tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202612634352350608.post4416193439094671159..comments2024-03-26T02:03:33.336-07:00Comments on Mazirian's Garden: A Simple d6 System for Stat or Skill Checks Ben L.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04568198881628052274noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202612634352350608.post-84317802149290552182021-02-27T06:17:21.839-08:002021-02-27T06:17:21.839-08:00Tom, I agree with what you wrote here about the fe...Tom, I agree with what you wrote here about the feel of rolling multiple dice, and I just posted a 2d6 skill version, which is what I'll be using going forward. What convinced me was that I couldn't make opposed rolls work with 1d6, since small advantages massively skewed the outcomes. I really want to use opposed rolls. Ben L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/04568198881628052274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202612634352350608.post-60397693939961528162020-12-11T15:31:56.936-08:002020-12-11T15:31:56.936-08:00As a long time Traveller player, I quite like 2d6....As a long time Traveller player, I quite like 2d6. However, yours is one of the few posts and analyses that has made me think a d6 system would be workable. Especially given the way my style of running games seems to have evolved. Thanks for the analysis and interested to see which way you go.Alistairhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04631364538623314004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202612634352350608.post-11460486865666736512020-11-30T10:24:44.109-08:002020-11-30T10:24:44.109-08:00Well I had been trying to come up with a way to ad...Well I had been trying to come up with a way to adapt the Apocalypse World 2d6 roll to a D&D/adventure game system myself without much success, so on that level I was intrigued by your version, which I thought found a nice way of combining innate character ability + training with that 2d6 math (one of the challenges in the 2d6 roll being how modifiers are heavily but unevenly weighted and how few you have to work with before the math breaks).<br /><br />But I can see how a linear roll makes bonuses easier to work with, and I agree that "how hard is this" is probably easier and/or more intuitive to work out on the fly than "what are the penalties for failure / what counts as a success," which seems to be the soft way of scaling difficulty on a 2d6 roll.<br /><br />Without diving too deeply into the maths (which for me is a quick way to decision paralysis), and since both versions look very sound, I would say that 1d6 vs 2d6 is a question of tone. I think 1d6 feels lighter and chancier (the single die is physically lighter of course, but that straight up or down roll has a kind of "toss the dice and see what happens" vibe), while 2d6 has more of a feeling of calculated risk ("I'll probably get a 6 or a 7, so if I'm pretty good at this I will probably succeed most of the time"). I think that feeling comes across even when the odds of success are almost the same, just based on the physicality of throwing the dice and the process of totaling up the result, but I don't think that either one is necessarily better.Tom Kilianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17086235205146158319noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202612634352350608.post-56042103547666704892020-11-30T08:29:54.701-08:002020-11-30T08:29:54.701-08:00Do you have any thoughts about which is nicer?Do you have any thoughts about which is nicer?Ben L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/04568198881628052274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202612634352350608.post-46550614655789759172020-11-30T08:23:46.962-08:002020-11-30T08:23:46.962-08:00Yes, but it's funny you ask. I had this entire...Yes, but it's funny you ask. I had this entire post written using a "2d6 + modifier 7 plus succeeds" version. But when I thought about it more, I thought that 1d6 was a better fit with the OD&D frame. In some ways I like the 2d6 math better, particularly when it comes to opposed checks, where even stacked modifiers don't break the system. But in other ways I like the OD&D math more--it's more straightforward and bears a clearer mathematical relation to the modifier. Also I think having a DC for difficulty is a little more intuitive (and dramatic) than having a penalty for a challenge rating with a fixed DC of 7. But I may very well go back to the 2d6 version when I put together my final rules for this. I'm highly uncertain on this point, which is better. Ben L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/04568198881628052274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202612634352350608.post-18126302370366983312020-11-30T07:18:33.064-08:002020-11-30T07:18:33.064-08:00Does this 1d6 version replace the "2d6 + modi...Does this 1d6 version replace the "2d6 + modifier, 7+ succeeds" version that you've referenced in previous Jorune posts?Tom Kilianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17086235205146158319noreply@blogger.com