Manageable Dice Pools?
Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2015 1:21 am
Lately I've been pondering success-counting dice pool systems like WoD and Shadowrun. Granted, I don't have a ton of experience with these systems at the table, because I find them cumbersome and slow, because they often involve what-the-fuckhuge handfuls of dice that need to be separated into hits, misses, double-misses and super-hits.
Particularly, I've been looking at the available material for Exalted 3, which I thought was going to be cleaned up and streamlined, but does not appear to have any better at all.
My understanding of how these systems work is thus:
*GM sets a target number, which is the minimum result each dice must show in order to be a "success" or "hit".
*Sometimes, a task requires more than one "hit" to succeed.
*Die pools are made up of dice from attributes, dice from skills, and dice from extraneous factors like environment, circumstances and SFX (powers, spells, disciplines, implants, etc.).
*It occurs to me that I could be making a mental goulash of Shadowrun and WoD.
Anyway, I had some untested ideas for streamlining a dice pool system, mostly in regards to limiting the sources that dice come from, and cutting the number of operations for things like combat resolution. From here on out, I'm going to be using Shadowrun terminology because I like it better.
Dice Pools
Dice pools are made up solely of attributes, which range from 1 - 5(ish). Skills actually do something else, which I'll get to in a minute.
I'm pondering whether to use traditional-type attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Buoyancy, etc.) or to use action-type attributes (Combat, Magic, Athletics, Subterfuge, etc.).
Threshold
Success or failure is determined by a Threshold that the GM assigns each task. Threshold is the minimum number of hits needed to achieve success. These range from 1 - 5, with 1 being an average task for an average person, and 5 being a task of epic proportions.
*No botches. A 1 is a miss, but does not subtract from successes.
*Dice showing 0/00 still count as two successes.
*Rolling over the threshold counts as a critical success and grants extra benefits, rolling just below the threshold is success with a cost, to reflect actual degrees of success.
Target Number
Generally, dice showing 6+ (d10) = Hit. GM never touches target numbers, these are player-facing statistics.
What skills do, instead of adding to the number of dice rolled, actually lower the target number for each die to be considered a hit. Skills are rated by ranks (novice, journeyman, expert, master), with each one decreasing the base target number by 1.
So Sneaky Pete the sneakthief has a master rank in the sneak skill, while Slow Charlie the Inadvertent Can Kicker has no rank. This means that when Charlie rolls a sneak check, any dice showing a 6+ is a hit, but when Pete rolls a sneak check, any dice showing 3+ is a hit.
Special Effects
SFX like spells and powers and such don't really add to dice pools. Instead, they either DO STUFF like discreet effects, or they grant automatic hits to certain rolls.
So Super Strength doesn't mean that you get a bunch more strength dice to roll, it just means that if you absolutely, positively have to punch down a wall, you already have a number of hits in the bank before even rolling.
I don't have a specific setting or game in mind for this yet, though I'm leaning toward Dresden Files-esque urban fantasy. Are there any games that already use some of these ideas, or is there a fatal flaw that I'm missing that makes this whole thing a complete nonstarter?
Particularly, I've been looking at the available material for Exalted 3, which I thought was going to be cleaned up and streamlined, but does not appear to have any better at all.
My understanding of how these systems work is thus:
*GM sets a target number, which is the minimum result each dice must show in order to be a "success" or "hit".
*Sometimes, a task requires more than one "hit" to succeed.
*Die pools are made up of dice from attributes, dice from skills, and dice from extraneous factors like environment, circumstances and SFX (powers, spells, disciplines, implants, etc.).
*It occurs to me that I could be making a mental goulash of Shadowrun and WoD.
Anyway, I had some untested ideas for streamlining a dice pool system, mostly in regards to limiting the sources that dice come from, and cutting the number of operations for things like combat resolution. From here on out, I'm going to be using Shadowrun terminology because I like it better.
Dice Pools
Dice pools are made up solely of attributes, which range from 1 - 5(ish). Skills actually do something else, which I'll get to in a minute.
I'm pondering whether to use traditional-type attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Buoyancy, etc.) or to use action-type attributes (Combat, Magic, Athletics, Subterfuge, etc.).
Threshold
Success or failure is determined by a Threshold that the GM assigns each task. Threshold is the minimum number of hits needed to achieve success. These range from 1 - 5, with 1 being an average task for an average person, and 5 being a task of epic proportions.
*No botches. A 1 is a miss, but does not subtract from successes.
*Dice showing 0/00 still count as two successes.
*Rolling over the threshold counts as a critical success and grants extra benefits, rolling just below the threshold is success with a cost, to reflect actual degrees of success.
Target Number
Generally, dice showing 6+ (d10) = Hit. GM never touches target numbers, these are player-facing statistics.
What skills do, instead of adding to the number of dice rolled, actually lower the target number for each die to be considered a hit. Skills are rated by ranks (novice, journeyman, expert, master), with each one decreasing the base target number by 1.
So Sneaky Pete the sneakthief has a master rank in the sneak skill, while Slow Charlie the Inadvertent Can Kicker has no rank. This means that when Charlie rolls a sneak check, any dice showing a 6+ is a hit, but when Pete rolls a sneak check, any dice showing 3+ is a hit.
Special Effects
SFX like spells and powers and such don't really add to dice pools. Instead, they either DO STUFF like discreet effects, or they grant automatic hits to certain rolls.
So Super Strength doesn't mean that you get a bunch more strength dice to roll, it just means that if you absolutely, positively have to punch down a wall, you already have a number of hits in the bank before even rolling.
I don't have a specific setting or game in mind for this yet, though I'm leaning toward Dresden Files-esque urban fantasy. Are there any games that already use some of these ideas, or is there a fatal flaw that I'm missing that makes this whole thing a complete nonstarter?