Dice

[sheadunne]

I would like to see dice, other than the d20, used for mechanics other than damage. Can the game really harken back to the good old days without using d6s to look for secret doors, or percentiles for skills? Let's limit the d20 to "to hit rolls" and "saving throws" and use the other dice for everything else.

 

[The Shadow]

Let's limit the d20 to "to hit rolls" and "saving throws" and use the other dice for everything else.

Let's not and say we did?

I don't see the precise mechanics as harking back to yester-year at all - or at least, not in any positive way. One might as well call for the return of THAC0... though I know there are people who want to do that too, I am most assuredly not one of them.

Unified mechanics make things much, much easier to remember, and call for less page-flipping and house-ruling. There's plenty of ways to bring the essential feel of old-school D&D without abandoning the real advances 3e brought to the table... and I think Next is well on the road toward doing so.

 

[slobster]

The unified dice mechanic makes the game much simpler and easier to pick up. It standardizes the importance of modifiers, making new content easier to generate and balance. It makes the system more transparent so that third parties, or individual GMs, can dive in and start mucking about. I find it aesthetically pleasing on top of all that.

So I disagree strongly.

 

[Minigiant]

Nah.

Unless you were going to reduce the number of subsystems in the entire lifetime of the the game to something less then 10, unified dice mechanics makes a lot more sense for reasons given.

 

[Mattachine]

No thanks.
d20 was one of the best things that 3rd edition did, and the d20 was always the preeminent die of D&D anyway.

 

[triqui]

while I don't think elegance in mechanics or unified mechanics should be a mandate (ie: as happen with T20, where the damage is done with a d20 because the game design forbids any other die), I think the game should *try* to be as much elegant and unfied as it can, withouth sacrificing anything else.

 

[mlund]

If I wanted to play Rolemaster I'd play Rolemaster.

If I wanted to play Tri-Stat I'd play Tri-Stat.

If I wanted to play Paladium ... welll ... let's not go there.

- Marty Lund

 

[The Shadow]

while I don't think elegance in mechanics or unified mechanics should be a mandate (ie: as happen with T20, where the damage is done with a d20 because the game design forbids any other die), I think the game should *try* to be as much elegant and unfied as it can, withouth sacrificing anything else.

Hey now. The True20 Damage save works beautifully.

It doesn't have the right feel for D&D, mostly, but it does work very well.

If I wanted to play Paladium ... welll ... let's not go there.

There are people who want to play Palladium?! j/k

 

[triqui]

Hey now. The True20 Damage save works beautifully.

It doesn't have the right feel for D&D, mostly, but it does work very well.

It does work, but have it's own issues. The lack of granulatity in damage, the huge swingness of the system (because the 1d20 weights a lot compared to relatively small modifiers), the death spiral...

I like mutant and masterminds a lot, and there is some good ideas in True20, but I think the game could had been better, if they *could* use some other dice, here and there.

 

[Flatus Maximus]

I would like to see dice, other than the d20, used for mechanics other than damage.

But, but, but...then the game wouldn't have a unified mechanic!

[pant crappage]