d6 dice pool (no color chart) idea

[brimstone]

I've been exploring what can be done with dice pools. It is possible to get a "five range" result from a d6 dice pool. Here is how it works.

A player adds up all of his bonuses from situation modifers (it is dark or the ground is slippery, opponents Prowess).

Then you roll the number of d6 equal to the absolute value of the modifers +2.

If you have a +3 modifer, your rolling five d6.

If you have a -2 modifer, your rolling four d6.

If you have a 0 modifer, your rolling two d6.


Take the two highest d6 if the modifer is positive. (Five d6 take the two highest)

Take the two lowest d6 if the modifer is negative. (Four d6 take the two lowest)

Take the dice as they are if the modifer is zero. (Two d6)


On the d6 1-3 counts as 0, 4-5 as 1, and 6 as 2. So there is a range of five results: 0,1,2,3, and 4.

0 = White (failure)
1 = Green (minor success)
2 = Yellow (moderate success)
3 = Red (major success)
4 = Black (ultimate success)



What it boils down to is if your pool is negative, roll and keep the two lowest d6. If it is positive, roll and keep the two highest d6.

[markkrawec]

Glad to hear from you, Brimstone. That's some really interesting stuff. I like your method for getting five possibilities from 2d6. That makes black results very rare, though; 1 chance in 36 versus up to just over 1 in 6 the old way at ratings of 25+ (17% chance). Or does rolling the greater number of die make up for that? (Shades of Champions, that's a real bucket of dice at the far ends of the scale.)

[brimstone]

Yes.

The higher your positive number, the more dice you are rolling which increases your the odds of getting of getting at least two sixes.


On the standard chart at the "Zero" column you have a 7% chance of getting into the Black.


With the dice pool method at "Zero" you have a 2.78% chance getting into the Black.


So they don't exactly match. But it mimics the way the chart works in a rough manner.



What would be nice is to have a six sided dice marked with three sides blank, two sides with a 1, and one side with a 2. But normal six sided work fine.