Bonuses and Dice Tricks

[Bricingwolf]

Regarding the "Primary Skill" mechanic, and other dice tricks currently being used to give bonuses and penalties.


I think that, instead of rolling twice and taking the better result, Primary Skill status lets you rolls an extra Action Die, and drop the lowest Action Die. IE, assuming we stick with the new (3d10)+(Xd6) model, your primary skill, with 3 ranks, would instead be:

(4d10[drop lowest])+(3d6) Let's imagine this gives us d10 results of; 2, 5, 6, and 3. You'd drop the 2 from that list, keeping the others, and then count up the rank dice results (let's say, 4,4,3).
(2+5+6+3[-2])+(4+4+3)
(5+6+3)+(4+4+3)= 26, unless I'm too tired to do basic math right.

In practice, that's much, much, simpler than rolling two sets of 3d10, and comparing, or rolling a set, remembering the result, rolling another, and then comparing. Or rolling two sets at the same time and keeping them straight.


Then, if you have Accurate Skill, you reroll results of 1 on any die with that skill. That's, I think, fine as is.


Perhaps the Primary Skill thing should be the way the game handles situational bonus, and on your primary skill you always have that bonus?

Then, if you have a situational penalty, or a disadvantage gives you a penalty, etc, it's the same except you drop the highest? eeeehhhh I don't know about that one.

Currently, if you've a bonus or penalty, it adds or subtracts from your Dice Pool. Perhaps that is for the best?

[jsarek]

I think I like it for Primary Skill; not so sure about it for bonuses and penalties. Does that handy dice probabilities website you've been using support "Roll X, drop lowest," and if so, how does it impact the probability curve?

[Bricingwolf]

IT doesn't, unfortunately.

I think you may be right. It may be simplest to add or subtract a die for situational bonuses.

or...hrmm....

Treat it like the damage idea? Then the system has a smaller number of types of bonus and penalties. IDK, works fine for the bonus to reroll low numbers, but what about the other end? A penalty 8 would mean any die that exceeds 8 is treated as an 8. at first glance that's simple enough, and if damage works the same way, it's just a chart that can be put on a character sheet for easy reference.
the problem then, is, what dice does it affect? IF it affects the rank dice, and the rank dice are d6, it can't also affect the action dice, which are d10, right?

Maybe that is for the best?

SO, proposal:

Primary Skill: As OP post, more or less. either add a die and drop lowest, or just roll the 3 rank dice, and reroll the lowest result.

Accurate Skill, situational bonus, and damage vulnerability: sets a "floor" below which you reroll the Rank Dice (or damage dice), but not the Action Dice.

Situational penalty, and damage resistance: Sets a ceiling for the Rank Dice or damage dice. Any result over the ceiling is treated as the ceiling number.

A chart on the front of the character sheet shows clearly how the bonus and penalty work, and we come up with a name for the mechanic to reference in the rules, and in the name of the chart on the sheet, to keep things super simple and easy to remember.


Thoughts?

[Bricingwolf]

So, Primary Skill is just reroll 1s, and you win a tie.


Bonuses, same mechanic? Like, Your Primary Skill just has an always on situational bonus of 1, basically? IF so, should it stack with actual situational bonus?

I don't want that math, though. I want a bonus to do a thing, and a penalty to do a thing, and that's it. idk .