What's your favorite dice system?

[Fenris-77]

My favorite design for a die rolling system in the one in REIGN, where you roll handfuls of d10s and the results are interpreted for both height and width. Technically that's the One Roll Engine I guess. Anyway, it's superb. I don't use it much, but I love the design.

 

[Sir Brennen]

There was a horror game I playtested years ago. (Unfortunately, it and the company have since evaporated, as they were trying to create a new edition of a game that they didn't have the rights to). It did, however, have a pretty solid resolution mechanic.

It used a percentile system, with the following tweaks:

Target numbers were a combination of attribute + skill (e.g., Dexterity of 30 + Shooting 20 = 50%, with possible modifiers)

Damage was very simple - d10 for small melee weapons (e.g., a knife), 2d10 for medium melee (sword) or small firearms (pistols), 3d10 for large melee weapons (two-handed sword) or large firearms (rifles). (Or you could just say 5 damage for each die for faster combat.)

To resolve tasks, it was roll under, but a black-jack style system where you want to roll as high as possible without going over. Every increment of 25 added a level of success (or die of damage).

A roll of doubles (11, 22, 33 etc.) was a critical success or failure, depending on if you rolled over your target number or not. Usually this added another level of success or doubled your damage.

For example, if you have a 63% total (attribute + skill) in Shooting and using a handgun (2d10 damage), a roll of 1-24 is a Success, a roll over 25 added +1d10 to damage, a roll over 50 added another +1d10, but a roll over 63 was a missed attack. A roll of 55 would double the damage dice, including the added die for levels of success: 8d10. In a game where human stats range from 30 to 80 (IIRC, your Stamina attribute was used for "hit points"), it was fairly lethal.

For skill checks, for things like knowing occult lore about a monster or doing research, each success level would give more information.

In general, I like percentage dice rolls, but especially with nice, playable mechanics built into the rolls. The Critical mechanic for this game, for instance, is much easier than Call of Cthulhu's, where it's 20% of your current score, meaning it required math and could change round to round. That's one I didn't like about the CoC system.

 

[CarlZog]

Alternity. Roll less than the relevant skill on 1d20 "control die" modified (+/-) by a "situation die", which is another polyhedral 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 1d12 , another d20, or no second die at all.. The choice of situation die and whether it's added or subtracted creates a range of situation difficulties from 1d20-1d20 for very easy to 1d20+1d20 for very hard. How far below the skill you roll determines the degree of sucess.

 

[GMMichael]

Also a fan of using die types as prowess. As in, being better at something means you use the d6 instead of the d4. I first saw that in Savage Worlds. It means you get to feel even cooler when you finally get to roll the d12, and fewer dice collect dust. There's probably someone to agree with in this thread, but the Search function isn't working with me right now...

. . . That means that a +/-1 makes a much larger difference than it would in the flatter d20 distribution. Move from needing an 11+ to a 10+ and that's over a +2 bonus in standard d20 rolling. Which makes pluses a lot more valuable and encourages min-maxing.

Pro: 4d6 - 4 would have been great for Bounded Accuracy, by turning tiny bonuses into big rewards.
Pro: 4d6 - 4 uses a handful of dice that most players probably already know how to use for ability score generation.
Con: subtraction.
Con: attack roll resolution is already clunky. 4d6 - 4 would not speed things up.
Con: Sacred Cow in jeopardy!

 

[Rogerd1]

No dice, I prefer narrative based systems.

 

[Li Shenron]

d20 the best so far but it is not flawless: it actually has too much swing for skill checks, which causes untrained characters to do better than trained characters too often (it is almost the norm instead of being an exception).

The d20 dice itself is the coolest, but I'd be interested in trying out a system centered on the d12 instead to achieve a smaller swing. Basically the same as d20 system but rearranged to be based around always rolling d12 for resolutions. Obviously the general bonuses and penalties would need to shrink a bit so as not to become relatively huge to the base range of dice results. The d12 dice would also have an interesting nice extra vibe because of its maximum being 10+2, that could lead to say that "10 is when you do everything perfectly according to your purpose, while 11 or 12 is when you exceed even your own purpose".

 

[Haiku Elvis]

No dice, I prefer narrative based systems.

Hey everyone look a heretic, lets burn them! (but only if we roll high enough on our start fire ability checks)

 

[Rogerd1]

Hey everyone look a heretic, lets burn them! (but only if we roll high enough on our start fire ability checks)

I have been brainstorming of ways of play 5e narratively too, can I be even more heretical?
Should I see myself out or will torches and pitchforks be incoming?

 

[kenada]

2d6+modifier, especially the PbtA difficulty range

My homebrew system uses it for skill checks to reduce the swinginess of them, but it’s surprisingly versatile. I switched my events table to it last night, and with just an increase in the modifier for the danger level, it naturally shifts the distribution of results towards more direct conflicts (i.e., encounters), which eliminated the need for a separate “high alert” table. I might even be able to get away with the same core table for wilderness events.

Combat stuff is still d20-based. It’s supposed to be swingy and compatible (more or less) with B/X D&D. d20 stuff is neat, but I like the mileage I’ve gotten out of 2d6.

 

[Aldarc]

2d6+modifier, especially the PbtA difficulty range

My homebrew system uses it for skill checks to reduce the swinginess of them, but it’s surprisingly versatile. I switched my events table to it last night, and with just an increase in the modifier for the danger level, it naturally shifts the distribution of results towards more direct conflicts (i.e., encounters), which eliminated the need for a separate “high alert” table. I might even be able to get away with the same core table for wilderness events.

Combat stuff is still d20-based. It’s supposed to be swingy and compatible (more or less) with B/X D&D. d20 stuff is neat, but I like the mileage I’ve gotten out of 2d6.

I would be curious what you think of the modified PbtA system in Ironsworn. It's 1d6+Mod rolled against two d10s. Failure is when the 1d6+Mod is less than either d10 result. A Weak Hit is when the 1d6+Mod is less than one d10 but higher than one d10. A Strong Hit is when the 1d6+Mod is greater than both d10 results.