Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Are Dice Pools Good, Actually?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="lordabdul" data-source="post: 7907646" data-attributes="member: 6994956"><p>It's funny to me that people talk about not having a clear idea of one's chances of success when, in my experience, the vast majority of D&D DMs I've seen in action would not tell the players what DC they're shooting for.</p><p></p><p>If you worry about making chances of success clear to the players, there's one and only one resolution system that's totally unbeatable: percentile systems. Roll D100 under your stat. Your percentage of success is <em>right there on the character sheet</em>.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, I like dice pools. They're fun, and you can do funky things with them.</p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">You can easily get a multi-level success system, because it's easier to count the dice than to do a subtraction to figure out a margin of success/failure.<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">This might give you "bumps" in success levels, say from moderate success to complete success to critical success (although you need a GM that can translate that to a satisfying narrative consequence)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Most commonly it gives you extra stuff like extra actions, which is very easy to grok and GM... for instance 7th Sea does that, each success is an extra action you can perform in the action scene.</li> </ol></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">You can have weird resolution systems like trying to match dice for instance. Godlike/Wild Talents does that, and that gives you 2 measures out of the dice roll (the "width" and "height" of the match, like, say, 2 tens vs. 3 fours). I love to see designers explore other resolution systems like these, it shows that innovation isn't totally dead when it comes to rolling dice.</li> </ol><p>Dice pools have limitations though. I find that they lack granularity, and don't scale very well up and down. As such, they tend to be effective (IMHO) mostly in narrative-inclined games where it's less about wargaming and more about storytelling -- like, famously, the Storyteller system or the 7th Sea system. I don't think these games would have the appeal and "style" that they have without a dice pools.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="lordabdul, post: 7907646, member: 6994956"] It's funny to me that people talk about not having a clear idea of one's chances of success when, in my experience, the vast majority of D&D DMs I've seen in action would not tell the players what DC they're shooting for. If you worry about making chances of success clear to the players, there's one and only one resolution system that's totally unbeatable: percentile systems. Roll D100 under your stat. Your percentage of success is [I]right there on the character sheet[/I]. Anyway, I like dice pools. They're fun, and you can do funky things with them. [LIST=1] [*]You can easily get a multi-level success system, because it's easier to count the dice than to do a subtraction to figure out a margin of success/failure. [LIST=1] [*]This might give you "bumps" in success levels, say from moderate success to complete success to critical success (although you need a GM that can translate that to a satisfying narrative consequence) [*]Most commonly it gives you extra stuff like extra actions, which is very easy to grok and GM... for instance 7th Sea does that, each success is an extra action you can perform in the action scene. [/LIST] [*]You can have weird resolution systems like trying to match dice for instance. Godlike/Wild Talents does that, and that gives you 2 measures out of the dice roll (the "width" and "height" of the match, like, say, 2 tens vs. 3 fours). I love to see designers explore other resolution systems like these, it shows that innovation isn't totally dead when it comes to rolling dice. [/LIST] Dice pools have limitations though. I find that they lack granularity, and don't scale very well up and down. As such, they tend to be effective (IMHO) mostly in narrative-inclined games where it's less about wargaming and more about storytelling -- like, famously, the Storyteller system or the 7th Sea system. I don't think these games would have the appeal and "style" that they have without a dice pools. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Are Dice Pools Good, Actually?
Top