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General Tabletop Discussion
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What Does the Choice of Dice Mean for the RPG? (+)
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<blockquote data-quote="clearstream" data-source="post: 8946485" data-attributes="member: 71699"><p>Okay, so what I understand from that is that you are putting forward that inputs to the roll other than the actual number thrown on the die, and subsequent shaping of the result, will account for a significant part of the impact of the roll.</p><p></p><p>In this case, my feeling is one needs to carefully disambiguate "roll" from "dice". Let's say that the six-sided cube is just one component of the roll. Where the roll is the complete method with all its inputs and outputs. One input is going to be the number on the six-sided. In Torchbear, you will roll some quantity of dice and look for 1-3, 4-6, and sometimes specifically 6. The least number of sides needed for this arrangement is 6, seeing as the 6 must be 1:6. So the die must be characterised as a d6 (not a d2) just for the sake of clarity.</p><p></p><p>Probably the heftiest inputs are the obstacle (how many of your dice need to come up 4-6 for you to succeed), and whichever parameter of your character dictates how many dice to pick up (typically, skills.) Inputs, generally, adjust the number of dice thrown, and there are quite a few available, such as help and wises. On the outputs side, the roll either succeeds, or it succeeds at a cost or fails with a twist (DM's choice.) The result also has an implicit degree of failure or success (count of 1-3s and 4-6s, versus the obstacle).</p><p></p><p></p><p>I feel like the creators of Torchbearer were very concerned with their die rolls. Die rolls quite literally grind the game forwards. They go so far as to create specialised dice for their game. It could just be that Torchbearer is exceptional or it might be that an additional category is needed for dice-pool games, which I feel may well have physical and cultural manifestations that are in a different place than 'one-die' games.</p><p></p><p>I suppose this discussion makes me wonder about the NSD category. Presumably it contains Earthdawn (assemble short-pools of dice in steps according to their average + optional karma die), Ironsworn (a d6+mods compared with 2d10), Torchbearer as noted, WHFRP, and L5R (I am thinking here of the FFG 5th edition which bears some similarity in method to ToR.) Generally, NSD systems care about their physical dice... but one might say that their focus is on interactions between and poolings of those dice. I'd propose that one can't really assess them just on the basis of what die-sizes are being rolled.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="clearstream, post: 8946485, member: 71699"] Okay, so what I understand from that is that you are putting forward that inputs to the roll other than the actual number thrown on the die, and subsequent shaping of the result, will account for a significant part of the impact of the roll. In this case, my feeling is one needs to carefully disambiguate "roll" from "dice". Let's say that the six-sided cube is just one component of the roll. Where the roll is the complete method with all its inputs and outputs. One input is going to be the number on the six-sided. In Torchbear, you will roll some quantity of dice and look for 1-3, 4-6, and sometimes specifically 6. The least number of sides needed for this arrangement is 6, seeing as the 6 must be 1:6. So the die must be characterised as a d6 (not a d2) just for the sake of clarity. Probably the heftiest inputs are the obstacle (how many of your dice need to come up 4-6 for you to succeed), and whichever parameter of your character dictates how many dice to pick up (typically, skills.) Inputs, generally, adjust the number of dice thrown, and there are quite a few available, such as help and wises. On the outputs side, the roll either succeeds, or it succeeds at a cost or fails with a twist (DM's choice.) The result also has an implicit degree of failure or success (count of 1-3s and 4-6s, versus the obstacle). I feel like the creators of Torchbearer were very concerned with their die rolls. Die rolls quite literally grind the game forwards. They go so far as to create specialised dice for their game. It could just be that Torchbearer is exceptional or it might be that an additional category is needed for dice-pool games, which I feel may well have physical and cultural manifestations that are in a different place than 'one-die' games. I suppose this discussion makes me wonder about the NSD category. Presumably it contains Earthdawn (assemble short-pools of dice in steps according to their average + optional karma die), Ironsworn (a d6+mods compared with 2d10), Torchbearer as noted, WHFRP, and L5R (I am thinking here of the FFG 5th edition which bears some similarity in method to ToR.) Generally, NSD systems care about their physical dice... but one might say that their focus is on interactions between and poolings of those dice. I'd propose that one can't really assess them just on the basis of what die-sizes are being rolled. [/QUOTE]
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