The Gaming Den

Before 3E came out, I didn't see many modifiers used in play (maybe range modifiers, but that's about it). That was a bad thing, and 3E's multitude of possible target numbers was a giant leap forward, as I've noted in the past. I don't want to be an armchair theorist -- a lot of the games I play in...

:spit: Seriously?! Yes, I'm a little surprised by that actually. Currently playing BSG (add polyhedrals, lookup on success table), Advanced Fighting Fantasy (2d6 roll under or roll over, modifiers for stuff like disguise or stealth spelt out before we roll, ... actually they do come up fairly often...

I admit that a comparison step is faster than an addition step. If you literally don't have any modifiers at all, and thus never have to do an addition step, you are legitimately faster with roll under. This is, however, a ridiculous niche case. No RPG worthy of the name is going to run an RNG that...

Because THAT IS WHAT THE WORD FUCKING MEANS, ASSHOLE! And shrieking, hurling insults, and behaviour unbecoming of a 9 year old isn't being an asshole? Dude, calm down before you give yourself a hernia, this is just a discussion about how to roll some dice, not a holy war. What do you use a margin o...

Sorry but I don't understand. Maybe I'm just stupid but: Margin of success is nicely handled by just checking if the number you rolled is divisible by 5, 10 or 20 (is the units die a 5 or a 0, if 0, is the tens die even), and it's a whole lot less wonky than roll over. I don't care if they passed b...

Oh dear. Now we're adding critical fumbles to your piece of garbage? Please. Try to wrap your mind around one shitty mechanic at a time. It's all part of the same mechanic. You leapt to a conclusion because you didn't examine what I said. Sorry I didn't express it well enough. It turns out I did ma...

I don't give a shit about what your credentials are. You are claiming that a constant proportion is the same as a constant difference, and that is fucking insane . When you said you couldn't tell if I were bad at maths, you made it clear that you did give a shit. It's not. Imagine for a moment that...

Hmm, I did miss out the divisible by 40 bit. My bad. Still, I take a great deal of interest in dice mechanics, and I'm neither wrong nor trolling. Putting up pictures of Fry, insulting me, and generally being louder doesn't make you correct. As for my maths credentials, I have an undergraduate degre...

That's totally wrong. Checking the one's place for lucky numbers is fine (if extremely weird) for critical threats , but it doesn't do shit for margin of success. A natural 7 appears in the one's place on exactly 1/10th of rolls by definition. So if you want something special to happen on exactly o...

If you're using subtraction in a d% system, you're doing it wrong. Margin of success is nicely handled by just checking if the number you rolled is divisible by 5, 10 or 20 (is the units die a 5 or a 0, if 0, is the tens die even), and it's a whole lot less wonky than roll over. I'm not surprised th...

Chamomile wrote:Because the actual rules of Apocalypse World are that if you succeed on a roll to examine a situation the GM is absolutely required to tell you whether or not there are any bears on the premises, along with any other significant threats.

Ah. Okay, yes, I don't think I care for that rule much.

"What kind of defenses does this guy have" is a question that would probably be asked while trying to break into a dangerous location, yes. In fact it is probably the very first question you would ask. If the players ask what kind of defenses they need to worry about while sneaking into t...

FrankTrollman wrote:I don't think I have to explain how finding out that the DM was called "Mr. Cavern" in another language caught certain peoples' imaginations.

Heh, fair enough!

And the MC can have the warlord call in their trained guard bears because no one mentioned how many guard bears were on hand. Anything undeclared can be declared. Even guard bears. Especially guard bears. Sorry, what does "MC" stand for? I keep thinking master of ceremonies, but that does...

No one here cares about that time you had fun playing MTP. In case you haven't noticed TGD is primarily a forum about designing games and AW's resolution mechanic is badly designed. Your personal anecdotes are irrelevant to this. Probably not, but there was more to my post than just anecdotes. I ha...

MTP doesn't refer to flexibility in creating a scenario or an environment (which is what separates an improvisational medium like TTRPGs from a scripted medium like videogames) - no matter how tight the rules system is, someone still has to decide whether you're attacked by bears or not. MTP refers...

For all the hatred against MTP, it's also the one thing that differentiates an RPG from a board game or a computer game. Also, in the right hands (disclaimer about bad GMs etc.) MTP, where you never need to refer to a rulebook after character gen because you trust your GM to do a good job, can provi...

Risus . 6 pages of free, dead easy rules, half of them optional, and a non-free (but inexpensive and totally worthwhile) 60 page companion containing excellent roleplaying advice, both system and non-system specific. It uses 1-6 d6s, with rules for polyhedrals if you prefer. No toughness rolls, com...

Another issue is variance. Empirically (in RL, that is), all else being equal, the better you are at something, the less variance there will be; and the inverse is true as well. This kind of disconnect between RL experience and the results of a step-die system (i.e., step-up) shatters the immersion...

echoVanguard wrote:Mister Cavern. A mistranslation of "Dungeon Master" from a Czech RPG system.

echo

Thanks -- I'd been wondering about that.

The problem is that the probabilities are completely wonky. The thing where probabilities actually make things better for smaller dice is just a relatively symptom. Variable TNs on d6s with exploding dice cause the increase in TN from needing a 5 to needing a 6 to reduce your hits per die by 50% an...

You can completely fix the problem by saying subtracting 1 before a dice explodes (so a 6 on a d6 is actually 5+reroll, and 6,6,1 would give you 5+5+1 = 11). Probability of rolling 5 With 1d4: roll 4 then 2,3,4 = 1/4 * 3/4 = 0.188 With 1d6: roll 5,6 = 0.333 Probability of rolling 6 With 1d4: roll 4 ...

Is there any way to approximately simulate 2d10 or d10 dicepools without actually using d10s? I really don't care for those dice, they feel unnatural and don't roll properly. I don't know how to simulate 2d10, but you can do dicepools easy enough by having a Unisystem style success table, and roll ...

That's just Frank-speak. It is what it is. He generally knows what he's talking about; and once you sift trough his ranting, you can usually get to the core of what he's talking about. Though, he does often need to be pressed for specifics -- which often don't fully show up until he decides to dedi...

RadiantPhoenix wrote:It's not roll-under that's so bad; it's repeatedly dividing target numbers that's a problem.

I have to admit, I'm not totally sold on that idea.