Clever dice mechanics

[Morrus]

In one of the SW: Edge of the Empire threads, I was reading about the advantage/threat/triumph/despair dice mechanic. 13th Age has it's escalation dice. D&D Next has been experimenting a bit with dice mechanics. At the simper end we have common mechanics like dice pools, rerolls, roll two and take the highest/lowest.

What innovative dice mechanics do you enjoy, and why? (If you can, describe the mechanic - we might not be familiar with it!)

 

[GMMichael]

Take half. You could roll a d8, or just accept 4 as the result. This eliminates your chances of a bad roll, giving you a just-below-average roll instead. Mostly, it saves time.

Also, this mechanic doesn't work against fixed results. If an enemy has a bad Armor Class, then you can take half and turn every attack into a success. So don't try taking half unless both sides in a contest have the option of rolling.

 

[Umbran]

One dice mechanic I like was found in Godlike, a WWII supers RPG. These days, the dice mechanic is call the "One Roll Engine".

The idea is this - you are rolling some number of dice (in Godlike, it is d10s). You look at your results and make sets (you may have two dice that come up 7s, and three dice that come up 2s, for example). The "height" of the set (what the number on the die is) and the "width" of the set (how many dice are in it) both matter in the result. The width generally tells you how fast you complete the action, and the height tells you how well you do. In combat, width and height also determine damage and hit location.

Free quick start rules for Godlike, that allow you to see how the mechanic works, are available for free from RPGNow. http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=91026&affiliate_id=48458

 

[Bagpuss]

Weapons of the Gods had another interest dice set mechanic.

You roll various numbers of d10s depending on skill, and you are looking for sets of the same number. The number in the set is the ten's and the number on the dice is the units, with 0 being 0 not 10.

So 4,4,4,5,8,8 you could either have a result of 34, or 15, or 28.

you only use one set to see if you succeed or not. But the clever bit is the River.

you start with a River of two, which means you can store dice two from previous rolls. How it works is as follows, at the start of the conflict your River is empty, after each skill check, you can first elect to discard any dice in your River, called wash.

next you can float any dice from any double or more sets into your River but that means they can't be used in the skill test.

Finally you can Flow dice you have in your River into your active dice.

This means there are a load of strategies you can use to manage your results.

Lets say you have a 2,5 in your River and you roll 5,5,9,9 and 7.

you might discard the 2 float in a 9 and flow the 5 into your total to get 35 better than 25, as a result and a 9 in your river. 9's are handy to have as an Everyday task has a DC of 18 so, even if you roll terrible you can Flow in a 9 to get 19.

Or you might discard the 2 and 5 and float in both 9's, having 25 now, but a pair of 9 at hand for later.

As your character improves you can get a wider River to store more dice, then do you keep sets in it or mixed dice so at least something is more likely to add to whatever you roll.

so by managing your River you can get Legendary 40+, or Impossible 60+ results.

oh and 0's have special meaning as well, as if the set you use is a 0's set then you can gain good (if you pass the test) or corrupt Joss (if you fail it), that you can use to improve your roll or worsen enemies rolls. Which actually gives you motivation to fail some rolls to store the best dice in the River and earn some corrupt Joss for later.

 

[Hand of Evil]

This was from a game I was play testing but never went anywhere, it was back in the early 90s:

• The Kill Dice - d20 was rolled as part of damage, if certain numbers came up, it was a death blow. The thing about it was the Kill Dice was treated like a skill and as you increased in level, you received an additional number every four levels (that you the player picked). The balance was that one; you had to hit and two; you had to do damage (damage reduction).

I thought it was an interesting concept VS critical damage. Thought the math could be played with by different dice.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I like FUDGE dice. You get to roll 4 dice, but with only +, -, and 0 for possibilities the numbers don't get out of hand and can more often than not be net 0. This means that results can stay quite tight with a nice bell curve.

Fiasco has an interesting die mechanic, where you roll tons of dice, but those dice stay with you for a while and use them over the course of gameplay.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Charge Die

I like the charge die. I don't know what the source is; I first read it on the boards as a suggestion for how to handle wands, but I think it could be applied much more broadly.

The idea is that instead of having 50 charges, a wand's remaining energy is represented by one die. You start with a d20. Each time you use the wand, you roll the charge die. If you roll a 1, the value of the charge die drops (from d20 to d12, and then down d10, d8, d6, d4, d2). When it drops from d2 to 0, it's toast.

I like that you have some idea of where you're at, but you don't know exactly. It takes some of the artificiality and min/maxing out of these things. I also like the escalating tension; the closer you are to burning out, the more likely that 1 is. As stated, I saw it presented for wands, but I've piloted class abilities based on the same concept, and added variations to support that (e.g. ways to recharge the die back up, changes in die value on rolls other than 1).

 

[steenan]

I like how the dice work in Marvel Heroic Roleplaying


You build a pool of dice, representing various character traits that affect an action (for example, d8 from Solo affiliation, because you act alone, d8 from "Save children first" distinction, d12 from Supersonic flight and d10 from a "Target located!" asset you created last round).

You roll the dice. You sum two of them as your result (usually the highest two, but you don't have to). The biggest die (die size, not result) that didn't go into this sum is an "effect die". In general, the result decides if you succeed and the size of the effect die, how much impact it had. Any "1" you roll can't be used for the result or effect - they give you plot points and the GM opportunities to mess with you.


The same game also features "Doom pool". It's the dice that GM rolls as an opposition for actions that don't go against a specific NPC or group (recovering from injury, getting some info or additional equipment etc.). The doom pool gets more and bigger dice from players rolling "1", villains showing off and some special effects; the dice may be spent to boost NPC actions.

 

[Bagpuss]

I like how the dice work in Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

You missed out that you can elect to add your distinctions as either 1d8 bonus dice, or a 1d4 disadvantage dice (since it is much more likely to roll a 1).

So "Save children first!" might be a bonus if you are trying to save little Jimmy from danger, but might be a distraction if you are trying to save an adult who is in more immediate danger while little Jimmy is only potentially at risk.

If you use it as a 1d4 rather than a 1d8, then you get 1 Plot Point to use later on.

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The only thing I tend not to like about dice pool building systems like Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, and the like, are that it can either take a little too long to build the dice pool each turn as you look for what dice might best fit the situation or you find excuses to use the same "best dice" (as opposed to best fit) over and over again, and it gets a little dull.

So I found it could be quicker but duller, or more thematic but slower. Particularly because the opponent also has to build a dice pool to counter. I think if it was against fixed target numbers it might work better.

 

[Razjah]

I always liked the exploding dice mechanic in Savage Worlds. They let characters be awesome, and even mooks can get in a good shot and mess up your day.

Burning Wheel's uses for Fate, Persona, and Deeds points are also great. If you play your character towards the beliefs, instincts, and traits you have created and earned, your get points. These can be used to get re-rolls, extra dice, and make die rolls open ended (basically exploding dice). Using these mechanics helps give a greater reason to play the BITs. They also allow for the characters to do some pretty awesome stuff in the game. If you spend enough points on a single skill or attribute you can shade-shift it (this lets the threshold drop, instead of 4+ succeed it becomes 3+, do it again (good luck) and you get 2+ success).