Combat..

[Eamon Voss]

Hey prophet! Are you going to keep the exchange system for combat?  Where you have a certain number of dice/points to add to each exchange of blows?

[prophet118]

well... for now i have dropped this, i have a convention to get ready for (ok so its in october)... lol.... i have 5 games to plan out, for right now im updating the Rune system to handle a more medival setting (instead of viking)... it'll have to do until i can devote more time.

[Callan S.]

Man, that is a lot of converting work just so one don't have to have a handful of dice in front of one.

I suppose if your group lothes it. But I just don't know how much I could really hate a small pile of dice, or how much other people I know or have spoken to could hate it. Hunger and war in the world, I can get angry over that...little pile of dice...I'm constipated when it comes to that, perhaps.

Perhaps if it also gets in the way of the adventure. I'm not sure how to help, since I don't think my players even think twice about the dice in front of them. They just seem intent on the story, not letting themselves get distracted by minutae around them. Will the people at the Con be like this too?

Besides, I'd like to say I'm not a freak or jumper of throats, since on the first page freaks was mentioned plural, even though only one person had posted.

[Shadeling]

well those are your experiences, with your group, i cant just expect my group to play a game whose mechanics they loathe, it just isnt that simple.

Your group loathes it. That is a pretty strong choice of words. They hate it for the same reasons you do?

By the way those aren't just my experiences, have you noticed everyone else has said some similar things in this and other posts?

Anyway, just some q's.

[spunky]

Prophet:

Read the thread and just had to dive in.  Currently playing EXALTED, where your dice pool easily climbs to 20+ dice.  In bringing this to game to my group, I discovered the following:

1) The first time we played, my players (use to D20 and GURPS) HATED the dice pools.  They hated picking through the dice, seeing how many successes they had.  By our third game, they dug it.  A lot of players (especially those with Gamist tendencies) are highly resistant to trying systems they're not used to, because new systems are harder to "win" with.  You know what I mean: any experienced player, munchkin or not, can exploit the hell out of a system they know.

2) It's easy, especially for GMs, to figure out, on average, how many dice it takes to roll a success, and use that to speed up large combats that at first may seem daunting.  Your players are taking on a lot of cannon fodder, so instead of rolling for PUDs, you assume they roll an average number of successes and let the player rolls determine the outcome.

3) If you have a PDA, there are several dice rolling programs that handle dice pools.

I used to hate dice pools, and now I find that system tied with my old favorite, the percentile, for the best way to roll bones.

Anyway, not to convert you, but I think it's best to give a system several tries, so that when you do make changes, it's coming from the specific experience and not unfamiliarity.

For example, I've playtested TROS with a friend twice now, and he doesn't  like it because it's too realistic.  His complaint is, whoever hits first, wins.  He doesn't dispute the realism, he just doesn't like it.  He wants to play a game where a hobbit with enough levels can take out a dragon in a stand up fight, god bless him, and I accept that, and when I run TROS, I won't invite him (or if I do, I'll warn him we're playing THAT game).

Wife's pissed now.  Must go rub feet.

[Ashren Va'Hale]

and that last line is half the reason I avoid marriage as if I was a hobbit in a stand up fight with a dragon.......

[spunky]

Wife's pissed now.  Must go rub feet.

and that last line is half the reason I avoid marriage as if I was a hobbit in a stand up fight with a dragon.......

Clearly, you're not a fan of White Wolf's latest, FETISH: The Polishing...

[Alan]

He wants to play a game where a hobbit with enough levels can take out a dragon in a stand up fight, god bless him, and I accept that,

So he has yet to reach 5 in Destiny to Kill a Dragon, Drive to prove Himself, and Passion for Princess Draconella, who must have a dragon heart to reclaim her throne?  He could do a lot with 15 extra dice.

[spunky]

He wants to play a game where a hobbit with enough levels can take out a dragon in a stand up fight, god bless him, and I accept that,

So he has yet to reach 5 in Destiny to Kill a Dragon, Drive to prove Himself, and Passion for Princess Draconella, who must have a dragon heart to reclaim her throne?  He could do a lot with 15 extra dice.

He could indeed.  But even with those extra dice, in a stand-up fight, I'm laying coin on the worm.  Do you think the Princess would mind if he killed the dragon real quiet-like?