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Author Topic: Wuxia Special Dice ?!?  (Read 283 times)

Ghost Whistler
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Wuxia Special Dice ?!?
« on: October 02, 2012, 04:50:16 AM »
As an amateur game design wannabe, coming up with an idea for special dice is probably suicide. But I'm working on something that might be fun so, bollocks.

Ok this idea revolves around a system that in some fashion uses Attribute + Skill to create a total (each rated out of 5, for now at least, scale may require adjustment, but I don't like huge ranges) with which the dice interact.

Those dice are 1d6, normal, and a d8, not normal. The d8 rolls 1-6, the 7 result is considered 'yin' and the 8 'yang', generally negative and positive respectively. This is the 'Fortune die' (dF).

Now there's two ways to do this: either roll the dice add the numbers and add to the stat total to compare to a difficulty level. But that has scale problems I think.

Or roll dF-d6 and apply, fudge style, to the stat total and compare to difficulty.

The issue is what numbers do the yin/yang result represent, if any, and what results do they confer as being unique results. It would be easy to say yin= critical failure and yang= critical success, or some kind of modification to the final outcome accordingly: if you succeed with a yin you get a sting in the tail, conversely if you fail with a yang you get some kind of advantage. A bit like the WFRP3 boons/banes thing.

Now the reason that's a problem is that in the heat of play having to devise the particulars of the sting in the tail/some kind of advantage are a pain in the arse. This has always been my problem with critical results; in combat when you can roll on a table to determine how gory your sword hit was that's fine. But when you're rolling to drive a car, fly a spaceship, cook some toast, it all gets a bit tiresome having to constantly prepare or think on the spot what might happen. Is there a better answer?
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