Quote from: blakkieLast I checked the highest my d10 goes is "10". You have some of those Spinal Tap d10s that go up to "11"?  :rimshot:

For example nWoD using a fixed TN 8.  So any die roll 7 and under fails, any 8s, 9s, or 10s are successes.

SR3 uses d6s and can have TNs that are above 6. However what they do is when you roll a 6 you then reroll adding six to the die roll.  For TNs 13 to 18 you must have rolled at least back to back 6s and then the third roll of that die +12 must be enough to break the TN.  One odd conciquence of this is that TN 6 and 7, 12 and 13, etc. are equally difficult because you can't roll a zero on a d6. It also has some other issues.

Huh? I was taliking about hitting numbers by adding d10+your ability (originally). Abilities would go from 7 to 10. TN from 12 (10 still has to roll a 2... 7 has to roll a 5) to 16 (7 can do it if he rolls a 9... 10 has to roll a 6).

Nobody has to roll a number not on the dice.

I thought you meant total not over 10... which would have indicated roll-under. Unless I nixed abilities or made abilities correspond with pool size.

Right?

Quote from: James McMurraySome people I've talked with do the same thing with SR3 exploding dice that Hackmaster does with penetration damage (which is effectively exploding dice). Each exploder is actually d6 - 1. So if you roll 6 + 6 + 2 you get 6 + 5 + 1, for a total of 12. It gets around the TN 6-7 issue and mathematically just means that the average result is 4 instead of 3.5. I've never used it myself but they seemed to enjoy it.

If you're going with floating TN and exploding dice it might be worth considering. The interesting thing is that no matter what the die used, the end result is to just add 0.5 to the normal average for that die. I haven't done the math for it, I'm just taking the word of the multiple guys with engineering degrees that worked on the system for Hackmaster.

Huh... we're talking additive dicepools now, right. Like add all the dice? Exploders sound pretty cool... if additive was what I was doing (and I may just do it later).

Exploding with consecutive dice minus one... whu? I mean, I get it, but...

Another interesting dice pool mechanic is Legend of the Five Rings. you have a skill rated 1 to 10 (rarely over 6) and a trait rated one to ten (rarely over 4). You roll a number of dice equal to your skill plus trait (max ten). You keep a number of dice equal to your trait. If you would roll more than ten dice, each bonus die is instead another die you keep. If you get badass enough to roll keep more than ten dice each extra kept die would instead be +5.  The dice explode and you total them up to try and reach a target number.

It sounds unwieldy but that's mostly because I suck at explaining it. In practice it's pretty smooth.A few examples:

Athletics 3 + Strength 4: roll 7 dice and keep the four highest.
Katana 7 + Agility 5: roll ten dice and keep the 7 highest (because you would roll more than ten).

Before you roll you can make "raises." Each raise increases the target by 5 and gives a bonus effect: increased damage, extra attacks, more healing with the medicine skill, etc.

Quote from: beejazzHuh? I was taliking about hitting numbers by adding d10+your ability (originally).

Abilities would go from 7 to 10. TN from 12 (10 still has to roll a 2... 7 has to roll a 5) to 16 (7 can do it if he rolls a 9... 10 has to roll a 6).

So I did understand correctly what your initial plan was. Yup, that be some pure freaking madness. Especially given that you are always adding at least 7 but never more than 10.

Think about it. You roll 10 dice and then you add 7 to each number. That'd be a guranteed 10 additions every time you roll. :duh: If I sent out a game like that I'd half expect players to show up at my house to kick the shit out of me....and I'd agree they would be right to. :hitrock:

Quote from: beejazzHuh... we're talking additive dicepools now, right. Like add all the dice? Exploders sound pretty cool... if additive was what I was doing (and I may just do it later).

Only each particular die is additive. So if you roll 3 dice of 5, 3, and (6 + 6 + 4) you'd have totals of 3, 5, and 16. If your target number is 8 you got one success. If it was 4 you got two successes.

QuoteExploding with consecutive dice minus one... whu? I mean, I get it, but...

It's just a way to even out the available numbers so you don't have dice that roll 1-5, 7-11, 13-17, etc. It makes target numbers of 6 different than target numbers of 7. When used for damage in Hackmaster it means you can get more than one die worth of damage without skipping possible damage values, and has the beneficial side effect of making the math for averages quicker.

Quote from: blakkieSo I did understand correctly what your initial plan was. Yup, that be some pure freaking madness. Especially given that you are always adding at least 7 but never more than 10.

Think about it. You roll 10 dice and then you add 7 to each number. That'd be up to 10 additions every time you roll. :duh: If I sent out a game like that I'd half expect players to show up at my house to kick the shit out of me....and I'd agree they would be right to. :hitrock:

That's why I was only using five dice and not ten.
Still, it might be a little too much even then, which is why I was considering the...

Abilities 2-5.
6d6 pool.
Roll under ability.
Number of successes determined by task.

Rolls to hit in combat would require a number of successes equal to the opponent's Reflex.

And... stuff.

Anyway, that's pretty self-evident TNs you read straight off the dice. It's an okay starting pool (though it could expand... it probably wouldn't go past 10d6)... stuff.

Quote from: James McMurrayAnother interesting dice pool mechanic is Legend of the Five Rings. you have a skill rated 1 to 10 (rarely over 6) and a trait rated one to ten (rarely over 4). You roll a number of dice equal to your skill plus trait (max ten). You keep a number of dice equal to your trait. If you would roll more than ten dice, each bonus die is instead another die you keep. If you get badass enough to roll keep more than ten dice each extra kept die would instead be +5.  The dice explode and you total them up to try and reach a target number.

It sounds unwieldy but that's mostly because I suck at explaining it. In practice it's pretty smooth.A few examples:

Athletics 3 + Strength 4: roll 7 dice and keep the four highest.
Katana 7 + Agility 5: roll ten dice and keep the 7 highest (because you would roll more than ten).

Before you roll you can make "raises." Each raise increases the target by 5 and gives a bonus effect: increased damage, extra attacks, more healing with the medicine skill, etc.

Sounds okay... like it would work.
You're right though that it looks crazy on paper.

Quote from: beejazzThat's why I was only using five dice and not ten.

So what was this about?

Quote from: beejazz, first post of threadthough generally only 5d10... a max of around 10d10

And yes, even with 5 dice it is truely innane.

QuoteAbilities 2-5.
6d6 pool.
Roll under ability.
Number of successes determined by task.

That's gettig better, though i'm not sure about having the pool size set. It could work if you don't want much granularity in differentiation between characters. Would have to look at that closer, because those steps between TNs tend to be doosies.

You'd likely want to dress up the "Abilities" with names and just associate them with TN numbers.  Because for the majority of people if you tell them that their Ability going from 3 to 2 is a good thing their heads are likely to implode.

For example Burning Wheel does something similar, their character stats are Black/Grey/White that corrospond to TN 4/3/2.  However on top of the "shade" each stat also has a value of 1 to 10 that represents the number of dice rolled.  Shade is just for differentiating between the larger stratas of characters of normal, heroic, and epic.

Quote from: blakkieThat's gettig better, though i'm not sure about having the pool size set. It could work if you don't want much granularity in differentiation between characters. Would have to look at that closer, because those steps between TNs tend to be doosies.

Nah... pool size aint set. You can buy extra dice as you progress.
Weapons also have kind of variable pools. Your average pocketknife might only have one die. A ray gun might have ten or twelve.

QuoteYou'd likely want to dress up the "Abilities" with names and just associate them with TN numbers.  Because for the majority of people if you tell them that their Ability going from 3 to 2 is a good thing their heads are likely to implode.

Nah... high abilities are good. If you've got a five, you're rolling for five or less. That means five of six faces are good things for you. If, on the other hand, you have two...

Quote from: beejazzNah... high abilities are good. If you've got a five, you're rolling for five or less. That means five of six faces are good things for you. If, on the other hand, you have two...

Oh right, you're rolling below.

Quote from: blakkieOh right, you're rolling below.

"Low stats are a good thing" has always been a little creepy to me.
Of course, so has rolling low... but here I might try it.

Although... low ability scores being called "hindrance level" or something like that with the flavor text "The extraordinary is only natural; it is we who hinder ourselves." might work okay.

Quote from: beejazzSounds okay... like it would work.
You're right though that it looks crazy on paper.

Yeah. Trust me, it works great in practice. The shortcomings it has are mostly due to my inability to describe it both simply and succinctly.

Nah, nah... it makes sense though.
The whole x stat determines dice while y stat determines number of successes.

The carrying over is a little wierd, but sensible. You don't want too many dice in a pool.

Quote from: beejazz"Low stats are a good thing" has always been a little creepy to me.
Of course, so has rolling low... but here I might try it.

Of the two it's the lesser of evils I think.

QuoteAlthough... low ability scores being called "hindrance level" or something like that with the flavor text "The extraordinary is only natural; it is we who hinder ourselves." might work okay.

I think it's best just to totally separate the number from the magnitude. For better or worse people that aren't full on engineers used to working with theoretical numbers that flip and flop magnitudes and directions like that will just seem to have a hard time groking stuff like. Understandable really. *shrug*

Okay... I know how to calculate average successes for a 6d6 roll under dicepool. Ability score 2 should succeed 2 out of six times. So that means that the average number of successes is two. Add more dice and you get an average x/6 higher (where x is the ability).

But how do I calculate the likelihood of other numbers of successes and such? How do I calculate (for example) how often someone with ability score 3 rolls 6 successes?