In the event of an opposed roll between two players (A and B) with Player A having only one die to roll, and Player A failing to roll higher than the highest roll of Player B, it appears to me that Player A would do better by rolling lower than the highest roll of Player B. If Player A rolls equal to the highest roll of Player B, Player B will gather successes for all other dice rolled. If Player A were to roll less than the highest roll of Player B but more than the other dice rolled by Player B, Player B would have only one success.

That is, if Player B rolls [20, 18, 12, 9, 4], Player A would do better (fail less severely) by rolling 19 than by rolling 20. Actually, in this example, Player A would do better by rolling anything from 10 to 19 rather than 20.

Correct?

Even if this is the case, I'm not sure it's really a problem for either of these games. Also, I'm guessing one-die rolls don't occur that often. It just strikes me as unexpected behavior worth mentioning. (At least, reading the mechanic didn't lead me to expect rolling lower to ever be a good thing.)

Sorry if this has been brought up before, or if I've misunderstood. I read the huge Donjon Krawl rules hash-out and didn't see this mentioned.

Hi there,

In Sorcerer, there are a couple of special rules to deal with the situation when one side has only one die. Without going into details, the effect is to make sure that, if the one-die guy loses, he benefits most from rolling high. If he ties the other guy's highest die, then no, the guy's other dice are not counted as victories.

Also, if I recall correctly, Donjon and Sorcerer have slightly different rules for dealing with ties and the number of victories.

Best,
Ron

Ron would not only be correct (Donjon's rules for dealing with ties are much different than Sorcerer's), but as I've said before - Donjon's completely re-written, and uses a completely different dice system now. And no, you can't look at it. I have to finish the damnable thorn in my side first.

Thanks guys. I was going on the Apprentice version of Sorceror, the playtest rules for Donjon, and the discussions I've read here. Next time I won't poke a hole in something already labeled "May Contain Holes".