Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="SpringRoll" data-source="post: 9013291" data-attributes="member: 7041341">I think the problem needs to be tackled with a little lateral thinking, because changing the roll+bonus system into a dice pool really means changing the paradigm. It's not just a matter of arithmetic.The advantage of using a pool is the immediate granularity of the results. Therefore, instead of establishing the number of successes required to satisfy a binary success/failure mechanism, I would use a fixed table that determines the quality of the action.Number of HITS => Quality.All '1' > Fumble0 > Failure1 > Failure or success with consequence2 > Sufficient success3 > Special successOn a single die you can aim for average to succeed poorly, which conforms to your character being poor in that area.From the table above, decide for an average (look 4 is a good average).The exploding die is "syntactic sugar", my players don't like it because it makes everything too unpredictable and simple. You can always hope for an extra HIT, which means having a lot of dice rewards even less. In fact, you have to consider that beyond a certain amount, adding more dice is less and less significant. With 6 exploding the gap between "poor" and "very good" is reduced even more. In my opinion, having limits helps to try more creative solutions.The added advantage of the pool system is that you can easily adjust a lot of parameters, including the very way in which the player approaches the test, simulating "narrative" stuff. As an example, + 1 die if a personality trait conform to the action, convert a pool in a single "all in" die (simulating rush) or converting couple of dice into auto-hit (simulating carefull maneuvers). There's a lot one can figure out with a pool of dice, so reducing everything to % of success is very limiting.As for the opposing actions, here too I suppose a paradigm shift is needed. Passive value roll is perfect for systems where you battle frequently and where you have a primary currency (HP) that gets eroded by context. You want thousand combat rolls and Saving Throws to be lightning fast, so you get back to what matters (choices and using wildcards).I think a dice pool system should instead use opposing rolls, obviously trying to rationalize them. Subtract the higher HITs amount from the minor ones and determine the quality of the result. Increasing penalties for many defences in the round. A round-based death spiral. This slows down the combat phases, but it's not automatically a bad thing: the setting determines whether this part of the game should repeat itself often or not and being abstract or detailed.So, in the end - to me is not just a matter of core mechanics, but of yours aggregated methods.</blockquote>

Verification