archhealer
SOC-12
Incidently, the D100s, if they roll off the table, break in half and little tiny plastic beads go EVERYWHERE. It's really cool. Almost makes buying one of those useless but interesting die worth it. Almost.
I always wondered . . .
- Thread starter parmasson
- Start date
I can just imagine the emergency room horror stories...
Jeff M. Hopper
SOC-14 1K
I tried using it in a game once, never again. Took to long to wait for it to stop and was too difficult to read the result.
Its a cat toy now.
hirch duckfinder
SOC-13
it makes no difference if the randomisation is flat or curved. what matters is which consequences are attatched to which numbers.
Does anyone remember Top Secret?
I used to love that game. A friend once modeled his home grown Post apocalyptic-techno-Magic game using the TS system as a base. It was a lot of fun.
I prefer a straight role with linear odds when trying to accomplish a task or or an attack. Be it D20 or D00. You have 15% chance of success is easy to understand.
A combination of dice for a result can also be good. Like damage. It tends to attenuate the results limiting the extreme results. In D&D I’d much rather face a 15D6 fireball than a 1D90.
Rover.
This all reminds me of an argument I had with a gaming fried years ago. This guy was a professional Engineer BTW. We need to roll a 1D8, but had no 8 siders. I told him to roll a D10 and re-roll a result of 9 or 10. He refused, cuz that would change the odds.
I used to love that game. A friend once modeled his home grown Post apocalyptic-techno-Magic game using the TS system as a base. It was a lot of fun.
I prefer a straight role with linear odds when trying to accomplish a task or or an attack. Be it D20 or D00. You have 15% chance of success is easy to understand.
A combination of dice for a result can also be good. Like damage. It tends to attenuate the results limiting the extreme results. In D&D I’d much rather face a 15D6 fireball than a 1D90.
Rover.
This all reminds me of an argument I had with a gaming fried years ago. This guy was a professional Engineer BTW. We need to roll a 1D8, but had no 8 siders. I told him to roll a D10 and re-roll a result of 9 or 10. He refused, cuz that would change the odds.
far-trader
SOC-14 10K
Professional Engineer but not a Statistician
I like all the gamers I've played with over the years who were convinced they had lucky dice, that dice dropped on the floor had been cursed, that dice NEEDED warming up, and would then go cold, and so on...
...ME? No never!
Fritz_Brown
Super Moderator
Yahtzee dice are good, too. That way you can get enough for more than one player, with an extra in case any fall behind something.
CT - Long live the LBB!
CT - Long live the LBB!
The Hinterworlds Rambler
SOC-14 5K
Mayfair had an interesting 2d10 setup for thier old DC Heroes game. On a roll of doubles you keep going... these rolls are then applied to some sort of chart my GM would never let me see...
hirch duckfinder
SOC-13
just thinking about it - straight rolls with two possible outcomes (e.g. hit or miss) are well served by being expressed as percentages. All curves do is serve to obscure the real percentage required (and thus maybe favour those who have bothered to calculate it!).
Rolls with mulitple outcomes (e.g. damage) however are good as multi-dicers because it would be unwieldy to tranlate them into percentages; you can use the number shown on the dice as the result rather than have an uneccesary conversion table.
Rolls with mulitple outcomes (e.g. damage) however are good as multi-dicers because it would be unwieldy to tranlate them into percentages; you can use the number shown on the dice as the result rather than have an uneccesary conversion table.
daryen
SOC-14 1K
The advantage of "curved" probability over linear probability is not the base chance. As hirch points out, both can easily be translated into each other, and it is true the curve can obsure the percentage.
The advantage is with the modifiers. With linear probabilities, a "+1" is absolute. Be it 1%, 5%, 10%, or 12.5% it is always the same regardless of the base chance. With "curved" probabilities, the "+1" has different percentage values depending where on the curve the base chance resides. This added capability allows games to institute "diminishing returns" on modifiers.
The advantage is with the modifiers. With linear probabilities, a "+1" is absolute. Be it 1%, 5%, 10%, or 12.5% it is always the same regardless of the base chance. With "curved" probabilities, the "+1" has different percentage values depending where on the curve the base chance resides. This added capability allows games to institute "diminishing returns" on modifiers.
I agree with daryen on this, the variable value modifiers in a non-linear system is one of the features I like about such systems. A +1 can mean about +10% at the peak of a 2D10 distribution but only about +2% near the ends. Of course some may view that as undesirable, prefering a non-variable modifier.
At 3dX+, the value of a shift gets about it's peak power. After that, the wide flat spot {Roughly ((X/2)-1)N to (X/2)N for NdX} starts to diminish the value of a given flat modifier.
As for Chaosium always using %iles in their games: BS! Pendragon and Prince Valiant didn't. (Pendragon uses d20 and d6 rolls; PV uses d2's, IIRC.) Pendragon is since two publiishers on, but started as a Chaosium game.
As for Chaosium always using %iles in their games: BS! Pendragon and Prince Valiant didn't. (Pendragon uses d20 and d6 rolls; PV uses d2's, IIRC.) Pendragon is since two publiishers on, but started as a Chaosium game.
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