Bullgrit
Adventurer
I knew a DM one time (I played under him for one game session, AD&D2) who, when he didn't know what odds to call for a check -- "Um, you've got a 25% chance of making it"; "Oh, let's say it's got a 90% chance of success" -- he'd have the Player roll d% to find the odds, and then the Player had to roll d% again with the previous roll as the odds.
That is: first d% roll comes up 62. That means there is a 62% chance for the whatever. Roll again to see if you get within the 62%.
When I suggested that he could just use a simple 50% (which, if I understand odds correctly comes to essentially the same thing as roll for the percentage chance), he gave me a look like I had just tossed fish guts onto his coffee table.
"One," he said, "Players shouldn't always know the odds before they try something. Two, not everything should have as high as 50%, and somethings shouldn't have as low as 50%. Three, we use dice in this game. If everything is 50/50, we could just flip a coin for everything."
I see the rolling of the 1d8 to determine the percentage chance for a beggar to know something (instead of just using a set number -- I said 5% because it's an easy number near the middle of the 1-8 range) as a peculiar choice. It add more randomness to randomness for no real difference to the game. The Players/PCs would never know the difference -- heck, the game wouldn't know the difference.
So, I find it an amusing wonkiness.
Just like I find it amusing that there is no difference between bandits and brigands on this random city encounter chart, yet they are listed separately.
Bullgrit
That is: first d% roll comes up 62. That means there is a 62% chance for the whatever. Roll again to see if you get within the 62%.
When I suggested that he could just use a simple 50% (which, if I understand odds correctly comes to essentially the same thing as roll for the percentage chance), he gave me a look like I had just tossed fish guts onto his coffee table.
"One," he said, "Players shouldn't always know the odds before they try something. Two, not everything should have as high as 50%, and somethings shouldn't have as low as 50%. Three, we use dice in this game. If everything is 50/50, we could just flip a coin for everything."
I see the rolling of the 1d8 to determine the percentage chance for a beggar to know something (instead of just using a set number -- I said 5% because it's an easy number near the middle of the 1-8 range) as a peculiar choice. It add more randomness to randomness for no real difference to the game. The Players/PCs would never know the difference -- heck, the game wouldn't know the difference.
So, I find it an amusing wonkiness.
Just like I find it amusing that there is no difference between bandits and brigands on this random city encounter chart, yet they are listed separately.
Bullgrit
Sorry. Cities.
It sounds like you had the treat of gaming with Spinal Tap guitarist Nigel Tufnel.
)
