First Session Feedback

[Morrus]

In the second case (damage), the extra dice were often required to overcome a targets SOAK. Someone in a basic battlesuit has SOAK of 10. That pretty much renders the person immune to small weapons fire (2d6) and highly resistant to even medium fire (3d6). Maybe that is in the intent, I'm not sure how scarce you expect such armor to be. We needed those exploding dice to overcome most ship armor + shields also.

I feel that damage is a place where exploding dice could remain. They help to represent that lucky shot.

OK, so all of that to was to explain why I think a small number of extra LUCK dice (as it exists today) is not going to be sufficient.

I haven't thought through this a great deal, but for the countdown I'd be thinking something to the effect of this...

You begin w/a Luck pool based on your LUCK attribute. Let's just assume that's a 4d6 pool. You can use some of those as extra dice on rolls (probably not damage, just attacks/skills). Maybe half your luck pool, rounded down, minimum 1. Probably declared before an attack roll. Each time you use it, you make a countdown check as normal and your LUCK pool shrinks according to the countdown rules.

So, if I have a LUCK pool of 4d6 and am shooting at a dude in heavy armor, I decide I need extra help to hit him so I invoke my LUCK. I add 2d6 extra to the roll. Regardless of the success or failure, after the roll I make a LUCK countdown and my LUCK pool decreases by an amount equal to the 6's I roll.

Presumably people will always use the maximum number of bonus dice they can, then, if the pool's reduction is related to the number of bonus dice they roll?

Everyone has 1 exploding die no matter how many dice they roll. They have to roll this die separately. It explodes on attack rolls, damage rolls, skill checks, etc. Basically the old exploding rule but added only to 1 die.

This solves a separate personal problem I have with no exploding dice. I always enjoy having a 'critical' option of some sort. Something to look forward too if actual luck is in my favor. Something that, given the right circumstance, lets me do the impossible.

By limiting the exploders to 1 die you should get rid of some of the weaknesses, specifically that the exploding mechanic favors those that are already favored by rolling more dice.

You could also add Careers that give you more exploding dice, either all the time or during certain instances. A sniper might get an extra die when sniping, for instance, and a reckless brawler might get an extra die when swinging his sword at someone.

Again, just some ideas.

I do like that. Folks could have a die of a different colour. I'll think some more on it.

 

[Peter Holland]

I like the idea of different coloured dice.


But yeah, I see what Lucas is saying about damage dice- with most weapons doing 1-2 dice damage, they will barely ever manage to beat that soak- and what about an Ogron in a Battlesuit- 15 soak!

 

[Morrus]

You can exchange attack dice for damage dice, remember. The way to circumvent armour is to find ways to be more accurate

 

[Morrus]

I'm working on the latest playtest packet at the moment. I've added this back in:

[h=3]THE EXPLODING DIE[/h]
You should keep one die of a different color; this die is your exploding die. Every time you roll a dice pool, that die should be included. The exploding die has a special property: any time you roll a 6 on it, you can roll it again and add the second roll to your total. If you roll a 6 again, you can roll a third time (and so on – there is no upper limit to the number of sixes you can roll).

Some careers or abilities may allow multiple exploding dice. For example, a psion may be able to use powers of probability manipulation to grant additional exploding dice.

 

[LucasC]

I like it!

 

[trespassers]

I'm working on the latest playtest packet at the moment. I've added this back in:

[h=3]THE EXPLODING DIE[/h]
You should keep one die of a different color; this die is your exploding die. Every time you roll a dice pool, that die should be included. The exploding die has a special property: any time you roll a 6 on it, you can roll it again and add the second roll to your total. If you roll a 6 again, you can roll a third time (and so on – there is no upper limit to the number of sixes you can roll).

Some careers or abilities may allow multiple exploding dice. For example, a psion may be able to use powers of probability manipulation to grant additional exploding dice.

That seems like an excellent compromise so that you get to keep a good mechanic, and I approve!

 

[Peter Holland]

Having spoken with another of my players, I'm not sure that will actually work. He's going to log on to explain that at some point, but suffice it to say, he's found a serious flaw in combat.

If the exploding mechanic is to be re-added, perhaps it should only work for your Luck Dice- that way we can encourage use (as suggested previously, with different coloured dice etc.) without having to always use them.

 

[Morrus]

Having spoken with another of my players, I'm not sure that will actually work. He's going to log on to explain that at some point, but suffice it to say, he's found a serious flaw in combat.

If the exploding mechanic is to be re-added, perhaps it should only work for your Luck Dice- that way we can encourage use (as suggested previously, with different coloured dice etc.) without having to always use them.

That's another option, sure. Right now we're throwing round lots of ideas, we'll need to test these things to see how they play out.

 

[Peter Holland]

Where in the book does it mention trading attack dice for damage? I can't see that in the combat section.

 

[Morrus]

Where in the book does it mention trading attack dice for damage? I can't see that in the combat section.

The bottom of page 103.

That's the seed of what will be the Combat Tricks system (which, if you want a preview of, check out the O.L.D. document -- though that is mainly geared towards medieval weaponry- but the principle is the same, and the stuff on page 103 will be expanded into a system much like it).

In playtests I've been in, that particular trick (2 attack dice reduction per 1 dice damage increase) has been *really* popular. It models shots which are more damaging due to improved accuracy very well. it's mainly used to beat armour (it represents a headshot or something similar).