Math (and Death of a System)?

[Bardsandsages]

As you described it, the system may slow down combat, and if such calculations are required for ANY skill to be performed, it could get annoying.  For me as a GM, if I need a calculator to figure out XP or how much money it will cost to make a magic item being suggested by a player, that's one thing.  But if I can't do the math in my head quickly during combat with everything else I have to control, chances are I'm not gonna be interested in running the game.  For story flow, I want to reference the least number of charts and graphs possible.

[John Wick]

My system requires doing basic math in combat (just + & -), which really means that a basic calculator is needed in play.  Does this (on its own) doom my system to be rejected by most?  How has calculator-dependence in other systems affected its populariy?  What are those other systems?

Thanks.

Here's the real question you want to ask:

"Would reliance on a calculator keep you from playing my game?"

My answer, by the way, is "Yes."

[MatrixGamer]

It's funny you should mention PDAs... I've envisioned a decade down the road where dice are no longer prominent at the gaming table, but little networked PDAs are doing all the crunching for us.



Heretic!

No dice? I wouldn't feel like a game!

Actually I think there is something to be said for dice over PDAs or whatever. Dice are cheap - so they can be in a box (if the game has a box). They are low tech (you can play the game anywhere). They do have an aesthetic appeal - it really does make it feel like a game. And they make people think a game is fair.

This fairness point is worth looking at. I use one six-sided die in my game. Sometimes people are asked to roll six sixes in a row. Effectively this is an impossible task but by giving them a roll they feel better. Rolling the die themselves also gives a sense of ownership and control that a PDA lacks. The fact that this is an illusion is irrelevant. Dice help.

For my part if I'm doing a miniatures game with lost of battle I like the mechanism of rolling more dice and counting the sixes rather than messing with dice modifiers. It is real satisfying to roll a great whopping handful of dice!

Chris Engle
Hamster Press

[zephyr_cirrus]

It's funny you should mention PDAs... I've envisioned a decade down the road where dice are no longer prominent at the gaming table, but little networked PDAs are doing all the crunching for us.

Are you referring to me (I think you are)?  I wasn't saying a calculator (you say PDA, but I was talking about a graphing calculator) should be used instead of dice, but you could get a 9.5847897398754 out of 10 on a calculator, and you could use rolls in your games that would be nigh impossible to use with dice b/c of the limit of the types of dice that are made (where can you find a d23 die, anyway?)  It's also impossible to "roll" 6 sixes in a row on a calculator, so dice would be preferable in such a situation.