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Number of dice

7 replies [Last post]
Sat, 08/02/2014 - 12:01
X3M
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Just wondering. In my game, it is ok to have like 36 normal D6 dice. They are rolled by using a bucket and into a box.

Then the ones who are discarded are filtered out. This process might repeat on average 1 to 2 times until the battle ends.

This situation occurs only about 1/10th of the time at the start of a game when it is "last man standing" Or in the mid of a game when there is first a build up.

My play testers wont mind at all, and like the fact that these situations can occur.

But would this not start to annoy players after a while?
What kind of help could provide? For example, getting the right amount of dice becomes a bit of a hassle when facing 10 or more.

Are there tools for this?
Are there also games out there that use this amount of dice?

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Sat, 08/02/2014 - 16:18
#1
DifferentName
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That's a lot of dice!

Personally, I find it excessive, but I guess that kind of stuff happens sometimes in miniatures games? I'm thinking it was war hammer where I saw some people rolling 20 or so dice at a time?

X3M wrote:
Are there tools for this?

http://www.random.org/dice/

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Mon, 08/04/2014 - 01:14
#2
X3M
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Well, in a way this game does

Well, in a way this game does resemble warhammer a little bit.

Of course we can use a computer to roll dice. But I am looking for a way without using electronic devices.

For example, I am trying out a ruler that tells us how many dice we have lined up. However, we need to line up. Which could be a bit of a hassle. The box serves us well in this. So I already am planning in drawing the ruler in this box.

But perhaps some one knows something better.

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Mon, 08/04/2014 - 09:30
#3
Jarec
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Apples and oranges

I bet there's no right answer. Some like it, some don't.

I for one do like extreme amounts of dice if it corresponds to the "power fantasy", meaning that if my warrior drinks all of the buff potions and gets a choir of mages energizing him, that enemy's gotta deal with a bucket load of dice.
If it is every battle, it will get tedious.

I remember rolling 41 dice once in a Warhammer 40k match with a group of Khorne Berzerkers. It was awesome.

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Thu, 08/07/2014 - 10:27
#4
MarkD1733
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too many dice, IMO

I have played other games where you might roll like double digit dice...just making sure you have the right number could be a chore? Unless you are Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain Man, you probably cannot glance down and instantly count the dice. Additionally, adding up becomes more nightmarish. I would suggest a couple thoughts...

1) Use different color dice for easier counting...it will be easier to see 4 sets of 6 different color dice then 24 dice of the same color.
2) Roll smaller set of dice in waves...3 rolls of 12 dice, 4 rolls of 9 dice, etc.
3) Any chance that the dice could be specialized to cut down on the number? The ubiquity system has special d8 dice that represent the number of successes if you rolled 2 or 3 normal d6s (even numbers on each die rolled are considered successes, so the ubiquity dice simply play out those probabilities). They are colored too...white = 1d6, red = 2d6 and blue = 3d6. So if I want to roll 9 dice, I can. Or can roll 3 blue ubiquity dice. Similarly, depending on the what the numbers mean...if you are counting successes, you could possibility account for probabilities with d12s or something else.
4) Depending on the exact mechanic, can the dice be a mixture of different dice. Without knowing exactly what each represents, I will not draw any analogies. However, I can see, as an example, that rolling red d8s is the attack and rolling green d6s is the defense, and blue d4s is the magic. In this instance, its more of a combination of the first two suggestions.

Hope this helps.

Mark

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Thu, 08/07/2014 - 13:28
#5
X3M
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Thanks Mark

Ah right, I didn't go that deep into the material.

I was just wondering if there was a nice way to count the dice that you want to use. There is no need of adding up. Each dice is on its own.
If I have to know for example 26, 27 or 28 needed. Then how could I see at first glance that I have the right amount of dice.

For now I still have the box, with 36 dice that have the same size. The only problem here is that I need to shift the dice in place to see the actual length (number of dice)

1)
Using colours is a good idea. There are certain groups that are supposed to roll while other groups are rolling. In my case, the different damages would be it.
However, by having 5 dice for each colour. I could easily tell how much dice there are in the box. Simply by having groups of 5 dice and the last group what remains.

2)
There are group rolls depending on: range, damage and XP.
The only thing a player has to do after a roll is take away the dice that scored to low. And re-roll if the situation requires that. Any dice that remains after all the rolls counts as a hit.

And the fun part in my game is the difference between 26, 27 and 28 dice is very significant. So making things easier by reducing the number of dice wont do.

3)
Ubiquity system. Interesting. I wonder how that would work. And what kind of success rate are we talking about?
If one dice can be either a miss, hit or double hit. With each a chance of 33%. Then how to do that with those Ubiquity dice?
Please tell me all about the math. Perhaps I can add them for a more of a comfort kind of play.

4)
No defence, no magic.
And actually no damage either.
All I do is deciding on; hit(s) or miss?
Sometimes the chance is 6/6th. Then there is of course no roll.
Sometimes the chance is 1/6th, 2/6th, 3/6th, 4/6th or 5/6th. In those cases each chance is a group on its own to be rolled.
If I can combine to rolls to one roll with the ubiquity system. Then I would gain a lot of time again. Which is another positive point.

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Thu, 08/07/2014 - 19:29
#6
MarkD1733
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ubiquity dice....Exile Studios Games

Basically, the ubiquity system for RPGs looks at any die (d4, d6, etc) and gives success a 50% chance...basically even number rolls are successes (or odd, its your pick). So if I roll 5 dice (of any type) and 3 even numbers come up, I have 3 successes. The ubiquity dice just take out the interpretation out of that odds/evens determination and simply condense the combination probability of success into a single die with numbers that you can add up. So the chance of rolling 3 successes (or 0 successes) with three dice (of any type) is I think 12.5% (I don't really know because I don't have the dice in front of me and I suck at math) and the chance of rolling 2 successes or 1 success is the same -- 37.5%. So, the ubiquity dice are d8s and the blue one that represents the same as rolling three dice has 1 side with a "0", 3 sides with "1", 3 sides with "2" and the remaining side with "3". So, if I have to roll 7 "normal" dice, I can instead simply take 2 blue ubiquities (which represent 3 dice) and 1 white ubiquity (which represents 1 die and has 4 "1"s and 4 "0"s because it's really a 50/50), roll them and then ADD the resulting numbers to determine the number of successes. I could roll a "3" and "1" and a "0" to indicate 4 successes out of a total of 7 normal dice. As you can see, this is much more helpful when you need to roll 10 or more dice.

I hope I explained that well enough. So, what I am saying is that I would think this could be extrapolated to bigger-sided dice account for more "normal" dice rolls.

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Fri, 08/08/2014 - 14:04
#7
X3M
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Rather interesting, but can I use it?

I looked into it and it is an obvious easy technique. I like it. But...
Right now I wonder, which kind of dice I need for my rolls.

Of course, the D6 remains as a basis if the new technique only is apply able in certain situations.

The other possible dices are D4, D8, D12 and D20.
I did use D20 in the past for battling with heavier units. But these days, the same damage is simply subtracted from a larger health.

What I need is to convert the following:

1/6th
2/6th
3/6th
4/6th and
5/6th

While these are combined with multiple rolls. Thus again that list of accuracy. I do have to say, each D6 is a projectile. So if another die can combine 2 rolls. It would half the time. This can only be done with the 3/6th on top of a 3/6th.

The other list is:
miss: 2/6th
hit: 2/6th
double hit: 2/6th
This was done with 1D6 where 1 and 2 give the miss. 3 and 4 give the hit. And 5 and 6 give the double hit.
Maybe 2 or 3 projectiles can be combined in one roll with another die then?

I have been thinking now for both situations. How to change into other dice. But I can't think of any. The basis of the combined fractions are 36 or 216 or 1296 etc.
36 alone is already to complex for this.

So if any one is familiar with this technique, please let me know.
The game as it is, is balanced very good. So, ground rule; no change of battling rules. Only change of dice.

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