Cortex Plus/Prime games. They "seem" more complicated than they are.

Quote from: DiscoSoup;963780Cortex Plus/Prime games. They "seem" more complicated than they are.

Cheers for that. I've not read much about the Cortex system, but the new Kickstarter looks interesting.

I generally despise dice pool games. There are some, however that are much worse than others; and some that are a lot less horrible than others. A few are even tolerable.  Heroes of Ogre Gate is pretty tolerable, to name one example I recently reviewed.

Quote from: DiscoSoup;963780Cortex Plus/Prime games. They "seem" more complicated than they are.

Quote from: The Exploited.;963781Cheers for that. I've not read much about the Cortex system, but the new Kickstarter looks interesting.

You have different traits. For each trait you may have one or more abilities represented as dice which you can add to your pool. A common one is Distinctions, which kind of works like Fate Aspects, though you're not really required to have a High Concept or Trouble or what have you, they are descriptive things of stuff you can do or stuff you know or who you are. You can almost always add a Distinction dice to your pool, using a d8 if it benefits you or a d4 if it works against you, though you get a plot point for deliberately rolling at a disadvantage. In some variants if you don't have an appropriate Distinction, you can still roll a d6.

In some games there are Affiliations (how well you play with others) in others Attributes mainly Physical, Mental and Social. Each one has a die ranging usually from d6 to d10. If you're using Affilations, you might get a die based on if you are working solo, with a buddy or on a team. Personally I replaced this with a variation of Fate Accelerated Approaches, which kind of work like Ability Scores, sort of.

There are also skills and Specialties. In Marvel Heroic, Specialties ranged from d8-d12. Firefly skills ranged from d6-d12 with an additional d6 if you had a specialized sub-skill.

Then there's Signature Items/Power Sets which I see as pretty much the same thing only Items are stuff and can be taken away or damaged. A Power Set is a broad term and can actually refer to super powers with specific abilities (usually up to 3) that are represented by dice. Or it could represent specialized weapons and equipment/gear which you use on a regular basis. Each dice in a Power Set/Item Set is called an Asset. You might also carry regular assets which would only have one dice.

As for how it works. Say you are going with Distinctions, Attributes, Skills and a Signature Item. You can add a die to your pool for each of those traits, so four dice. Say a d8, d10, d8 and d6. You roll those dice and then add two to get your Total. Normally, you would pick your highest two. However, in some variations you keep a third dice as your effect die. So say your d8 rolls a 6, your d10 a 7, your other d8 a 5 and your d6 a 3. It would make sense to add the 6 and 7, but you might choose to add the 6 and 5 so you can keep the d10 as an effect die. Effect dice aside, you roll the pool add two and compare it to an opposed roll or possibly a Difficulty Class.

The effect die is for stuff like Complications/Stress and/or Trauma. Stuff rated by a die type in lieu of using hit points. It's not a bad system. It does have a learning curve, but once you work it out it becomes really easy because there isn't a lot of rules. However, I'm not trying to sell you on the system so much as trying to explain things in a way which is hopefully understandable and which may or may not be inspiring. I love the system myself, and bar none is the best system for forum based Play by Post I have ever used. For face to face game, I'd probably use it for one shots since I can teach anyone to play in minutes, but I'd rather use something more D&Dish for a long term game.

Quote from: The Exploited.;963394However, I'd be interested in your thoughts for games that implement a die pool system that works really well.

Open D6 (West End Games classic system) works pretty well.

I may take some wounds from hurling spears, axes, and dice... but I think... dare I say it...  the best dice-pool system I've played in recent years has been FFG's Star Wars.

Low stat/skill values keep the curve at a really nice scale. Plus the addition of Advantage/Despair mechanics allow for a whole lot of mechanical options (both narrative and purely mechanical). It's probably the one system where Narrativist heathen GM's and Simulationists Nerdzerkers can really make out without worrying about crossing party-lines.

Would be very interesting to try in new settings outside of Star Wars. Would take a little bit of translation, but it could easily be done. The Force rules are shockingly good and could make pretty interesting spellcaster rules alone)

Quote from: The Exploited.;963462But I do like my bit of swashbuckling so I'll definitely check 7th Sea out. Is that the old or new version? Thanks!

I haven't played 7th Sea 2e.

1e was fun with creative mechanics, but has its issues. I have no idea if 2e cleared up the issues or just created more problems.

Quote from: CRKrueger;963587Which version of L5R do you like the best?

1e by a massive margin.

It's fast, deadly and detailed enough, but not the canon overkill that happened in later editions.

Quote from: RPGPundit;964198I generally despise dice pool games. There are some, however that are much worse than others; and some that are a lot less horrible than others. A few are even tolerable.  Heroes of Ogre Gate is pretty tolerable, to name one example I recently reviewed.

I generally like the 'idea' of Dice Pools as they give you a bit more to work with then a simple pass or fail. However, many are badly implemented. Got that review handy mate? Ta!

Quote from: Krimson;964208The effect die is for stuff like Complications/Stress and/or Trauma. Stuff rated by a die type in lieu of using hit points. It's not a bad system. It does have a learning curve, but once you work it out it becomes really easy because there isn't a lot of rules. However, I'm not trying to sell you on the system so much as trying to explain things in a way which is hopefully understandable and which may or may not be inspiring. I love the system myself, and bar none is the best system for forum based Play by Post I have ever used. For face to face game, I'd probably use it for one shots since I can teach anyone to play in minutes, but I'd rather use something more D&Dish for a long term game.

Thanks for the detailed answer! I like the sound of that... I'm quite happy to use simple (ish) mechanics for campaigns. I tend to stay away from D&D mainly because I'm not mad on the concepts of levels as they can get pretty out of hand if you're not careful. That said, I recently bought Beyond the Wall and I really like their common sense approach to OSG. Good game and an enjoyable read overall.

Quote from: tenbones;964229Open D6 (West End Games classic system) works pretty well.

I may take some wounds from hurling spears, axes, and dice... but I think... dare I say it...  the best dice-pool system I've played in recent years has been FFG's Star Wars.

Low stat/skill values keep the curve at a really nice scale. Plus the addition of Advantage/Despair mechanics allow for a whole lot of mechanical options (both narrative and purely mechanical). It's probably the one system where Narrativist heathen GM's and Simulationists Nerdzerkers can really make out without worrying about crossing party-lines.

Would be very interesting to try in new settings outside of Star Wars. Would take a little bit of translation, but it could easily be done. The Force rules are shockingly good and could make pretty interesting spellcaster rules alone)

I remember the old Star Wars game, it was a lot of fun. Easy to use if I remember correctly... But I never actually GM'd it so I was'nt as familliar with the rules. But I see D6 is free on drivethru I must grab it.

Thanks!

Quote from: The Exploited.;964282I generally like the 'idea' of Dice Pools as they give you a bit more to work with then a simple pass or fail. However, many are badly implemented. Got that review handy mate? Ta!

You can find it here.

For those that dislike pools (or even for those that like them), do you prefer to add up sums (Cortex Classic, D6 and, IIRC, L5R) or do you prefer counting hits/successes (WoD/Exalted, Shadowrun, and MYZ/Coriolis)? How do they feel different in play?

I'm looking right now at Coriolis the Third Horizon. I bought the pdf and then the hardcopy (cuz I like hardcopies when the books are pretty) last month, and I've spent most of my time on the setting chapters so far. Soon I'm going to give the mechanics of the game a more critical eye. I hope I like them, because I really like the setting.

The original dice pool system, Ghostbusters RPG, still holds a light to most of them because it's just so simple to play with. While it became the basis of WEGs Star Wars and other games, all these lost some of the elegance of the original by virtue of adding a bit more complexity.

I never found the WoD games too difficult to handle, but they needed to be interpreted by individual groups in order to play with (which is a way of saying that they are clunky!). I found Shadowrun too fiddly, but in fact this is more to do with the presentation of character traits than the actual mechanics.

Quote from: RPGPundit;964580You can find it here.

Thanks for that mate.

Quote from: The Exploited.;964619Thanks for that mate.

No problem. It is a very good model for a doing a dice-pool system with the minimum of crapulence, if you're dead-set on going with a dice pool.