Math question.

[SiderisAnon]

However, the bolded part seems to be a bit too much an exageration. Legends of Anglerre uses this (+1d6-1d6), and it´s system is easy as pie.

Perhaps it's a case of different gamers, but I've had numerous people in my groups over the years who could not handle rolling multiple dice for damage. Anything more than two dice and they were overwhelmed. Frankly, I've known a lot of players who couldn't calculate their own base bonuses and had to have someone else write it on their sheet. These are otherwise intelligent people, just without the quick "scan and process the dice" ability a lot of gamers take for granted.

The kind of people who generally play RPGs are an exception to the average population, but math is simply not something a lot of people are good at. The people studying dyscalclia (spelling?), which basically makes math as difficult to grasp as dyslexia does for reading, believe that close to 5% of the population suffer from some form of it. Another study found that something like 40% of the Americans tested could not reliably pick two items off the menu, add them up, and calculate a tip.

There are game systems I will never run because the dice are too complex for a lot of players who aren't the typical math geeks. Both Cortex and the old Earthdawn are good examples (where your bonuses change the type of dice you're rolling). "Legends of Anglerre" may be pie to you and would be to me, but the whole add one, subtract one on the fly is something I would not expect about 20% of the gamers I've gamed with to be able to handle quickly at the table.

 

[AeroDm]

Perhaps it's a case of different gamers, but I've had numerous people in my groups over the years who could not handle rolling multiple dice for damage. Anything more than two dice and they were overwhelmed. Frankly, I've known a lot of players who couldn't calculate their own base bonuses and had to have someone else write it on their sheet. These are otherwise intelligent people, just without the quick "scan and process the dice" ability a lot of gamers take for granted.

I did some mini-research on this in designing my game and had a few key findings.

1. An extra die doesn't feel like much, but it is actually two additional numbers. Let's say you roll 4 on d8 for an expression of d8+2. There are actually three steps: (1) recognizing the result of 4, (2) recalling the value of 2, (3) summing to the value of 6. If you add another d8 (let's say result of 7), you add two more steps: (4) recognizing the value of 7 and (5) summing to the value of 13. The general formula is basically 2x the number of variables (i.e. dice) plus the number of static expressions.
2. For people quick at math, recognizing a die result and summing simple numbers are about equally fast. For slower math people, summing takes longer.
3. For all persons, subtraction takes longer than addition. If the subtraction brings any particular number below a 10 (i.e. 12 less 4 = 8), it takes even longer.

If you're willing to concede the above, let's consider what this means for triqui's game. First off, with +d10/-d10 you have about 50/50 odds to 'dip below a 10' which seems to slow people down. I never dealt with negative numbers, but I imagine they mess people up as much as subtraction. Using either of the 2d10 methods will increase the average to +1.65, which means we'll have relatively few scenarios of dipping below 10.

Either 2d10 method also focuses on recognizing a higher value instead of adding a static modifier. Recognition seems to be quicker for all persons than addition, so either 2d10 method, again, seems superior.

In thinking about which method to go for, I'd defer to psychology and say that most people prefer doing well. I think this means most folks would derive more joy from taking the higher of two numbers than taking the lower of two numbers.

So if you went with 'higher of 2d10 less d10' you would have the following steps.
(1) Roll 2d10 and recognize higher value
(2) Roll d10 and recognize value
(3) Subtract (2) from (1)
(4) Recognize ability modifier
(5) Sum (3) and (4)

This is probably actually faster than most games so long as the result in (3) doesn't go negative. Of course, this is also just arm-chair speculation, so ymmv.

 

[triqui]

good analysys AeroDM, thnks (no xp 'cause I've to spread :/ )