Rolling gobs of dice... yet another alternative

[Bailywolf]

I love this idea- the and the initiative tweak would seem to work fine without blowing anything major in the system.

Anyone have any actual play on this mechanic?  I'd love to hear how it handles in play.

-Ben

[Bailywolf]

Here's the Initiative tweak I used when I ran a one-shot the other evening to complement the even/odd rolling I used.  I cribbed the basic idea from Feng Shui who's shot counter order of action system I've always liked.

Roll initiative, and count Evens, then tripple the result.  This is your Shot Count.  Like in FS, you count backwards from this number, and each full action requires 3 shots to complete.  You can make a snap-shot action to prempt an enemy at any time- simply declare  it.  Snapshots demand you trade precision for speed, so each -1 to the shot count costs you 3 dice on the roll.  As in all things, you can roll dice into this from previous actions, and if you wish to take set-up actions, you can roll dice into the next round's initiative roll.


For example, Urngold the Northman and his clever companion The Red Prowler  are fighting the reanimated mummy of Hedra the Most Terrible, on of The City's founding witch-queens.  Everyone rolls initiative.

Urngold:  3 evens x 3 = Shot Count 9
Red Prowler:  5 evens x 3 = SC 15
Hedra tMT:  4 evens x 3 = SC 12

The Red Prowler goes first, acting normally on 15, 12, 9, 6, 3, and 0.  Before anyone does anything, he uses his Quick Feet ability to set himself up in good position to nail Hedra with his rapier (rolling his successes into his attack roll on 12).  


It takes a normal 3-count action to summon power or release a spell.

It played out quite well- we used a track drawn on paper and marked with coins  on it to count down the shots.

[John Harper]

Hey Ben,

That sounds cool. I've always been a fan of the Feng Shui shots system, too.

Question: Did you charge one shot for an active dodge/parry, like FS does? Seems like a necessary component given the way standard Donjon works. Actually, to map to Donjon better, you'd have to charge a full 3 shots for a parry, but if you do that, you might as well not multiply by 3 in the first place. :)

[Jason]

I ran a group this weekend,  and it went well. I didn't do combat quite right (i was adding the DR of the weapon to attack and damage).  I only noticed a couple things.

It seemed like the players were getting gobs of successes when attacking the poor little blood goblins and wolves. The mage would get 8-10 successes usually, easily killing those little things with no problem. I think maybe as the donjon level goes up this will change.

Also, I think the person with a bigger die pool has a bigger advantage. Say I have 3 dice and you have 6. If it were d20 I'd have a change of rolling a 20. With odd or even I don't get that.

jason.

[Mike Holmes]

That's quite true. The regular dice method used is quite favorable to the underdog. The Even/Odd gives you something much more akin to your typical sim bell curve. Meaning the underdog only succeeds on a miracle.

Mike