[Savage Worlds] Re-Roll as Edge Mechanic?

[Sir Brennen]

So, like so many other people, I'm converting a game setting over to Savage Worlds. In the system I'm porting from, the mechanical equivalent of Edges often gives re-rolls for a failed skill/attribute check.

What do people think about porting this mechanic over directly to Savage Worlds, instead of just giving a straight up bonus to the related check? For example, allowing a character to re-roll a failed Stealth check when he is attempting to follow someone unnoticed.

This re-roll would not require a Benny, but it would also not include a Wild Die - you simply use the Skill or Trait die by itself. For very common rolls, it might also be limited to once per encounter/scene. (You also only get one re-roll per failed check; you can't re-roll again.)

How does this stack up against simply giving a straight up +1 or +2 to the roll? Any mathematicians wanna crunch the numbers? Other thoughts?

 

[ValhallaGH]

What do people think about porting this mechanic over directly to Savage Worlds, instead of just giving a straight up bonus to the related check?
...
This re-roll would not require a Benny, but it would also not include a Wild Die - you simply use the Skill or Trait die by itself.

Interesting. Powerful and flavorful, but not very powerful (the probabilities shift massively when you give up the Wild Die).

How does this stack up against simply giving a straight up +1 or +2 to the roll?

A lot weaker.
+1 changes your odds from {1-(3/6 * 3/X)} (62.5% to 87.5% success) to {1-(2/6 * 2/X)} (83.3% to 94.4% success). +2 is even more powerful (95.8% to 98.6%), almost guaranteeing success.
That re-roll adds a meager {1-(3/X)} (25% to 75% success) chance to your existing failure. Which is really cool, but not very powerful.

Good luck.

 

[scourger]

Try it before you change it.

 

[Punnuendo]

I can't speak to this question specifically, but I just want to offer up a quick quote that serves as the basis for any SW conversions I ever think about.

"Convert the flavor, not the mechanics."

I wouldn't worry about trying to port mechanical things over directly like this. Instead figure out what this does for the flavor of the game and see what, if anything, needs to be tweaked in SW to preserve said flavor.

 

[TheClone]

For doing the maths, I have little table for you that a player of my SW campaign did with excel: Würfelwahrscheinlichkeiten – Die herzliche Rollenspielwiki ("Chance auf Erfolg in Prozent" means "chance for success in percent"). It will not have every value you need, but it should help.

Mechanically, I wouldn't use the reroll. What about open rolls with no fixed DC? Shall he role both and use the higher? May re decide to reroll before or after he knows the result? This all changes the play stile and is more complicated than the SW mechanics. Surely it also does change the odds. If you reroll a d8 (thus in fact rolling 2d8) or roll a d6 and a d8, the changes are different, because you use different dice. We do have a online campaign with Skype and Gametable as tools and for those rerolling is easier to handle. Rolling 1d6 and 1d8, using the higher one an applying the bonuses is not supported in Gametable and most likely in no other tool. But I guess you do not play online.

So mechanically speaking, use the wild die. And for everything else Punnuendo said the right thing.