House Rule: Helping Dice Revisited Yet Again

[Darren Hill]

Remember the Helping Dice suggestion: If you roll a Helping Die, and it doesn't actually help, you get a +1 bonus?

Here's an alternative:
When you get a Helping Die, it grants a +2 bonus* as long as the current total is under the Die Size.

So, let's say I roll my d10 sword and d8 Name, and get a roll of 5.
I call in an Oath and my companion wants to use a d4 trait to Help. "No go," says I, "the roll is above 4."
So the companion uses a d6 trait, and my roll increases to 7.

This method keeps the deterministic element that the older rule had, that some people liked. But it has inbuilt limits - if you get an open-ended roll of 13 or high, there's no trait you can use to Help.
In this, the Helping dice aren't actually rolled, they are just consulted to see if you can get the +2 bonus. So, those God Oath dice are

* The +2 bonus could be reduced to a +1 bonus, but since the roll is being removed, a stronger bonus seemed called for.
For an even more deterministic and et chaotic system, you could set the bonus based of the dice size, say 1/3rd or 1/2 the dice size.
So, when using a D4 trait as a Helping die, the roll must be 1-4, and it increases by 2. If using a d12 Goad Oath die, the roll must be 12 or under, and it then increases by 6! (or 4, or whatever).
That sounds to me like it could be a fun approach - I'd certainly like to test it in play sometime.

[John Harper]

Hey Darren,

Sorry for the delay in my reply. I am so super busy right now it's silly.

This looks interesting. I'm not sure I totally love it, though. Have you had a chance to try it in play yet?

[Darren Hill]

No, and I probably won't till the December holidays.

But if I do, I'll let you know how it goes.

"I'm not sure I totally love it, though" - That's okay, I'm a bit ambivalent, too. :)