Has anybody tried a 2d10 instead of 1d20?

Quote from: Chris24601;1144874Swingy feels good in combat; like anything can happen; and as long as combat is not resolved by a single die roll (lacking a death spiral also helps in this regard), multiple rolls over multiple rounds will get you to a bell curve in terms of combat results anyway... i.e. do you win without taking damage (upper end of bell curve), win but take some damage (middle of the bell-curve), lose (lower end of bell curve).

Where the single die causes issues is performing things where single checks are used to resolve them and, even more critically, tasks requiring multiple checks to complete where any failed check leads to disaster (ex. climbing rules in 3e if you can't automatically succeed on the checks).

Mechanics like Take-10, Min-10 (treat roll of 1-9 as 10), advantage, middle roll (roll three dice and use middle result) or just rewriting the mechanics so that single failures with multiple checks needed no longer result in disaster can all help make results more regular.

In my own system mastery of a skill isn't so much a huge bonus, but gaining both a permanent Min-10 and Advantage for the skill which allows for a steady level of top end performance even under harsh conditions. Without those you might get lucky and do as well as a master, but their odds are vastly better of producing top end results.

That's why I use a different mechanic, involving D%, for tasks where one roll decides everything. For the back and forth of an action scene, with several characters and foes resolving actions at once (usually) I stuck with the D20.

My RPG gaming has also run out of steam. The irony is that I was in the middle of designing my own RPG, and a pretty original one at that. But first, I found that I wasn't that compatible with my current gaming group. Then, Covid-19 came along. And now I'm interested in other things, like 200-year-old card games.

Quote from: Trond;1144919My RPG gaming has also run out of steam. The irony is that I was in the middle of designing my own RPG, and a pretty original one at that. But first, I found that I wasn't that compatible with my current gaming group. Then, Covid-19 came along. And now I'm interested in other things, like 200-year-old card games.

Ever play point tarok or konigsrufen?

Quote from: WillInNewHaven;1144905That's why I use a different mechanic, involving D%, for tasks where one roll decides everything. For the back and forth of an action scene, with several characters and foes resolving actions at once (usually) I stuck with the D20.

d100 rolls don't have a bell curve, though, even if you roll 2d10s to generate 1-100, since you don't add the results together and each die is its own digit independent of the other. So the only difference between a d100 and a d20 is granularity and rolling extra dice (if you use d10s), but they're both just about as swingy.

Quote from: Stephen Tannhauser;1144904Has anybody tried a 2d10 instead of 1d20?

I have, briefly.  I've also tried using it in home brew systems from time to time.  For awhile, I replaced the 3d6 in Hero with 2d10 (for a Fantasy Hero game that was supposed to be more like D&D, so that I wanted a wider, flatter curve, but not all the way to d20).  

While I like it a lot, I kept going away from it because it always seems a little clunky to me when replacing an existing mechanics.  Maybe I just know the original odds too well and it messes with my sense of how the system is supposed to work.  If I ever do my own slant on something like Hero, though, I'll build it with 2d10 as the core mechanic.

Edit:  One of the things I don't like about 2d10 as a replacement for 1d20 in a die roll + mod versus target system is that the places you need to set the targets are not intuitive to most players.  Ideally, in a system built from the ground up, you'd set your base Target as 10, and then use modifier from there.  Then set the default bias of the mods to get the success rate you want.  Completely doable in a system designed that way, but not always the easiest thing when retrofitting.

Quote from: Brad;1144845What the fuck does this have to do with hating RPGs?

I note that he didn't reply to this:

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;1144821Tell us about your last game group.

which I take to mean he doesn't have a game group. And his other comments indicate he doesn't want one, either. He's a bitter non-gamer. I've long said that BNGs are a scourge on our hobby. They've given us everything from the story games website to D&D4e all the way through to rpg.net moderation.

The problem isn't that they're non-gamers. There are zillions of possible hobbies, and nobody can possibly do even one in a thousand of them, there are plenty others they can choose. It's that they're bitter non-gamers - something about their limited gaming experience (generally themselves) has made them bitter about it, and so they continue lurking around the hobby spitting bile at it, and occasionally getting involved in game design or site moderation. Their contribution is never helpful.

Quote from: bat;1144867He has a blog, Tales to Astound! which has some gems. Hates the OSR, yet, "I wanted to keep going with my Lamentations of the Flame Princess campaign" is a quote from his blog.

I'm not the guy who started this thread.
I don't hate the OSR. I delight in it.
I have no idea how you associated my blog with this guy.
But I'm not him.
Wanted to clarify that.
I'm currently running an OD&D game.
So... really... not this guy.

Quote from: ChristopherKubasik;1144935I'm not the guy who started this thread.
I don't hate the OSR. I delight in it.
I have no idea how you associated my blog with this guy.
But I'm not him.
Wanted to clarify that.
I'm currently running an OD&D game.
So... really... not this guy.

A likely story, i bet your really a reptoid and a hacker who reptile hacked the blog.

Quote from: Slambo;1144936A likely story, i bet your really a reptoid and a hacker who reptile hacked the blog.

Maybe. Nonetheless, the OD&D game is going really well.

Quote from: Trond;1144919My RPG gaming has also run out of steam. The irony is that I was in the middle of designing my own RPG, and a pretty original one at that. But first, I found that I wasn't that compatible with my current gaming group. Then, Covid-19 came along. And now I'm interested in other things, like 200-year-old card games.

Piquet?

Quote from: WillInNewHaven;1144927Ever play point tarok or konigsrufen?

that is exactly the thing I'm looking into. I have the rules to Danish tarok, and it is very interesting.

Quote from: brettmb;1144728There are some pretty good OSR-inspired games. There are thieves and con-artists, but I think most people just want to create something of their own, despite it actually being a retread. There's always a bandwagon to be had.

I agree. I've looked at several OSR games and there are a few that actually do new things. But then its not an "osr" game anymore is it?

I despise the term because there was never anything to "revive" or "renaissance". And "old school" is still fucking derogatory so fuck off and die everyone using it to knock down some game.

But my early experiences with OSR and later experiences with how it was being abused really turned me off it. Its just an excuse to steal other peoples games with an utterly fake excuse to thoroughly abuse the 3e SRD/OGL. And then try to claim that allows theft of games totally not D&D.

Then theres the elitists and fanatics in the OSR that make it all the worse.

Quote from: Omega;1144946... Its just an excuse to steal other peoples games with an utterly fake excuse to thoroughly abuse the 3e SRD/OGL. And then try to claim that allows theft of games totally not D&D. ....

It's not an excuse. It's an open game license. It's real. It's not stealing. I get you're butt-hurt, but you're butt-hurt is founded in pure nonsensical dumb-fuckery. You should knock that off. Whiner.

They took everything you loved, didn't they? I've warned of an eminent colapse and people in denial kept saying. "The hobby is stronger than ever before" I prevented the 2018 collapse with K&L but now that I'm not writing the hobby seems to be falling apart.