idea to basically take the existing d6 exploding dice mechanic and change the dice by shifting the face values down by one.... what exactly is new about this other than what goes on the dice???



Automatically Appended Next Post:
So what youre saying is you had the idea to basically take the existing d6 exploding dice mechanic and change the dice by shifting the face values down by one.... what exactly is new about this other than what goes on the dice???

Yeah, I've heard of the exploding dice mechanic before. Mainly with regards to Spartan Games' line of games, but what other games use something similar? I'd be curious to see how it is used in other systems.

As far as I know for the way Spartan Games does things a 6 counts as a hit and allows you to roll two more dice and keep going should you get more 6s.

My idea was to add the totals, so on 3 dice you could get a value from 0-15. You'd have a fairly high probability of getting a result of 0-5 and anything over that would be exponentially less likely as you go up in multiples of 5. I wanted to move the values to 0-5 because it would be easier to add by 5s than by 6s. Also, if you just went by 1-6 with a roll of 6 allowing a further roll to be added to your first, then a roll of 6 would always mininally be value of 7. With values of 0-5 on a roll of 5 your second roll might be a zero and thereby still a 5.

Thanks for that link! I think I'll be picking up some of those.

bbb wrote:but what other games use something similar?

Legend of the Five Rings.

bbb wrote:Yeah, I've heard of the exploding dice mechanic before. Mainly with regards to Spartan Games' line of games, but what other games use something similar? I'd be curious to see how it is used in other systems.

As far as I know for the way Spartan Games does things a 6 counts as a hit and allows you to roll two more dice and keep going should you get more 6s.

You roll one extra dice, not two, however a 6 counts as two hits, not one.

Other games:

Rackham's Confrontation (pre-AoR) you could choose to roll up any 6s, but as 1s were failures on the majority of characteristic test a roll of a 6 wasn't always a value of 7 (depending on your relative stats you might choose not to roll it up for fear of failure).

Also Black Scorpion's 'Cutlass!' uses exploding dice, but then it has to - rather than go up statwise, better fighters roll better dice, from d4s all the way up to d12s and 20s. You have to have the exploding mechanic in there for the weaker fighters to even stand a chance.

0-5 = 1d6-1, right?

HackMaster had "penetrating dice". If you rolled maximum damage on a die or multiple dice, you picked them up and rolled them again with a -1 modifier. It made fireball spells (1d6 per level) VERY nasty!

bbb wrote:Yeah, I've heard of the exploding dice mechanic before. Mainly with regards to Spartan Games' line of games, but what other games use something similar? I'd be curious to see how it is used in other systems.

As far as I know for the way Spartan Games does things a 6 counts as a hit and allows you to roll two more dice and keep going should you get more 6s.

My idea was to add the totals, so on 3 dice you could get a value from 0-15. You'd have a fairly high probability of getting a result of 0-5 and anything over that would be exponentially less likely as you go up in multiples of 5. I wanted to move the values to 0-5 because it would be easier to add by 5s than by 6s. Also, if you just went by 1-6 with a roll of 6 allowing a further roll to be added to your first, then a roll of 6 would always mininally be value of 7. With values of 0-5 on a roll of 5 your second roll might be a zero and thereby still a 5.

Thanks for that link! I think I'll be picking up some of those.

The problem with that idea is that you wind up with a hard average just like normal d6s. On 2d5 you wind up with 1/6th of all results being 5. You haven't really solved a random system. Your chances of getting higher numbers through dice explosions also lessens each time it's done. Just use a random number generator or custom order those cylindrical dice that have facings for non-geometrical facings.

I think Shadowrun (1988?) was the first game I ever played that had exploding dice. Every 6 you got to roll another d6 and add. But I imagine there are older games that used it.

TORG had exploding d20s on 10s or 20.

xole wrote:I kind of like 0-5 instead of 1-6. I never liked that 1 was always a failure, when there is still 0.

My 2 cents, a zero is rolled automatically and covers situations when the event you're rolling for could not happen. IE, you try to shoot 24", determine your unit is 26" inches away - they all rolled zeros.

The Battle Tech RPG also has "exploding dice" in certain situations.

It's a core mechanic of Savage Worlds and it's predecessor Deadlands. Very common in RPGs.

I know TSR briefly flirted with it as a concept to make firearms scary in their old Spelljammer setting. Guns did OK damage, but the dice could explode, giving them a rare possibility of doing massive damage.

Palladium Books even did something vaguely similar with their stat rolls, allowing extra dice to be rolled for exceptional stats.

The proposed system does provide the benefit of removing a weird gap. On a lot of basic exploding systems it's impossible to roll a 6 (as it jumps to 7), which can cause some math wonkiness.

For wargames, don't most Spartan Games rule sets use some form of exploding dice.

I quite like the Idea of exploding Dice, but I also know that in a tournament when my Assault Termies charge a 5 man Eldar Guardian Squad, they would get a freak result (1 in 100,000 or something and kill like 3 of my termies).

Exploding dice sounds like a great "random element" which might make games a bit more fun in friendly games but would cause black eyes and broken limbs at tournaments.

Exploding dice sounds like a great "random element" which might make games a bit more fun in friendly games but would cause black eyes and broken limbs at tournaments.

Well, to be accurate, that would only be a problem amongst the kind of table-flippers who shouldn't even be at a tournament where dice can be the deciding (and random) factor.

To a degree, but exploding dice flipping generalship on it's head shouldn't be a factor. For example an Elite unit (200points) being wiped out a small unit of troops (75pts_ who happen to have alot of luck due to exploding dice.

mwnciboo wrote:To a degree, but exploding dice flipping generalship on it's head shouldn't be a factor. For example an Elite unit (200points) being wiped out a small unit of troops (75pts_ who happen to have alot of luck due to exploding dice.

In the scenario you just gave, so what? Exploding dice add nothing to an Elite unit fighting some scouts in close combat.

A 6 always hits. If you explode the die 1d6 more, guess what? It still freaking hits.

A 6 always wounds. If you explode the die 1d6 more, guess what? It still freaking wounds.

Now, giving a blob squad of IG with lasguns the ability to pop open landraiders or monolyths with exploding dice on the armor penetration rolls is something that would be amusing.

It would be funny, to watch Landraiders and Monoliths being spanked by Guard blobs. However, the sheer number of shots by a guard unit makes this silly.

I am talking about snap fire, in 6th you get the option to shoot the unit charging you. Exploding dice in this scenario would be amusing because if you hit it would also explode (as it is resolved at BS1).

OT: I have also been wondering about Sternguard conducting snapfire at BS1, would they still get to use Special Ammo like Hellfire rounds? Or how about Lysanders Bolter drill to re-roll Snap fire?

Exploding dice added to 40k without other changes would likely be a bit silly. Where they seem to work best is RPG systems where it's either a straight-up damage value (roll 3d6 (exploding for damage, subtract that many from the target's HP) or margin of success (roll 3d6 (exploding). For every multiple of 5 rolled, the result is better).

it expands the potential range, but makes the top end much less likely than an outright die roll and doesn't shift the average nearly as much.

bbb wrote:I had an idea for a dice mechanic and I wanted to get some feedback. It's a variation on the exploding 6s mechanic, but it would involve custom D6s. I'm not sure if anything like it has been done before and I wasn't sure if it was even that good of an idea, so I figured I'd just toss it out there.

The D6 would have the following faces: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5+

Rolling a 5+ would allow you to roll a further D5+ and add the result to your first die roll. Another 5+ roll would grant another die roll and so on.

This would allow one die to generate an unlimited range of numbers, but with lower probabilities the higher you go.

Also, if you were rolling more than one die at a time you could add the results if one or more 5+ shows up (or pick the highest value if no 5+ is rolled) and if all dice showed a 5+ you could then roll another die as explained above.

So if you had a mechanic where a unit's combat proficiency was determined by rolling a number of dice and you damaged a target by exceeding a certain number value you could have a system where anything can damage anything else, just at varying degrees of probability.

So let’s say a Goblin had a combat skill of 1D5+ and a toughness of 3 and a Chaos Warrior had a combat skill of 3D5+ and a toughness of 11, then the goblin could in theory have at least a slight chance of killing the chaos warrior whereas the chaos warrior would almost certainly make short work of the goblin.

You could use any die type in theory, but I thought a six sided die would make the most sense as adding by 5s would be fairly simple.

So, like I said, this was just an idea I had and was looking for some feedback.

So how is this any different than an exploding D6?

So how is this any different than an exploding D6?