Oath Hammer - new d6 dice pool fantasy rpg

[Matrix Sorcica]

Currently on Kickstarter

It ticks a lot of boxes for me. I'm a bit concerned about all the rolls to determine combat. I've never played a dice pool system before.
Does anyone have any experience with Streets of Peril, the creators' first rpg, using the same system? And/or with other dice pool systems? Thanks.

 

[Morrus]

I've written several dice pool systems (WOIN and ACE most notably). I am very fond of them, and the first ever dice pool game -- WEG's Ghostbusters from the 1980s--is possibly my favourite TTRPG.

I'm not personally familiar with this system but @tabletopjess interviewed the creator on Not DnD.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Does anyone have any experience with Streets of Peril, the creators' first rpg, using the same system?

Yeah that's my question.

And/or with other dice pool systems?

Dice pool systems often rock, in my experience.

Like, my personal order of favoured resolution systems is:

1. 2-3 dice-based roll high vs TN resolution systems (non-binary results preferred over binary)
2. Fixed roll number to succeed dice pool systems (d6 preferred over d10 or other dice for me) - i.e. the variation is number of successes needed, but like X or higher on a die is always a success
3. d100 roll low systems
4. Yahtzee-type dice pool systems
5. Variable roll number to succeed dice pool systems
6. single die vs TN systems - which includes d20-based systems
7. Anything to do with drawing cards
8. No randomization resolution methods (like Amber and a number of others)
9. Weird dice required systems (which are usually technically dice pool but...)
10. JENGA! I'm clumsy at that particularly level of manipulation okay!
11. Crosswords or sudoku or something arrghhhh < gargles > killll meeeeeee

Back on this specific game:

A) I love the art - Justin Gerard is has a cool style.
B) I like dwarves and I feel they're a bit underserved by RPGs. Also good they support a ton of classes/ancestries
C) A lot of nice ideas here in a sort of a warm pleasant trad-yet-modern fantasy RPG way
D) Downloaded the quickstart, will take a look at it later

 

[aramis erak]

Several different kinds of dice pools....

1. Roll a number of dice by scores, total, compare to TN (WEG Star Wars, D6 system, T&T, M!M!)
2. Roll a number of dice by scores, count successes, compare successes to TN (WoD, Arrowflight 1e, Burning Wheel, Mouse Guard)
3. Roll a number of dice by scores, count only highest die (Prime Directive 1e, Shadowrun, LUG Trek, Jovian Chronicles/Silhouette)
4. Roll a number of dice by scores, read the two kinds of symbols, compare one kind to TN (FFG SW, WFRP 3, and L5R)
5. Roll a number of dice by scores, total for comparison to TN for success, count number of 6's for quality (TOR)
6. Roll a number of dice by scores, count sets (berserking in T&T)
7. Roll one die per type of value of the specified size, set aside the 1's, compare highest two to opposed roll or static TN (Cortex Plus/Prime)
8. roll a pool, opponent rolls a pool, eliminate any matches of your dice to opponent's dice, take/inflict whatever's left. (Armor in Orkworld)
9. roll a pool, order them, then compare them to a similarly ordered opposed roll, side which has higher in more pairings wins. (playtest from the late 1990s)

 

[Ruin Explorer]

OK quick glance through Quickstart:

• Basic mechanic is a dice-pool but the COLOUR of the dice, which is determined by the rules, affects the number needed to succeed.

As such it's kind of a hybrid of 2 and 5 on my list, but I guess because it's predictable and reliable - i.e. white dice = is always 4+ success, red = 3+, black = 2+ it's basically fixed number roll. Uses d6s as thread title notes. 6es explode indefinitely. So far all abilities that change die colour change the colour of ALL the dice in the roll, which is also good (I don't know if this is 100%, true, just all the ones I saw glancing through).

You have a Difficulty Value (DV) which is usually 1 to 5, and each dice that beats that makes the required number for its colour is a success. Your success value (SV) is successes minus difficulty, so 3 successes on difficulty 3 is SV0, which is a success but like, I noticed for example the Mage's Magic Bolt (their main magic attack) does SV dice of damage based on the attack roll, so if you only got SV0, 0 = 0 damage dice sooooo... (Weapons have extra dice so even SV0 gets to roll damage but not default Magic Bolt apparently).

Bonuses and penalties are always to number of dice, so +2 bonus = roll 2 more dice.

• The art style and very intentional font and colour palette choice are big "Early 2nd Edition" vibes stuff. Very specifically, like, 1989 through 1994, before they re-did the core books with as different style in 1995.
• General very heroic/good-guy-oriented tone
• Ancestries are a bit more detailed than I expected - none shown any kind of special vision modes - hooray!
• Classes seem pretty cool and have a lot of fairly powerful-sounding abilities - somehow reminiscent of PF2
• Rogue/Thief is "Delver" in keeping with the tone
• The titular Oaths are significant - each PC picks three from stuff like Humility, Courage, Peace - all classically virtuous, no bad-disguised-as-good at least in the quickstart, though a couple are classically virtuous but not necessarily actually virtuous (Justice and Purity), depending on perspective. If you fail to uphold them you get big penalties and RAW don't get XP at all that session (I suspect this is actually "don't gain bonus XP" but...).
• XP system is not level-based but like White Wolf games and so on, i.e. buying up traits etc.
• Don't understand how magic works, maybe later - spells look more like say, Dragon's Dogma than D&D though.
• Loads of skills didn't read them
• Side-based initiative
• Combat seems like moderately complex dice-pool stuff (really glanced through though) with 5E-esque Action rules (bit of a yawn)
• Literally in the rules that attackers usually ignore apparently downed characters (even if they're faking!) in keeping with the "heroic" 2E-ish tone rather a 1E-ish "grim n gritty" tone.
• Very hard to die if you reserve a luck point or two in case you get taken out, but you probably do get injured (again in keeping with tone)
• No levels and thus no linear HP gain - Your "Grit points" are likely to remain close to their initial value if I'm reading correctly.
• Some kind of slot-based equipment tracking system (rather than encumbrance or the like)

Overall? Looks like an interesting and potentially decent trad-style system for running heroic fantasy that's neither as over-the-top as D&D 5E rapidly gets nor as grim/gritty as a lot of OSRs want things to be, and that's not level-based (a major plus for me). It definitely DOES NOT want you have to have mean or evil or even uncaring PCs, I note, this is very much "We're the good guys" kind of game, though I do wonder a little how well that's going to fit the "kill all the ugly humanoids" deal it also seems to have going on - they've at least tried to minimize the racism/colonialism factor by having the orcs be like, Saxon/Viking-esque (right down to titles like "jarl"), making it so they're invaders (and thus presumably the orc women/children are back in orcland), and making it so the dwarves are "reclaiming" their lost holds from them (which were lost fairly recently, too, not lifetimes ago - in fact about half a dwarven lifetime), but for me it sits a little uncomfortably with the "heroism". It's not impossible or anything, just a little "Hmmmm".

That said in the full setting it's sort of implied orcs/goblins will be a sideshow rather than the "main" bad guys (who seem to be not present in the quickstart) who they are also fighting.

 

[sevenbastard]

Several different kinds of dice pools....

Space Station Zero a solo war game, uses pools of d12 only even numbers count and sometimes you roll against a Target number.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Space Station Zero a solo war game, uses pools of d12 only even numbers count and sometimes you roll against a Target number.

Shoot me lol. That's got to be intentionally silly right?

 

[sevenbastard]

Shoot me lol. That's got to be intentionally silly right?

It's a legitimate game and the system works. I haven't crunched the math to see if odd vs even really matters, I think they just liked d12s.

 

[Broken Blade Publishing]

Oath Hammer author here.

I see there are already some pretty good breakdowns of the game! Standard skill checks have been made a little simpler. You don't need to determine net successes any longer, just determine if the number of successes meets or exceeds the Difficulty Value (target number). This was just reflected in the updated quickstart.

Opposed rolls, like those used in combat, are more intimidating in theory than in practice. Here is how a typical attack would look:

Both the attack and defense rolls are made simultaneously and compared. Dice pools are typically small so calculating net successes is usually very easy. If an attack hits, the damage roll and armor roll are then made simultaneously and similarly compared. Net successes is how much damage the target receives.

Combat isn't much slower than in D&D where you roll your d20, add modifier, ask if DM if it hits, roll damage, add modifier. The DM usually has to do a lot more HP tracking in D&D.

I have also recently updated the quickstart and added some optional rules to speed combat up when large groups of enemies are involved.

If you have any questions about the game please reach out!

 

[GMMichael]

Both the attack and defense rolls are made simultaneously and compared. Dice pools are typically small so calculating net successes is usually very easy. If an attack hits, the damage roll and armor roll are then made simultaneously and similarly compared. Net successes is how much damage the target receives.

Does this mean that a successful attack can do no damage? It looks like the Damage Dice need to succeed, or they don't do damage. And they're reduced by Armor Dice (successes) as well?

If you have any questions about the game please reach out!

What is it about hex-maps that is so mysterious and inviting? More seriously, how do the rules for diplomacy, warfare, and subterfuge compare, in bulk/complexity, to the individual combat rules?