Dice pool mechanics

[Morrus]

Yeah, it sounds like it has a lot in common with the current WFRP dice pool system.

 

[Argyle King]

Yeah, it sounds like it has a lot in common with the current WFRP dice pool system.

Star Wars?


Yeah, it does. The same company makes both games. Though, I think the version of the pool found in Star Wars Edge of The Empire is a more refined version of the same idea.

 

[billd91]

I like the way the dice pool works in Star Wars: Edge of The Empire.

The dice for that game don't have numbers on them in the same way normal dice do. You just look to see if you have more success than failure, and you look to see how much advantage and disadvantage you have. The amount of dice rolled is determined by your skill, the difficulty of the situation, and whether you spend fate tokens or not. For example, if my character is really good at piloting a ship, I am likely rolling a few of the yellow skill dice. If I'm trying an easy piloting maneuver, I may have one difficulty die added to my pool; a more difficult maneuver might add two or three to my pool. I might then also spend a fate token to add a blue die. Regardless; no matter how many dice I roll, I'm simply looking to see if I have more success symbols than failure symbols.

I think one of the most interesting aspects of the SW:EotE dice pool is the interaction of success/failure and advantage/disadvantage results. You could have more successes than failures but also more disadvantages than advantages, meaning you could succeed but a negative consequence. You could also fail but with a positive consequence.

 

[Argyle King]

I think one of the most interesting aspects of the SW:EotE dice pool is the interaction of success/failure and advantage/disadvantage results. You could have more successes than failures but also more disadvantages than advantages, meaning you could succeed but a negative consequence. You could also fail but with a positive consequence.

That's part of what I like about it too. At first, I was skeptical of the system. After seeing how it works in actual play, I really like it. I think it really helps to enforce the idea of narrative and helps to drive the story forward. There's very rarely a dice roll where nothing happens.

 

[Scorpio616]

Another thing is the allocation subgame. Say you have different dice pools (maybe with different refresh rates?) and have to allocate your dice for specific functions: "OK, use 5 dice from my melee pool for the attack and 4 for defense. That means I still have 2 dice in reserve."

You can do pretty cool things with such a system, but IMHO it aggrandizes resource management, changing an RP support mechanism (die rolling) into a small built-in board game.

And it gets really bad if the player has to dedicate dice to defense. Player wants to ACT! ACT ACT! but then has to DIE, DIE, DIE! because he has no dice left to dodge with.

 

[GMMichael]

And it gets really bad if the player has to dedicate dice to defense. Player wants to ACT! ACT ACT! but then has to DIE, DIE, DIE! because he has no dice left to dodge with.

So, defense isn't worth allocation of effort?

I think the days of free blocking and saving throws should be ended.

 

[Scorpio616]

So, defense isn't worth allocation of effort?

It is not worth trusting the allocation to the players. Not everyone can read a rule system once and have a decent handle on how much of one's resources should be allocated towards defensive abilities at character generation and then on round by round basis. Too light and the player is wasting character sheets and everyone's time making a new character, too heavy and the PC is a glacier getting little done in and out of combat. Bean counters and min maxers can benefit from such systems, but those types don't need any help.

It is like starting a higher level 3E PC, too easily can a PC drop all their 10000's of gp on a magic weapon and then fail to have the defenses needed.

I think the days of free blocking and saving throws should be ended.

And I'd rather the PCs be able to take their action and get on to the next person rather than spend an extra minute allocating x dice to arrow blocking, y dice to melee parry and z dice to leap away from area effects.