Probabilities Please

[masqueradeball]

Ben: No, Edge does two things... one it increases your maximum potential die pool by its value, not your actual die pool and it allows you to keep (add the value of) more dice than you would normally be allowed (which is fixed at 2 untrained, 3 trained) as long as the value showing on those dice is under your Edge. So, if you have an Edge of 1 and you roll 7 dice (your maximum pool size at Edge one if trained in the roll your making) the best possible result would be 6,6,6,1, 1, 1,1 for a total of 22.

Using a similar to D&D level progression (3e's 1-20), you gain +1 Edge on all rolls at every level that's divisible by three (3, 6, 9, 12 etc...). You also get Edge bonuses for very specific specialization (like say, a fighter's Weapon Specialization) and for superhuman abilities, but you can't more than double your Level-based Edge by this method.

Sense I haven't play tested, not sure how much time is spent at various Edges, but the development system should have the characters spending more time at low Edges as lower levels are easier to achieve than higher ones.

[masqueradeball]

Also, the "at cap" before Edge part should be very common... a characters who's focused in an area should frequently being rolling the maximum amount of dice available at his Edge.

[Rauðbjørn]

Try out http://hamete.org/dserver/dice its a free dice server that allows you to roll any combonation of dice (some of them rather unusual) up to 50 times at a go.  It also gives you cumulative scores, averages, PBEM certification and more. 

I ran 2D6 rolled 50 times; 20 times then averaged the averages (6.661), and whan I use my QDDAF* I get 7, which is close enough for government work.  3D6 only will result in an average of roughly 10.5, 4 = 14, 5 = 17.5 and 6D6, roughly 21. 

I find that unless you're planning on breaking the bank at Monte Carlo, save yourself some skull sweat and brain pain, use the QDDAF.


*Quick and Dirty Dice Averaging Formula (A+Z)/2 = avg
Where A is the lowest possible result of a roll, and Z is the highest possible result.