|
The exploding damage is interesting--what's the math comparing an exploding d4's average damage vs an exploding d6 or d8? Is the expected damage actually higher on the dagger because it's more likely to explode multiple times?
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 15:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 6, 2024 13:48 |
|
|
A Strange Aeon posted:The exploding damage is interesting--what's the math comparing an exploding d4's average damage vs an exploding d6 or d8? Is the expected damage actually higher on the dagger because it's more likely to explode multiple times? Apparently so, at least according to people's complaints about d4s in Savage Worlds.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 15:36
|
|
|
A Strange Aeon posted:The exploding damage is interesting--what's the math comparing an exploding d4's average damage vs an exploding d6 or d8? Is the expected damage actually higher on the dagger because it's more likely to explode multiple times? I worked it out at the time and no, average damage is still better on bigger dice. But it does have some interesting implications for weapons that do 2d4 or 2d6 which was rare, but a thing in AD&D. I still don’t get the point of having a couple of weapons that do damage on a bell curve when the other 95% are linear.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 15:39
|
|
|
CPA Hell posted:I used a lot of random encounters too and that led to stuff like level 2 characters having to negotiate with or evade things like dragons. I’m not anti encounter balance. But it is fun to have NPCs and monsters that the characters just can’t defeat in combat sometimes and seeing what can be done with it. we gave the dragon all our magical poo poo and he let us go.  (you're right, it was vividly memorable... I hadn't read up on RM dragons and didn't realize that we were already as good as dead once we realized he was there.)one thing I hosed around with when I attempted to make a system a million years ago was pairing different types of dice, but I had an incredibly rudementary sense of statistics in those days.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 18:16
|
|
|
A Strange Aeon posted:The exploding damage is interesting--what's the math comparing an exploding d4's average damage vs an exploding d6 or d8? Is the expected damage actually higher on the dagger because it's more likely to explode multiple times? Regular average: d4: 2.5 d6: 3.5 d8: 4.5 Exploding average: d4: 3.333_ d6: 4.2 d8: 5.143… The rule of thumb for single dice exploding on the highest result is that you multiply the non-exploding average by the number of sides and then divide by one fewer sides. The average of 1d6 is (1+2+3+4+5+6)/6=3.5, and the average of a 1d6 exploding on 6 is 3.5*6/5, or (1+2+3+4+5+6)/5 = 21/5 = 4.2. The exploding dice and the non-exploding dice converge at d3 and exploding d2, both average 2.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 18:38
|
|
|
LatwPIAT posted:Regular average: Interesting, I would have intuitively thought that an exploding d4 would be better than a non-exploding d6, but that's not even true. I suppose it's one of those things where the average result gets forgotten and everyone remembers that time you did 15 damage with a dagger because it kept exploding. The bell curve damage can be used interestingly--there's a DCC magic sword I read in one of the Gongfarmer Almanacs or Crawl that does 2d6 damage, but when you roll doubles something happens on a table with 6 different effects based on two 1s, two 2s, etc. I feel like a lot could be done with a template like that to make a magic weapon really unique.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 20:27
|
|
|
A Strange Aeon posted:The bell curve damage can be used interestingly--there's a DCC magic sword I read in one of the Gongfarmer Almanacs or Crawl that does 2d6 damage, but when you roll doubles something happens on a table with 6 different effects based on two 1s, two 2s, etc. I feel like a lot could be done with a template like that to make a magic weapon really unique. you get to roll again each time, but if you roll doubles 3 times in a row, you have to go to jail...
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 02:21
|
|
|
A Strange Aeon posted:Interesting, I would have intuitively thought that an exploding d4 would be better than a non-exploding d6, but that's not even true. I suppose it's one of those things where the average result gets forgotten and everyone remembers that time you did 15 damage with a dagger because it kept exploding. I do not understand probability, but if you have a D4 wouldn't it explode more often, even if the average is lower? So the guy with a dagger d4 gets to get the joy of a re-roll a lot more than the guy with a halberd d10, even though still does less damage over time? Stupid idea- smaller dice explode into bigger dice!
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 05:16
|
|
|
Comstar posted:I do not understand probability, but if you have a D4 wouldn't it explode more often, even if the average is lower? That was in Veins of the Earth as the mechanic for finding out how many fossil vampires emerge if you hit their stratum. Starts at d4 then explodes up the dice chain into hypothetical dice. Sounds scary in principle, but in practice I don't think you'll ever get more than a handful.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 06:29
|
|
|
Are these fossil vampires exclusively boring ol' humanoids or can you get like vampiric ammonites or eurypterids if you go deep enough?
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 18:21
|
|
|
Comstar posted:I do not understand probability, but if you have a D4 wouldn't it explode more often, even if the average is lower? Yes, it's exactly that. Since it explodes on the biggest number, a d4 explodes 25% of the time (i.e. a 1 in 4 chance), where a d8 explodes half as often (1 in 8), but a d8 that explodes just once (12.5% chance to explode once, for 8+1d8 damage) will probably do more damage than a d4 that exploded twice (6.25% chance to explode twice, for 8+1d4 damage). So the d8 (1) does more damage on average than the d4 when neither explodes, (2) does more damage on average than a d4 when they both explode, and (3) does these while still being less likely to explode.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 19:09
|
|
|
Drakyn posted:Are these fossil vampires exclusively boring ol' humanoids or can you get like vampiric ammonites or eurypterids if you go deep enough? Boring humanoids, at one point, but a whole mess of them that were buried and crushed and compressed down into a huge two-foot-thick layer of fossilized bone and organs deep underground millennia ago, remaining alive (the whole time) and quite insane.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 20:24
|
|
|
An acceptable compromise!
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 20:51
|
|
|
I'm running a DCC funnel tomorrow and I haven't run anything in a few years--any last minute tips? I've printed out several level 0 characters and we'll be running Nebin Pendlebrook's Perilous Pantry. I printed out a few level 0 reference pages as well which have the fumble and crit charts and weapon info for the players. I met these folks at Free RPG Day when the store GM ran us through a Black Hack adventure, so I think they'll be cool with DCC mechanics, I'm just worried I'm going to mess something up.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 00:43
|
|
|
There's nothing to mess up in a funnel. There's hardly any rules at that level, tbh.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 01:01
|
|
|
dwarf74 posted:There's nothing to mess up in a funnel. Last tunnel I played with a rando GM was absolutely messed up. He didn’t let us roll 4 lvl 0s. Instead he gave us each a pregen he made and let us only play one character at a time. We got another pregen once the first one died. I only joined the game because my usual one got canceled last minute. Suffered through and hour and then bailed.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 01:08
|
|
|
SeductiveReasoning posted:Last tunnel I played with a rando GM was absolutely messed up. He didn’t let us roll 4 lvl 0s. Instead he gave us each a pregen he made and let us only play one character at a time. We got another pregen once the first one died. I only joined the game because my usual one got canceled last minute. Suffered through and hour and then bailed.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 01:11
|
|
|
The essence of a funnel is making a bunch of characters and falling in love with the guy who has 3 18s and is clearly destined for greatness who then gets turned into screaming marmite basically instantly and at the end of the session your only survivor is smeg chitlin the illiterate mold farmer
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 01:30
|
|
|
I found the funnel was great at introducing my players to having followers and extra PCs. Try to keep them topped up with extra level-0 pregens so they end the scenario with a big stable of characters. Now you have a whole pile of NPCs to draw from if you even need in future. I ran an entire campaign based on all of the NPCs that came out of Sailors on the Starless Sea. At one point there was a Total Party Kill, but the players just picked up their old characters and played them for a few adventures until they were able to find a Rod of Resurrection. As DM its really nice to have a freer hand to kill off characters, knowing that your players will have backups waiting.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 01:39
|
|
|
Drakyn posted:Are these fossil vampires exclusively boring ol' humanoids or can you get like vampiric ammonites or eurypterids if you go deep enough? From what I remember of Veins of the Earth/Deep Carbon Observatory off the top of my head, the fossil vampires are from an era of the world where everything was vampires but then some sort of global catastrophe happened that buried them all in rock and dirt and stuff dinosaur-style, so now an entire geological strata is fossilized vampires. And since they're immortal vampires, they're still (un)alive, but super insane from being fully conscious while being stuck in rock for a million years. So if you enter a cave or wherever the vampire fossil strata is exposed, they crawl out and attack.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 02:22
|
|
|
doin' ur time down the vampire mines
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 03:22
|
|
|
Moose King posted:And since they're immortal vampires, they're still (un)alive, but super insane from being fully conscious while being stuck in rock for a million years. So if you enter a cave or wherever the vampire fossil strata is exposed, they crawl out and attack. Sound like capitalism would both be the solution and the problem and it world cause so many more future problems but make money out of it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 04:08
|
|
|
the tim curry red alert "one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism" cutscene except it's crushed into vamp paste miles and miles underground
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 04:39
|
|
|
Shanty posted:That was in Veins of the Earth as the mechanic for finding out how many fossil vampires emerge if you hit their stratum. Starts at d4 then explodes up the dice chain into hypothetical dice. I wish my players had fought their fossil vampire, but it hit one of them, and they got read what FVs do when they attack (pull off a piece of you, and rub it all over their skull face because they cant actually drink blood anymore) my players noped the gently caress out of there, and then came back later with a lot of black powder and blew up the entrance to the cave. I was very impressed at their followthrough! In general that group was overcautious, running screaming from anything that wasn't a goblin, they even ran away from the spider battlemech thing from Veins of the Earth. At level goddamn five! Moose King posted:From what I remember of Veins of the Earth/Deep Carbon Observatory off the top of my head, the fossil vampires are from an era of the world where everything was vampires but then some sort of global catastrophe happened that buried them all in rock and dirt and stuff dinosaur-style, so now an entire geological strata is fossilized vampires. The catastrophe is that they killed and ate everything and then burrowed themselves into the earth to avoid the sun and went into torpor because there was nothing to eat. Anyone having a DCC Day near them? I am!
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2022 21:01
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/rosesonhergrave/status/1545568922421923840
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2022 02:53
|
|
|
I went to my LGS yesterday and spotted the softcover DCC core on the shelf. Lmao why would you print something that big in the shape of a literal phone book??
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2022 06:46
|
|
|
Siivola posted:I went to my LGS yesterday and spotted the softcover DCC core on the shelf. Lmao why would you print something that big in the shape of a literal phone book?? I love my big phone book RPG supplements. Check out the best monster manual: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16865/Monstrous-Manual-2e
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2022 06:58
|
|
|
The softcover DCC rulebook owns in how huge it is. I love it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2022 08:00
|
|
|
The talk of exploding dice made me wonder if anyone had ever tried a setup where the dice only explode if you roll a '1' on them, and whether that would produce higher or lower numbers overall? You still only get the same % chance as you would with exploding on the die maximum, but instead of a d4 going from 1-3 and then 5+ on the 4, you'd have a d4 that has 2-4 but a 1 could produce 3-5, and potentially continue exploding onward with a 1 result. The new damage ground floor would be 2 rather than 1, so I imagine it is higher, but I am not sure if its high enough to break the balance.
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2022 13:52
|
|
|
Bob Quixote posted:The talk of exploding dice made me wonder if anyone had ever tried a setup where the dice only explode if you roll a '1' on them, and whether that would produce higher or lower numbers overall? Interesting idea, I could see having that be a property of certain weapons to take the sting out of rolling a 1 on damage. It has a flair that merely always adding a +1 or +2 to damage doesn't.
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2022 13:55
|
|
|
Bob Quixote posted:The talk of exploding dice made me wonder if anyone had ever tried a setup where the dice only explode if you roll a '1' on them, and whether that would produce higher or lower numbers overall? I was reading the 1e dmg yesterday and was very impressed by the Amulet of the Planes. It uses a linear d24 table constructed by rolling a d12 and d6. You don't add the dice, the d6 acts as a coin flip, if you get 1-3 nothing happens, 4-6 you add +12. This seemed extremely obtuse, like Gary was showing off rather than just use a percentile table.
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2022 14:07
|
|
|
Bob Quixote posted:The talk of exploding dice made me wonder if anyone had ever tried a setup where the dice only explode if you roll a '1' on them, and whether that would produce higher or lower numbers overall? 
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2022 17:41
|
|
|
Cross post from the ai art thread, just thought these were really awesome: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4000251&pagenumber=51&perpage=40&userid=0#post524742702
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2022 19:52
|
|
|
Bob Quixote posted:The talk of exploding dice made me wonder if anyone had ever tried a setup where the dice only explode if you roll a '1' on them, and whether that would produce higher or lower numbers overall? A quick check on anydice suggests that d6 still wins out overall (expected value 4.2 for a d6 versus 3.55 for a d4), and by the looks of it both of them largely roll like the regular dice would if you rerolled on a 1.
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2022 20:06
|
|
|
MAZES has a mechanic where rolling a 1 doesn't quite hinder you. And the dice also explode. It's uh, kind of interesting. It would probably get more play if you could actually level up in some fashion or have loot mean something.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2022 04:35
|
|
|
I've been thinking about this for awhile now: what if critical hits happen when you roll the highest number on your damage die, instead of 20 on a d20? Everyone loves critical hits. They love them so much that they write whole subsystems of tables of results. Sure, almost all of them are terrible and not worth using, but there's a clear demand here. So why not have critical hits happen more than 5% of the time? There are other ways of doing that, though, but they tend to involve even more rules for expanding the crit ranges of particular weapons, and that tends to lead to convoluted rules that just end up making one weapon the clearly superior choice anyway. (Like, the Fragged Games use 3d6 in part because you get a "Strong Hit," which can trigger various effects, whenever you roll a 6. And on 3d6 you'll roll at least one 6 about 40% of the time.) I've also been thinking about special effects for weapons and other things like skills in LotFP and its derivatives. A flaming sword sets people on fire 2/6, etc.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2022 14:33
|
|
|
There was a real interesting little hack I saw on itch that did that for rolling 1s on damage, based on the weapon. Each weapon type has two different effects that can potentially be chosen: https://grimogre.itch.io/weaponfx
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2022 14:46
|
|
|
Thinking about it, I think 4E had some property of weapons that had you reroll the damage die if you got a 1 or 2, unless I'm misremembering completely. I guess conceptually that's less powerful than just adding +1 or +2 to the damage, since you'd never exceed the max damage range on the die.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2022 15:58
|
|
|
Brutal weapons, yeah. Craghammer all day.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2022 16:17
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 6, 2024 13:48 |
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:I've also been thinking about special effects for weapons and other things like skills in LotFP and its derivatives. A flaming sword sets people on fire 2/6, etc. Kind of sounds like Mighty Deeds. I think having deed dice tied to weapons is not a bad plan though, even just adding +1d to the dice chain would make magic weapons much more awesome in most systems.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2022 17:04
|
|