Which dice method is best?

[interwyrm]

I haven't played a wide variety of rpgs so I will be sure to miss some. The basic methods I've seen are:
1. Roll one die and add a modifer (d20)
2. Roll many dice and keep some of them (L5R)
3. Roll a number of dice and keep all of them. (Star Wars d6)

What is your favorite dice system?

 

[iwatt]

I like the roll one dice and add a modifier because it is simple. Add in the take 10 and take 20 options to remove variabilty for easy actions and it's a winner. I think a d12 would better depict randomness, but the d20 is just to useful do to the direct percentage (5% increments) relationships.

I hate dice pools. They're cumbersome, thy're slow. And I think they didn't work to well. Skill implied bigger dice pools, that coupled with the fact that rolling a 1 equaled -1 succes led to large dice pools not significantly improving the chances to win.

YMMV

 

[Yig]

There is also the % method like in Wharhammer.

 

[MonsterMash]

There is also the % method like in Wharhammer.

I can't remember the dice rolling method for Warhammer, but in Runequest2 or BRP the % system effectively is roll one die (effectively using one die for tens and one for units is one logical entity and a d100 could be subsitutued) to beat a target figure - roll under in BRP systems.

 

[interwyrm]

I like the roll one dice and add a modifier because it is simple. Add in the take 10 and take 20 options to remove variabilty for easy actions and it's a winner. I think a d12 would better depict randomness, but the d20 is just to useful do to the direct percentage (5% increments) relationships.

I hate dice pools. They're cumbersome, thy're slow. And I think they didn't work to well. Skill implied bigger dice pools, that coupled with the fact that rolling a 1 equaled -1 succes led to large dice pools not significantly improving the chances to win.

YMMV

Not all dice pools work on successes. The l5r one was basically you roll your ability+skill and keep the ability, vs either a target number or contested roll.

As for being cumbersome, I remember one D&D 3e session where I had a player who took like 10 minutes to *incorrectly* add all of his modifiers from spells cast on him and his strength and bab and everything. Nobody had problems adding up d10s though as you can easily group them into 5s, 10s, and 15s usually

 

[iwatt]

Not all dice pools work on successes. The l5r one was basically you roll your ability+skill and keep the ability, vs either a target number or contested roll.

As for being cumbersome, I remember one D&D 3e session where I had a player who took like 10 minutes to *incorrectly* add all of his modifiers from spells cast on him and his strength and bab and everything. Nobody had problems adding up d10s though as you can easily group them into 5s, 10s, and 15s usually

Actually, I ahven't played with too many alternate dice methods. I played once with the d6 SW, but it's kind of fuzzy cause it was a long time ago and the DM was not very good at explaining it anyhow.

Now the storyteller system just sucked. IMO of course. I think they revamped it, but when I used to play I always urged the GM to accept that I would autosucceed since I had enough dice to equal the succes number (i.e 8 dice and the success number was an 8). Because if I didn't do this I would always botch the rolls

About the cumbersome method of 3E: that is an artifact of the thousand modifiers avaialbale to PCs. The concept was quite simple: the modifier should be your skill (based on levels) and your raw natural ability (ability modifiers). But it quickly snowballed to adding more and more modifiers. But the basic premise is quite simple and fast.

 

[tarchon]

To roll the dice and hear the weeping of their women and children.

 

[The_Gneech]

I prefer "roll 3d6 + modifiers," a la GURPS or HERO. Keeps those rolls from being so all-over-the-place.

-The Gneech

 

[interwyrm]

I prefer "roll 3d6 + modifiers," a la GURPS or HERO. Keeps those rolls from being so all-over-the-place.

-The Gneech

I've never played it, but that sounds preferable to rolling a d20. I like having probability curves instead of probability lines.

 

[Bastoche]

I like the simplicity of the 1 die + modifier. However, I absolutly hate the statistical distribution it induces. That is, the probability to score an automatic hit (20) is equal to the probability of an automatic failure (1). Plus, in 3E, the probability to score a critical hit is about half the probability to have an automatic failure, making the auto-miss vs critical hit system inherently flawed at very high levels. I'd rather have no crits and no "amazing sucess" like the skill check than the actual system. Well, in fact, the higher the DC you beat, the better the skill execution, so critical hits could be something like "if you beat the AC by X and more, you score a critical hit" and no critical miss (since critical miss aren't actually critical, they're just a miss...).