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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ruemere" data-source="post: 9011332" data-attributes="member: 5515">[USER=1]@Morrus[/USER] I have toyed with a few dicepool mechanics in my Storyteller and Year Zero eras. Probably best implementation is to be found in Slayers (<a href="https://gilarpgs.itch.io/slayers" target="_blank">Slayers by Gila RPGs</a>) - I cannot recommend enough the game. A must read for any modern dicepool designer.Here are a few observations:1. For heroic games use exploding dice (max die grants a reroll and potentially adds a success). There is nothing like the happiness on the face of a player who makes a narrow escape like this.1.1 The exploding dice must be limited. The pools must be smaller than exploding dice size. Otherwise explosions make the game too unpredictable. Recommended limitations: explosions allowed only once per a maxed die. Explosions for d6 dice allowed only for pools of up to 5.2. Keep the pools low, keep the thresholds low. This keeps results predictable (easy to score a basic success at a cost in), the players feel competent and confident (hated that constant failing in Blades games - people hated confrontations) and when needed, you can always up the difficulty for that final roll to suddenly skyrocket tension level.2.1 Recommended pools are 3-5 for thresholds of 2 (routine, drive early to work task), 3 (challenges faced everyday, struggle to complete a project against a deadline without making too many mistakes) and 4 (making hard choices under pressure, facing bad consequences on fail - killing stuff on front lines while trying avoid getting hit). Threshold of 5 - keep it as a last resort for that badly wounded making a last ditch effort against all odds.2.2 Why the low pools? Because it keeps the resolution fast. Why 3+ die for d6? Because fewer dice is too simple. Also, keep 3 or more dice so that you can easily grade success levels, produce successes for gauging contribution levels for multicharacter activities.2.3 Why not use 6 as difficulty threshold? Because constant failing is unfun (hello Vaesen and other Year Zero games), because 6 should be epic, because it leads to ambiguities.Again, please have a look at Slayers. The basic rules are free.</blockquote>

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