The d30 system

Nyaricus · Jun 21, 2006

Dog Moon said:
Well, the problem with things being dead and buried is that they can be dug up again.

Sometimes they even dig themselves up

papastebu · Jul 12, 2006

I know this post is kind of old, but I just read the first of it now. If you want more variables, change everything in the game that has any numbers associated with it to percentile dice. That way, you don't have as much trouble with comparison, as everything is a contested d% roll. Ability scores change to a range of plus-or-minus 10% to start, and any untrained skills or weapons--unless it specifies that it can be used untrained--has an automatic penalty of -30%. Synergy could mitigate the penalty, as for related skills in the current system, and similar weapons could be used in this way, as well. Health versus weapon damage would be 100% health, initially, versus whatever damage percentage a given weapon had, plus strength (melee) or dexterity (ranged) or none (explosive, or other non-aimed attacks). Subsequent attacks would whittle away at the remaining percentile of health until -5% per character level was reached, which is character death.

More could be done with this, but at this point, we're not really playing D&D anymore, are we?

P.S. I'm sorry if someone has already posted a similar idea, but I haven't read all the posts this entry.

Raven Crowking · Jul 12, 2006

Before 3.X, I worked on a homebrew Doctor Who game that used the d30 mechanic, mostly because I had a bunch of d30s and I thought they were cool. Also because I wanted a larger range of stats than 3-18 (which wouldn't cover enough DW monsters). Because a lot of my ideas were built out of 1e/2e and games like Top Secret, it didn't have the elegant base skill/feat system that 3.X does, but otherwise it was fun.

RC

Sravoff · Jul 12, 2006

If leaves grew on the ground, and dropped to the brances.

Another way to increase the random factor, d100.

All bonus's stay the same, add 50 instead of ten to DC's, and have fun.

multiply all threat ranges by three to five, depending on style of paly.

So a great axe crits on 97%, 96%, or 95%. A Rapier crits on 91%, 88%, or 85%.

Hows that for random?

By the way... They really make a d30? I have never seen one...

For heroic champaigns, roll 4d6 drop lowest for every roll.

hhmm... Personally I don't like how big a difference in rolls are at level one, and how small the are at level 20.

Level one through five characters should roll 1d6
Six through ten get the d12
Eleven through fifteen get the d20
sixteen to twenty get the d30
After that, you get the d50!!

But then problems arise when a level six character fights a ogre... {CR4, I think. Ok, I'm pretty sure, no books ATM}
-Sravoff

Crothian · Jul 12, 2006

yes, they really make a d30.

Sravoff · Jul 12, 2006

Wow, thats cool... Do they have any purpose???

Crothian · Jul 12, 2006

There were a few games that had uses for them, but I think that was after they were made. MAybe in war gaming they were used more, but not that I've heard.

Dog Moon · Jul 13, 2006

Sravoff said:
Wow, thats cool... Do they have any purpose???

Yes, to roll a random number between 1 and 30.

Hautamaki · Jul 14, 2006

The only published use of D30's I've seen is in Ral Partha's defunk Battlestorm wargaming system.

The d20 has long been a problem for me in D&D because of the problems already mentioned. 1) Toads can occasionally beat Polar Bears in a grapple.
2) At level 1-3 the roll means everything, yet at really high levels adding a possible 1-20 onto your existing bonuses of 50-80 is trivial.

Any possible solution seems to exacerbate either problem 1 or problem 2, leaving us with a dilemma. My solution: scaling check dice.

All characters of level 1-8 roll 3d6 for checks. Every 8 levels thereafter, another d6 is added. Characters 9-16 use 4d6. Characters 17-24 use 5d6, and so on. Btw, everything in my system is similarly scaled, so the game does not break down at level 20, and there's no reason to arbitrarily declare it 'epic' and suddenly change the progression rules.

Yes, this means that a level 9 character fighting a level 8 character has a pretty big advantage in terms adding that extra dice onto all attack rolls. At this point, that seems to be the greatest disadvantage with this die system. On the other hand, the problem is not that huge, because of all the other rules I've added/changed. But my sourcebook is nearly 150 pages right now, so I don't suppose I'll go into all those details. Just food for thought.