Letting the dice give out XP

[Normorgwae]

Mike, I'm sorry. I did come off as very rude in that post. I was tired when I wrote it and realised how it sounded later but didn't want to spam the thread with a repost until someone else had posted. What I said was unfair. I certainly cannot tell what you are thinking just by reading your post. I'll try to be more careful in the future. The internet hardly needs one more know-it-all ass.

Originally Posted by Mike H

Well, in the case of my system, both would make the same number of rolls[...]The end result is probably that one will be a specialist (which makes sense, because obviously that's that player and/or character's approach to situations), while the other is a generalist (which also makes sense, for the same reason).

How would that work out in non-combat situations, when it is less likely to be 'you roll, I roll, you roll, I roll'?

[Mike H.]

Originally Posted by Normorgwae

Mike, I'm sorry. I did come off as very rude in that post. I was tired when I wrote it and realised how it sounded later but didn't want to spam the thread with a repost until someone else had posted. What I said was unfair. I certainly cannot tell what you are thinking just by reading your post. I'll try to be more careful in the future. The internet hardly needs one more know-it-all ass.

Don't worry about it. No harm, no foul, right?

Originally Posted by Normorgwae

How would that work out in non-combat situations, when it is less likely to be 'you roll, I roll, you roll, I roll'?

That's one of the things I'm still working on. Thankfully, combat and other structured action (car chases, etc.) tends to be quite a bit more roll-heavy than other situations in RPGs; most-out-of-combat conflicts can be probably solved with two or three rolls total. Hopefully, that will keep the problem of spotlight inequity minimized.

I'm also still playing with that possible single-die variant that could be used in certain situations (likely limited to unopposed rolls when the character isn't under any immediate pressure; possibly limited to actions a character is already rated 7 or better in); that would help too. The probabilities are a little sticky on that front, though -- more number-crunching is going to have to happen before I'm comfortable with it. If I can make it a reasonable choice in situations like that without making it a no-brainer, I'll have something; can't roll doubles with just one die...

Ultimately, I might just have to warn GMs to be on the lookout for the issue and leave it at that. I can minimize or circumvent the problem, but I doubt I can eliminate it altogether. Unfortunately, anything short of removing rewards systems entirely is occasionally going to be inequitable to someone.

[Shadetree]

In a blackjack percentile system I worked on a few years ago characters could get three different +'s to each skill.

Precision: If a skill is rolled exactly
Failure: roll of 99
Inspiration: roll of 00(00 was 0 not 100 in this system)


So basically there were three tick boxes next to each skill P, F, and I. If you met one of the above criteria and that box was unchecked you put a tick in it.

The total pluses of all three ticks added up to +5. Determined by a list of character traits the player chose from. For example the Cautious trait gave a +3 to Precision and +1 to the other two if I remember correctly. Others were either the 3,1,1 or 2,2,1.

There was extra complexity that involved reaching a plateau of skill that rolled your bonuses up and reset the tick boxes but I'd have to find my old notes and basically explain the majority of the system to detail all that.

[Ialdabaoth]

Originally Posted by Atreios

1) Players will choose solutions that grant lots of dicerolls over those that grant less. If a particular subsystem grants more dicerolls than another, it will be emphasized: typically combat does this. If killing someone takes 50 rolls while sneaking past them or talking to them is resolved in 3 rolls, players will hack first and ask questions later.

A solution to this problem: In situations where you can resolve a situation cleverly by resorting to a smaller number of dice rolls, encourage the players to narrate their actions. In addition to the potential for gaining "XP" for rolling doubles in their single action roll for the narration, the quality of their narration might award them one or possibly even two additional "XP", which they may choose at any number(s) they want (before they roll). So, for example, if a player prepares to sneak past the guard, and explains a particularly clever way of doing it, they get a bonus to their roll and get to pick one of the numbers to mark off - their choice which. Then they roll, and if they roll doubles they get to mark off that number, too.

If you adjust the quality required to get the auto-XP properly, you can mitigate the issue that some skills will tend to get rolled more than others.