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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sword of Spirit" data-source="post: 6135949" data-attributes="member: 6677017">I'm going to answer my own questions from my earlier post, and I'd love to hear  disagreements and different opinions, since it will help my design work quite  a bit.The minimum necessary to reach the desired mechanical results and establish the intended feel.For instance, the system I'm working on does just about everything in  single digits, since I want to have: (a) no derived stats, (b) math you  never have to reference a book for, and (c) characters that can be  remembered or created extremely quickly based on descriptive words  rather than numbers.Since there are only three descriptive levels of attributes higher than average, the numbers for that (assuming it can work with the rest of the system) don't have to be any bigger than 1, 2, and 3.I think different types of physical dice on the table make a difference  in the feel of the game. If you only use boardgame d6s with pips, that  will create an entirely different feel than the multi-colored grab bag  of random dice of all shapes and sizes I so love in my D&D games.  The same thing goes for different numbers of dice. If there is just a  single die sitting on the table, or one die for each player, it creates a  different feel than the cornucopia of dice everywhere.In addition, how often you roll them changes the feel. More dicey usually means more gamey.And then we come to the actual systems. I'm going to agree with some of  the thoughts that d% really work better with some genres than others.  I'll admit that I have some bias against d%, simply because they feel a  bit too retro for me, but I think they might produce a flavor that goes  well with a hard sci-fi game. Some people enjoy picking up large pools  of dice to roll. I think it might be that it creates a sense of power,  since you have visual and tactile representation of your characters  abilities, rather than merely adding or subtracting a number you have in  your head or on a sheet. It also moves the game outside of the theater  of the mind (temporarily) and onto the table more than a system where  you are only dealing with a die or two does.I personally find using the d20 system for anything other than D&D  unsatisfying in and of itself, because it turns what should be it's own  game into an extensive set of house rules in my gut emotional  perception. So that bias on my part means that no matter how good the  system, if it's not D&D but we're using D&D dice systems/rules  for it, I'm already dissatisfied.I already mentioned a bit about genre, and I think it has an enormous impact on how satisfying the different levels of granularity and forms of dice usage are. Let's say you were playing a game all about wonder, enchantment, and magic, and maybe marketed to a young crowd. Having a lot of different highly colorful custom dice to use would really enhance the imagery. Say the dice are really visually attractive and color coded based on size, and when you cast a spell you roll a combination of different dice based on the type of effect (which you can spontaneously create on the spot). You grab the red (d8) for a damaging effect, the blue (d12) for a defensive effect, the yellow (d4) for a mental effect, etc. Or, in a narrative horror game you might want low numbers, and having larger dice to use is bad for you. You only get one to roll, and you want that one to be as small as possible. Maybe even color code it so the larger die sizes are progressively darker shades of grey (or other appropriate colors).When it comes to style of campaigns or scenarios, it's just as important. In a highly story-focused campaign, I prefer few dice, low granularity, and less rolling. If I were playing some sort of gamey high-powered supers scenario, I might be excited about massive dice pools I get to use regularly. For a more explorationist/simulationist scenario, I'd want to roll the right amount of dice for the scene--maybe adjusting the number and frequency based on the part of the scenario itself.Thoughts? (And I hope I'm contributing rather than hijacking the thread.)</blockquote>

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