2d6 instead of 1d20

[WSmith]

Hum. The 2d6 method may have one thing over the other for sure. Since I am trying to keep modifiers to around either +1 or +2 (except for magic items and such) that would work better and mean more than a +1 would on a d20.

Foster, have you thought about this anymore?

Casey, do you have any more to add?

[foster1941]

WSmith said:

Foster, have you thought about this anymore?

Not really. Except for deciding what to do with non-weapon attacks (whether to use the 'straight' progression I posted originally or the 'flattened' one I posted later) I think this system is pretty much ready to go. Things to keep in mind: 1) all weapons do 1d6 damage per hit, not the variable amounts as found in Supp I/AD&D; 2) hits are more likely in this system than in the 1d20 system for most ACs (see previous post), so combats will generally be shorter and characters more fragile; 3) magic adjusts the attacker's roll, not the target's AC, so a character with leather armor and a +2 shield is not AC 4, he's AC 6 with a -2 on his opponent's to hit rolls (also, this system assumes the vol. III treasure tables where magic armor has a max. +2 and shields a max. +3; allowing the higher bonuses from Supp I would make such characters too unhittable (unless their opponents had similarly-leveled magic weapons, of course); 4) plate mail should be increased in cost (perhaps to the AD&D level -- 400 g.p.?), and magic armor should not be assumed to always be plate as stated in vol. II but rather all types (or at least chain & plate -- magic leather armor seems a bit silly, and IMO is a blatant handout to players of thieves (which is no concern to me since I've eliminated the thief class)); 5) the war hammer needs to be added to the Chainmail Man-to-Man chart, since it's a key weapon in D&D for both clerics and dwarfs -- stats can be extrapolated from the weapon-vs-AC table in Supp I (compare the two tables and you'll see what I mean); the sling isn't on the table either -- Chainmail says hobbits use slings as short bows, but if it's desired to allow non-hobbit characters to use slings some stats must be assigned (perhaps extrapolated from the AD&D weapon-vs-AC table? I haven't checked this).

When I get some time (whenever that might be -- probably not this weekend) I'll have to run some mock-combats using this system, to see if there are any unintended consequences I've thus far overlooked.

[WSmith]

Foster, looking forward to it.

[Casey777]

WSmith said:

Casey, do you have any more to add?

Mebbie. Need to look over this thread again this week. I had some other ideas but they aren't based on Chainmail/OD&D or Traveller (spell points for example).

[Casey777]

WSmith said:

STR: physical overpowering
INT: illusions, magic
WIS: confussion
DEX: breath weapons, avoidance by agility
CON: physical changes to the body or health, poison
CHA: fear, charm
<snip>
Then after that, I would have to figure what the number scheme would be, (certainly different if using 2d6 than 1d20.)

For that you might want to try the OD&D progression or the mod I posted above and assign say one or two primary and two secondary saves for each class (erk that's a bit 3e isn't it? hmm two saves then?).

A good start there. I'd likely crib some categories from BRP with oh knowledge/idea, luck, and I forget the rest.

Oh and thanks for the welcome all!

[WSmith]

Now I am not sure on the whole saving throw thingy. See my other posts.

BTW, Casey, have you checked out the Traveller board here yet?

[Casey777]

WSmith said:

Now I am not sure on the whole saving throw thingy. See my other posts.

BTW, Casey, have you checked out the Traveller board here yet?

I'm catching up on the board and have skimmed the thread. After my previous post of course. >.<

Getting there!

[AxeMental]

I think the d20 has an advantage with speed, and this IMO should be given some consideration, esp. in large battles (quick roles with d6-without a good shake- tend to repeat, and more then 3 dice is very time consuming to read and collect (think 20 kolbods vs. 5 players). Has anyone given consideration to using a d12?

Also, besides Traveller and LA what other popular FRPGs use two dice or more for combat?

[Lord Cias]

GURPS uses 3d6 for just about everything.

I am currently attempting to create my own FRPG that will use 2d10 (read 0 - 18) for most things.

[foster1941]

AxeMental said:

Also, besides Traveller and LA what other popular FRPGs use two dice or more for combat?

Most of them, actually. Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, etc. (the BRP games) all use d% (which I suppose technically could be rolled on one die, but much more commonly uses 2d10), as does Warhammer FRP and seemingly most other games from the 80s. GURPS uses 3d6. Champions/HERO system, Shadowrun, and all the White Wolf games (Vampire, Werewolf, etc.) (and seemingly most other games from the 90s) use 'dice pools' where large numbers of dice (d6s for HERO and Shadowrun, d10s for White Wolf) are rolled depending on the character's skill -- sometimes a half-dozen or more. I'm not familiar enough with most modern non-d20 System games (Exalted, Savage Worlds, Tri-Stat, etc. -- all the stuff they're always raving about on rpg.net) to know what kinds of dice they use, but I suspect most of them use more than one die. HeroQuest and Pendragon both use 1d20. Sorceror uses a dice pool.

It is a valid point, though -- that it's quicker/easier to look at 1 die result than to add up 2 (even if they are small numbers). This is another thing I'll have to look at when/if I get around to running some test combats with this system -- does it feel like the referee is overwhelmed having to roll so many dice and do so much addition.

[PapersAndPaychecks]

foster1941 said:

Most of them, actually. Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, etc. (the BRP games) all use d% (which I suppose technically could be rolled on one die, but much more commonly uses 2d10), as does Warhammer FRP and seemingly most other games from the 80s.

Yeah, but I'm with Axe here. The fact that you physically roll two dice instead of one doesn't matter - what's relevant is the shape of the probability curve.

D&D, CoC, RQ, Rolemaster, all of them use flat linear probability distributions. GURPS and Traveller and T&T use bell curves.

[Thoth Amon]

Very neat idea. It would be neat to play D&D with only d6s... if a bit strange overpowering 25 years of using the polyhedrals!

[WSmith]

cias said:

I am currently attempting to create my own FRPG that will use 2d10 (read 0 - 18) for most things.

Cias, did anything ever come of this? My interest is piqued.

[RadagastTheBrown]

I've always wanted to use Chainmail combat system in OD&D. I posted something a bit ago on DF, here is a newer and updated .pdf of the file.

home.earthlink.net/~jeffstp/data/Combat%20Tables.pdf

Radagast The Brown

[WSmith]

Ragadast, welcome.