"Hendrik Belitz" <honkaonka.belitz.RemoveThis@fz-juelich.de> wrote in message
news:c8f056$9qr0$1@zam602.zam.kfa-juelich.de...
> Corey Murtagh wrote:
>
>> (Appologies in advance for the cross-post... this is a genre-neutral
>> question, and these are the groups I'm lurking in at the moment)
>>
>> I've played a lot of RPGs over the years (probably not as many as some
>> of you out there, but still lots by my standards) and most of them are
>> based around one of two basic dice-rolling mechanics:
>>
>> 1) Flat distribution - single dice or orther flat-probability
>> combinations (D100 frex)
>
> Now this one's pretty standard and IMHO favorable for skill tests and the
> like.
>
>> 2) Simple bell curve - 3d6 and the like
>
> Like in GURPS, I think? This is really good eg. for rolling damage,
> but not really useful for skill tests, since skill experience and
> difficulty would not be distributed by a gaussian bell curve.
> Using a linear (d100) or exponential (don't know if such thing even exists
> in any RPG) distribution is much better here.
>
>> Now, I've heard a tiny bit about a dice system using more interesting
>> skill check resolution involving various numbers of variously-sized
>> dice. Difficulty is reflected in the sides of the dice as well as the
>> number of dice rolled. Frex, a hard task might find you pitting a few
>> large dice against the GMs small dice.
>
> Like in Earthdawn I would say. This is pretty nasty if you don't play the
> system too often, since you need to look up the correct dice for every
> skill level or test you've got to make. I also don't see why this would be
> any better than using several six-sided dice or the like.
>
>
ED Step system handles graefully the difference in capability between a
lowly warriorand a dragon, giving the dragon a small change of failure, and
the warrior vanishingly improbable chance of succeeding at the same task
(assuming a task whose difficulty is closer to the dragon's level than the
warriors).
It's not even terribly ahrd ot figure out the step system - the Step value
is the sum high-average (the avrage result of a die is x.5 where x is half
the faces; high-average is x+1 (or rounding x.5 mathematically) of all the
dice involved. Knowing that, you can guess at what dice you are using
(though I have no idea why Step 14 is d20+d4, except that that is the only
2-dissimilar-dice combination available, otherwise d12 works, as does quite
a few 3-dice solutions).
But I digress.
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