Dice Alternatives in Unearthed Arcana

[arscott]

Oh, some probabilities, for those who're wondering:

What's the 3d6+2dF?

 

[MDSnowman]

What's the 3d6+2dF?

F = What your characters yell after rolling a 3 for an ability score.

 

[woodelf]

What's the 3d6+2dF?

dF = Fudge die. d6 labeled +,+, , ,-,-. Or, effectively, a (d3-2)--it generates a number from -1 to +1, with equal probability. Thus, 2dF generates a number from -2 to +2, so adding it to 3d6 "fills in" the missing 1,2,19,20, vice a d20 roll. Also flattens the curve slightly, as you can see. 3d6+2dF is really a pretty funky roll, and a bit silly. But if you really want a fairly steep bellcurve distribution from 1 to 20, it gets the job done. It's certainly no worse than 3d6 in the context of a 1-20 roll, with actually rolling the correct range more than making up for having to add 2 more dice.

 

[fuindordm]

If you want a bell curve, there's a much better way to do it. It's called mid20: roll three d20s, toss the highest and lowest, and use the remaining one for your result.

We've also explored some interesting variations you can do with the dice to roll threat-confirmation into the basic die roll, and even give multiple degrees of success right in the die roll, but then it actually starts to make the probabilities very much different, and you would have to take them into consideration a bit more.

I'd like to hear more about this, if you've got time to post it.

--Ben