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Made in us
Krazed Killa Kan





SoCal

So I think I've been trying too hard to stick to just 1 die in my game, a D10. I've basically been using a hacked method to generate a range of damage results where what number you roll sets you higher or lower on damage tiers. The same could be accomplished by just having the player roll a d4, d6, d8, d10, or d12 for damage.

The main reason I can think to not do this is the need to buy those dice, probably multiples of them, and generally players don't want to switch up too much. This is also the only time these are used.

I'm going to playtest this, of course, but tbh was I just overthinking the dice thing, or is it too much to ask players to use a standard polyhedral dice set?

   
Made in gr
Thermo-Optical Spekter





Greece

Brian ansel (sp?) forced D6 on 40k (Priestly wanted D10) because "everybody has somewhere D6s" and he is right.

But since we are talking on mostly boutique designs not aimed for wider or mass market, I believe the dice is not such a big issue at the present time.
   
Made in us
Incorporating Wet-Blending





Houston, TX

Yeah, depends on your goals. For a niche product, their is no real reason you can't use various sizes, and some very clever systems do so. But make sure there is a coherent reason for it! D&D and many of it's spinoffs seemed to use arbitrary dice with no real rhyme or reason as to why. Even now it's kind of wonky that all conflict resolution uses a D20, but then you switch over to other dice for combat damage, but no other skill/conflict resolutions. OTOH, you have systems that use stepping up dice to reflect greater skill/challenge in a coherent system.

-James
 
   
Made in us
Krazed Killa Kan





SoCal

At this point, I think most if not all of the gamer market will have a set of polyhedrals.

Dice stepping seems like a good idea, and sometimes it is, but the constant stepping up and down and switching dice, much more often than just using them for damage, can cause problems. I played an RPG called Alternity with this issue.

   
Made in gr
Thermo-Optical Spekter





Greece

Personally I hate step up mechanics on principle, the first DnD adventure on the core set had a mini game to teach players that multiple lower dice were always better than a single higher (so 2D4 better than 1D8).

Tracking the switches is a problem as was with Alternity indeed, and the step up is not as good as it sounds.

It is one of the reasons I really dislike stargrunt and its spiritual successors as systems.
   
Made in us
Krazed Killa Kan





SoCal

I was also thinking there's other opportunities, like instead of 1d8 damage, it could be 2d4, which is more reliable.

The rules I have make use of Damage Reduction quite a bit, so that's another aspect. And targets get a defense roll to ignore the attack entirely.

   
Made in us
Crushing Clawed Fiend




Austin, Texas

I modified a d20 system to only use a d20 for simplicity. Everything else is based on percentages indicated by how high you roll. My reasoning was to keep the range of options without slowing down gameplay with multitude of dice rolls with randomly selected dice based on what's going on. Just roll that d20 and run some quick arithmetic and you're good to go.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/07/15 00:22:46


 
   
Made in us
Krazed Killa Kan





SoCal

I was doing the same, until I realized the hoops and "quick" arithmetic adds up over time depending on what you're doing.

The act of trying to be simple in one area can often lead to complexity in others.

   
Made in us
Crushing Clawed Fiend




Austin, Texas

It only depends on how complex you try to make it and what all you can live with and without. Not everything needs dice rolls. A good way around this is with a rank system that increases your chance to succeed. If it's over the difficulty, no roll is needed, you automatically succeed. That's how I did it. Keeps things flowing without bogging down things with math.
   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






SoCal, USA!

 Vertrucio wrote:
I think I've been trying too hard to stick to just 1 die in my game, a D10.


Really? What about your game specifically actually requires more than a few d10s from a rules and mechanics standpoint?

What is the specific need for a full set of polyhedral dice? Is it just that they exist and are pretty?

My game (KOG light) does just fine with a few d6 per player, very deliberately so.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
 jmurph wrote:
D&D and many of it's spinoffs seemed to use arbitrary dice with no real rhyme or reason as to why. Even now it's kind of wonky that all conflict resolution uses a D20, but then you switch over to other dice for combat damage, but no other skill/conflict resolutions.


Hold on there, you missed that a player needs a set of 4d6 for initial character generation!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/07/17 05:36:19


   
Made in gb
Potent Possessed Daemonvessel





Why Aye Ya Canny Dakkanaughts!

Why not use the GW fun model? Roll a d6 to decide 1. the number of facings on the dice (roll a 1? Well that's all part of the fun) and 2. the number of dice to roll. Remember, random = fun.

Ghorros wrote:
The moral of the story: Don't park your Imperial Knight in a field of Gretchin carrying power tools.
 Marmatag wrote:
All the while, my opponent is furious, throwing his codex on the floor, trying to slash his wrists with safety scissors.
 
   
Made in au
Lady of the Lake






Don't forget the scatter die to determine which direction to roll your dice.

   
Made in us
Krazed Killa Kan





SoCal

There is no one set way of designing a game. But for my purposes, breaking up the flow of a roll and simple comparison (<= Target Number) was causing problems.

The other option was a create an additional for damage using a dice pool, where each success increased the damage amount based on damage tiers. This worked, but I'm experimenting a helluva lot now on what is smoother for gameplay.

   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






SoCal, USA!

There are many options, and experimentation is good. I don't think I've see your game, nor an articulation of its goals, so it's hard to say what would work better or best. Good luck with the experiments!

   
Made in gb
Norn Queen






I would personally say to use whatever the correct dice for the situation is, or try and limit yourself to D10's and D5's

If absolutely needed just add a note saying to "Roll a D8. If you only have D10's, just re-roll results of 9 or 10 until you get a valid result."

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/07/18 21:48:38


 
   
Made in us
Battlefield Tourist




MN (Currently in WY)

If you are using d10, you might as go crazy and make it a d100 system!

In more seriousness, instead of stepping up dice, and....
1. Add the results together
2. Select the highest
3. Select one, and use the other to negate a roll by the opponent
4. Count up successes over the TN
5. Subtract 1 from the other
etc.

You can really go crazy on what you can do with multiple dice.

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https://www.patreon.com/Bloodandspectaclespublishing 
   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






SoCal, USA!

As a rule, counting successes and crits is the easiest. If you need complexity, make it opposed.

   
 
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