Formula of D&D Awesomeness!

[Wileama]

First a preface:

This is quite possibly the Geekest endeavor of my life. I warn you this is not for the faint of heart. Turn back now before it's to late!

It all began a week or so back. A friend of mine, Thomas Hobbes, read me a statistic off the forum. Our party spent 1000 GP on ale and whores in 2.5 gaming sessions. I was impressed, while Thomas was a little bit more OMG GOLD. Some how we began to ponder, just how much ale and whores is that? We began to contemplating a formula to do a proper analysis. Upon thinking about it on my way home from his house I ultimately decided that this was not an interesting enough math problem.

So I set about to design a problem that I would find both challenging and interesting. That is when it came to me. Read on for a proper explanation.

The concept:

Okay now picture the pH scale in your head. Okay now remove the concept of acidity with the concept of awesome. Also replace solution with D&D.

So essential what I'm suggesting is a formula which after plugging in the appropriate data will give you a number between 1-10 on a logarithmic scale. This value will be a measurement of how awesome a game session, or even campaign depending on your data. The formula will be properly weight to place the average game at a 5.

How you can Help:

There are two important things that I feel I need the communities aid in. First off, what values to use in the formula. I've already decided on a few values:

1. Level
2. Total Party Treasure
3. % Treasure spent on Ale and Whores
4. Number of Natural 20s
5. Number of Threatened Critical Attacks
6. Number of Confirmed Critical Attacks

However I know I'm not going to be able to think of all the good values by myself. Further more I will need peer editing to weed out the bad values I think up.

I will also need people to collect data. As you have probably realized to properly bell curve the formula I will need as much game data as possible to create a constant. That constant will be named: THE D&D CONSTANT OF AWESOMENESS! The more data I collect the better the constant and thus the better the formula.

Further Application:

Hopefully with some minor adjustments the formula will work for other RPGs. The easiest conversion would be to D20 Modern, and other D20 systems. Other Systems such as Grups, and Hero would be more difficult however as certain values will not be applicable. Though with each new system a new constant will be needed.

Also the concept of THE FORMULA OF AWESOMENESS could be applied to completely different games. Such as Magic: The Gathering, or even Counter Strike. In theory the concept could even be applied to real life, and people. However for these applications the formula would need a complete rework.

A Final Word:

Feel free to ask any questions, or decry my sanity. I will happily clarify, or further explain myself. Also I'm fairly certain that at some point, most likely early childhood, I lost my sanity.

 

[RangerWickett]

If your idea is crazy, I don't wanna be sane.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

If your idea is crazy, I don't wanna be sane.

May the insane quell the wicked!

 

[Hand of Evil]

See this post HERE

 

[Wileama]

Thanks for the positive feedback. Right so I've done some thinking and I've done a sort of alpha formula. I am not pleased with my first prototype. I will explain to you my displeasure and my intended solution.

Ideally I would condense and there by complicate the formula some what. I would like the formula to be relatively simple, say nothing more complicated than a basic integration. However a bunch of addition and subtraction seems like an brutish solution. I feel like there must be a more elegant way for the formula to work. The only real answer to this problem is more work. I need to put more work into it.

Also I've run into something of a variable nightmare. As I work I seem to add more and more variables. I do not want an equation with over 20 different variables in it. However each variable measures it's own part of the game, and to remove it would be to narrow the scope of the equation.

It wasn't until I wrote this post that the answer came to me. This can not be just one formula. Instead a set of formulas will work much better. At the moment I envision three formulas of awesomeness:

1. A combat formula
2. An in game experience formula
3. An out of game experience

The combat formula will deal solely with, you guess it, combat. The game experience will cover aspects like natural 20s, amount of treasure spent on ale and whores, and the likes. While the out of game experience will cover snack consumption, ratio of males to females, the age of the group, and so on.

This system will provide many advantages over a signal formula. First is that different groups value different parts of role playing. A single formula would not be able to compare in and out of game awesomeness. A group of power games could achieve an 8-9 though combat alone. Also a multi-formula system allows for better cross system use. In a signal integrated formula differences in mechanics could severally affect other aspects of the formula. However with this system out of game experience should be instantly universal to all RPGs; well maybe not larps.

While the amount of overall data to collect will remain roughly the same, the number of constants will not. Obviously three formulas will require three constants. Though sources for some data, mainly out of game experience, will be greatly expanded.

So I've done some quick work to quickly split up what I had done into corresponding formulas. At the point where I stopped I had not incorporated any out of game variables, thus there will only be a combat and mechanic formula. I have opted to work on the getting the formula onto a scale last as my math is a little rusty. Note that these are from from complete and will require much, much more work:

Combat Formula: Pi^(C/T) + (E/A) ( (D-R) /L)​

Okay allow me to explain this one: Pi is just that Pi. Why, Pi is delicious especially apple. C is the number of confirmed criticals, and T is the number of threatened criticals. So the first part is ? raised to the power of the # of confirmed criticals over the # of threatened criticals. I figure 20's are cool, but only if you can confirm the hit. Next E is the number of enemies and A number of allies, including party members. I included this in an attempt to take into account hordes. Then D is for damage dealt by the party, and R is for damage received by the party. Which is then divided by L, for level. So that last bit is Ratio of Enemies to allies multiplied by (damaged dealt - damaged received over level)

In Game experience Formula: Pi^(N20/N1) + ( T + (M^B) /L)​

Okay so the formula starts off very similar to the combat formula. N20 stands for number of natural 20s and N1 stands for number of natural 1s. Then T is percent treasure spent on ales and whores. M stands for number of magic items, while B is the average bonus of magic items. Again L stands for level. So that last bit is Treasure spent on ale and whores plus number of magic items raised to their average bonus divided by level.

Off hand I have a few concerns that have just pooped into my head. First is that merely dividing by level is not enough. Maybe I should square the level or something. That or use it to define a root for the level related values. That and I'm not sure the enemy to ally ratio will work out.

Anyway I would welcome all your input, positive or otherwise. Again if I need to clarify something just tell me. Thanks!

 

[Angcuru]

I was about to say "You need a hobby!" Then I realize.... 'Oh yeah' .....

 

[Poster Bard]

Welcome to EN World posting (and not lurking)!

 

[EricNoah]

I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

 

[Wileama]

While I regret to inform you that I have no newsletter of mine own, I am more than willing to refer you to one. Slashdot.org an excellent site to learn about all thinks nerd. However if you are truly interested then I ask for feed back. You see while I may have an interesting idea here, I fear that my head alone will not be enough to bring it into this world. You see I am some what lazy, and fear that my energies will peter out with out community support. That is why I can not stress how helpful it would be to me if people made their own suggestions for the formulas and variables.

 

[Goblyn]

Some part of the awesomeness formula should include # of plots and/or subplots furthered.

Something like: (P+S)/T
Where
P is the # of plots furthered
S is the # of subplots furthered
T is the total number of plotline that the party is involved in.

This equation will generate a number between 0 and 1, 1 having all plots furthered. Character background involvement counts as plot furthering, thus the minimum value of T is # of players + 1.

Have I muddied the waters enough, or does that large man not need to show me the door?