What's your favorite dice system?
- Thread starter AK81
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CleverNickName
Limit Break Dancing (He/They)
I like the D20 System, first introduced in 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons by Wizards of the Coast. I like having a single, unified mechanic for most in-game resolutions, where you roll a die to get a result, add a modifier, and compare it to a target number. And I like the easy math that I get from having a linear distribution (unlike systems that have a bell curve distribution.)
Grendel_Khan
Hero
Get ready for dozens of variations on, "A single d20. Pros: It's simple. Cons: None!"
CleverNickName
Limit Break Dancing (He/They)
Hey, I did my best to answer honestly and plainly.
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Other than the roll a d20 add a number mechanic, which is now so prevalent that it's very easy to assume that anyone who has played an rpg has probably used it, I like dice pool mechanics where you count successes. Roll a handful of d6s and look for 5's and 6's, or roll a handful of d10s and look for 8 or better - systems like that.
The statistician in me likes a bell curve where you add the dice together, but the improviser in me appreciates the simplicity of the dice pool where you look for target values rather than adding pips - it tends to keep things moving faster IME so long as your dice pools don't get too large.
The statistician in me likes a bell curve where you add the dice together, but the improviser in me appreciates the simplicity of the dice pool where you look for target values rather than adding pips - it tends to keep things moving faster IME so long as your dice pools don't get too large.
Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
Don't Rest Your Head by Evil Hat had an interesting take on it. It's been a number of years, but if I recall you assembled your dice pool and where the dice came from had different colors, including some places where ti was voluntary to add or not. At the end it was the highest ... die? 2 dice? ... highest something, but where the dice came from affected the result. Like if it was from your Exhausted pool you gained another die to that pool, but if it ever had the most dice you fell asleep in the dream forever. Other ones might have changed the result, or drained a pool.
I forget the details, but it made assembling the dice you wanted to roll a balancing act between succeeding, and the bad effects of the optional dice you could add.
I forget the details, but it made assembling the dice you wanted to roll a balancing act between succeeding, and the bad effects of the optional dice you could add.
schneeland
Hero
Broken Compass. It's basically a dice pool system, but with a twist. You attribute + skill + modifiers dice (typically 4 to 6, maximum 9), and dice with the same number/symbol form a success - 2 is a basic success, 3 is a critical success, 4 is an extreme success, 5 an impossible success. Successes are converted 3 to 1, e.g. 3 basic successes make 1 critical success. You can re-roll dice that are not successes, either with a risk (you lose one success when you don't improve) or because you have expertise; if that fails, you can make an all or nothing try.
Enemies and dangers and ranked on the same scale. If you don't hit the right number of successes, even the "smaller" successes still help you to mitigate damage.
What I like about this system:
Enemies and dangers and ranked on the same scale. If you don't hit the right number of successes, even the "smaller" successes still help you to mitigate damage.
What I like about this system:
- it's a "never tell me the odds" system that fits the pulp genre targeted by BC well
- it adds quality of success without noticeable overhead
- expertise feels significant, but since it can be handled in a narrative way, you don't have the overhead of a full talent system
- you get to roll a nice number of dice, but not too many (I feel dice pools get unwieldy once you cross 12 or so dice)
payn
Glory to Marik
Indeed, even just two or three feels good.
