Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
The d100 luck system, a revolution in gaming!
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 898595" data-attributes="member: 63"><p>One of my fellow GMs cued me in to this little gem of gaming wisdom. For all the great ways the d20 system is relatively simple to jump into, there's no hard and fast rule for that most challenging of situations: when the GM has no idea what's gonna happen.</p><p></p><p>For example, imagine you're a GM, and though you encourage heroism and dramatics, you don't want PCs to always just have great dumb luck, so you try to be fair. A werewolf attacks at a mansion, and a PC asks if the kitchen has any silverware that's really silver. You hadn't thought about that, and you'd kinda wanted the PCs to run instead of fight, but you want to be fair. Do you just assume that the utensils were silver instead of, say, porcelain or gold?</p><p></p><p>Another example. A PC wants to buy a suit of Elven Chain, and he's in a big city. You know that sure, it's possible someone might have a suit of Elven Chain for sale, but you didn't take the time to figure out the exact financial statistics to let you know the probability. You could just let the PC make a Gather Information check, but even then, how do you determine the DC for something this random?</p><p></p><p>The answer is the luck system. </p><p></p><p>It's simple. Whenever you are at a loss and you really couldn't care less whether you're nice or mean to the PCs, roll d%. Low rolls are bad for the PCs, high rolls are good. How high or low determines how generous you are. A 35 on the roll for silverware would mean there isn't any easily available silver. To be able to find Elven Chain in your typical human city, you might need a roll of 80 or higher to even have a chance of finding any.</p><p></p><p>A few specifics.</p><p></p><p>01 - This is always, horrendously bad. Maybe the PC tries to get a silver knife, but the silverware drawer is trapped, which really screws the PC.</p><p></p><p>100 - This is always phenomenally lucky. The PC notices that one of the ornamental suits of armor in the castle actually has a silver-edged sword, or the kitche has silverware, plus that rare spice called wolfsbane. Of course, don't let the luck system allow PCs to get away with the impossible. Even if the dice say 00, you don't have to let them find a suit of Elven Chain in the middle of a goblin village.</p><p></p><p>69 - This is generally somewhat good for the party, but you have to find a way to make it sexual. Maybe the silverware you find has etchings of naked women, or the person who owns the armor will only sell it if she gets something 'special' in return. *wink wink, nudge nudge*</p><p></p><p>Try it in your games, but don't rely on it too much. If you use it more than three or four times in a session, you're probably not inventive enough. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RangerWickett, post: 898595, member: 63"] One of my fellow GMs cued me in to this little gem of gaming wisdom. For all the great ways the d20 system is relatively simple to jump into, there's no hard and fast rule for that most challenging of situations: when the GM has no idea what's gonna happen. For example, imagine you're a GM, and though you encourage heroism and dramatics, you don't want PCs to always just have great dumb luck, so you try to be fair. A werewolf attacks at a mansion, and a PC asks if the kitchen has any silverware that's really silver. You hadn't thought about that, and you'd kinda wanted the PCs to run instead of fight, but you want to be fair. Do you just assume that the utensils were silver instead of, say, porcelain or gold? Another example. A PC wants to buy a suit of Elven Chain, and he's in a big city. You know that sure, it's possible someone might have a suit of Elven Chain for sale, but you didn't take the time to figure out the exact financial statistics to let you know the probability. You could just let the PC make a Gather Information check, but even then, how do you determine the DC for something this random? The answer is the luck system. It's simple. Whenever you are at a loss and you really couldn't care less whether you're nice or mean to the PCs, roll d%. Low rolls are bad for the PCs, high rolls are good. How high or low determines how generous you are. A 35 on the roll for silverware would mean there isn't any easily available silver. To be able to find Elven Chain in your typical human city, you might need a roll of 80 or higher to even have a chance of finding any. A few specifics. 01 - This is always, horrendously bad. Maybe the PC tries to get a silver knife, but the silverware drawer is trapped, which really screws the PC. 100 - This is always phenomenally lucky. The PC notices that one of the ornamental suits of armor in the castle actually has a silver-edged sword, or the kitche has silverware, plus that rare spice called wolfsbane. Of course, don't let the luck system allow PCs to get away with the impossible. Even if the dice say 00, you don't have to let them find a suit of Elven Chain in the middle of a goblin village. 69 - This is generally somewhat good for the party, but you have to find a way to make it sexual. Maybe the silverware you find has etchings of naked women, or the person who owns the armor will only sell it if she gets something 'special' in return. *wink wink, nudge nudge* Try it in your games, but don't rely on it too much. If you use it more than three or four times in a session, you're probably not inventive enough. ;) [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
The d100 luck system, a revolution in gaming!
Top