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Greetings Designers,

I want to ask a question to get your opininions. I was making a game for beginner gamers, and was thinking of using a dice shifting mechanic of d4, d6, d8, d10 similar to Force-on-Force or Pulp Alley. Then, the thought occurred to me that perhaps such a dice shifting mechanic is a terrible idea for beginner gamers for the following reasons:

1. They are not familiar with these types of dice
2. They may not HAVE these types of dice

So, is this a good mechanic for a beginners game, or should I stick with dice pools of d6 instead? Like... what's your opinion, man?

Focus on beginners? Stick to d6 imho. More dice needed is more barriers to entry.

While I'm a big fan of dice-shifting as a mechanic (and using it in one of the games I'm designing now), I'd tend to agree that it may not be as "beginner friendly" as just d6-based pools or whatever.

I say d6s or d10s for beginners.... and elegance.

I strongly dislike dice shifting as a mechanism, that been said for new players a single dice especially D6 is preferable.

As KOG light shows, I believe in d6s for beginner games. I think that a lot can be done with d6s, what with rolling multiples, having different target numbers, and applying re-rolls to opposed successes. One doesn't even need +/- modifiers.

Dice shifting is a mechanic for which I have yet to see a good practical implementation. It's theoretically workable, and an interesting thought exercise, but practically, you're basically limiting the player to rolling 1dX, and forcing them to remember modifiers because you're going to get up to a d12 (or d20!). If you have your heart set on it, write up the mechanic, and share it for review.