Fw: [Design] Why random rolls? d4-d4

[Kyle Schuant]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Kyle Schuant 
To: Curufea 
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2005 10:30 AM
Subject: Re: [Design] Why random rolls? d4-d4


Everyone says that who hasn't read or played it;)

I stole the add-subtract dice mechanic from Masterbook (d10+d10, compared to a table to get -9 to +9, essentially d10-d10 in effect), not from Fudge. Fudge has 4dF, the "dF" being a d6 marked twice each with +1, -1, and 0. So that results range from -4 to +4, with a 1 in 3^4 = 1 in 81 chance of the +4 result. This compares to d4-d4, with a range of -3 to +3, and a 1 in 16 chance of the top result of +3. So, compared to Fudge, d4-d4 has a narrower range of results, and the extreme results are more likely. Also it has dice players can get from their stores a lot more easily:)

    The descriptors for ability levels I stole from Over the Edge, just as Fudge stole them. Initially I had a percentile system. Then one day before a one-off game sesssion with pre-gens, I thought it'd be fun to have the percentages, but have them concealed from the players. So for each 20% band I had a descriptor, Poor/Fair/Good/Excellent/Outstanding. The reasoning was that people don't know their abilities to within one percentage point; the variation from random effects is greater than the variation of abilities within a broad band. That is, abilities are actually for example 73%+/-10%. On a really good day you may score 83% in that Math test, on a really bad day, 63%. You'll never score 2%, or 100%, and you'll usually score somewhere around 73%. But you're not going to do enough tests to ever find that out. So in practice people's abilities on personnel files are rated as "good" or whatever. The particular game I developed this for was an espionage game, and I wanted their character sheets to look like personnel files to give them an extra feeling of "realism." 
    Players still rolled percentile dice to resolve actions, but they didn't know their success or failure until I as GM told them.
    Then after that session I thought, well, if you're not using the percentages, just words, why have the percentages at all? Then I remembered Masterbook, and their system of attribute+skill + d10-d10; this was compared to another character's score (in Opposed tests, like arm wrestling)) or a Difficulty Number (in Unopposed tests, like lifting heavy stuff). The result being that performances, rather than success/failure, gave a result which would fail or succeed, but fail or succeed by certain _degrees_, and would hover around the person's basic ability level. Because let's face it, the person who is Excellent doesn't fail 21-40% of the time. They usually perform with Excellence, sometimes just Good, and sometimes Outstanding. Rarely they might do extremely well or extremely badly. 
    The add-subtract dice gave me that result. 
    When using descriptors, you don't want to have more than about eleven, with not more than five or so commonly used, since English doesn't provide enough which are clearly different. Is "great" better or worse than "awesome?" So the -3 to +3 range, of seven possible results, was in between that 5 and 11. I really wanted to use d6-d6, but the result range of -5 to +5 took it "off the chart" too often. Plus, it's nice to use dice that are neglected. 

Cheers,
Kyle
Better Mousetrap Games
home of d4-d4 and other stuff
http://www.rpgnow.com/default.php?manufacturers_id=339

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Curufea 
  To: design at mimesisrpg.com 
  Sent: Monday, October 17, 2005 9:45 AM
  Subject: Re: [Design] Why random rolls?


  > > I think you mean, "Kyle's d4-d4 system.":)
  > Er yes. I'm not dyslexic, honestly.

  Sounds almost exactly like Fudge Dice to me.



  Peter Cobcroft
  curufea at yahoo.com
  Main: http://www.curufea.com/



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