Subject:
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general gaming Q: multiple dice vs. die+bonuses
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.gaming
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Date:
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Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:27:22 GMT
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Viewed:
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8439 times
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I’m in the throes of designing a LEGO space battle game. I’m borrowing some
ideas from Full Thrust, at Wayne’s suggestion, but I’m probably going to monkey
with the combat substantially. For example, I really like giving the defender a
defense roll, so that they have something to do during the attacker’s turn.
One of my primary goals is to keep it simple enough for kids to play, since my
oldest son is only 7 and has never played a wargame before. (And to be honest,
I’m not much of a wargamer myself anymore, as I haven’t had anyone to play with
in many years.... though hopefully this is starting to change!)
All that preamble out of the way, here’s my question. I’ve seen two common ways
to represent different attack (or defense) strengths. One is roll a die for
each strength point (i.e. Ad6, where A is the attack strength). Another is to
roll one die, and add the strength (1d6+A). Assume that values of A tend to
range from 1-4 or so. Which do you prefer?
Things I’ve considered:
- Ad6 tends to form more of a normal (bell-curve) distribution as A increases, leading to more “average” rolls and fewer extreme rolls; 1d6+A stays a uniform distribution no matter what the value of A.
- Ad6 obviously means more addition for values of A > 2, though on the other hand, young players could just count the spots, whereas 1d6+A is only one addition but has to be done in your head.
- Ad6 requires more dice (or else, rolling multiple times and adding up in your head), which could be an issue for some players.
But these considerations are all pretty academic -- you guys are actually out
there in the trenches; what’s your view?
Incidentally, the larger plan is for both attacker and defender to roll, using
whichever scheme is chosen, and consider the attack to have succeeded if its
roll is equal to or greater than the defense roll. In that case, the defender
takes one point of damage. There are also “special damage” and “special
failure” tables that are invoked when a successful attack rolled a natural 6, or
a failed attack rolled a natural 1; these are special effects like more damage,
loss of an attachment, or changing a ship’s heading. Any feedback on this
general scheme would also be also appreciated.
Thanks,
- Joe
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: general gaming Q: multiple dice vs. die+bonuses
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| (...) Another difference is that there's a large variance in Ad6, and very little variance in 1d6+A. With A=4 (for instance) you get Ad6 resulting between 4 and 24, which is a huge range. With 1d6+A, you get between 5 and 10. For that reason, I'd (...) (16 years ago, 19-Dec-07, to lugnet.gaming, FTX)
| | | Re: general gaming Q: multiple dice vs. die+bonuses
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| (...) I'm not a numbers guy, so I can't really help with the mathematics, but from a purely physical point of view, I've always loved the idea of rolling more dice. It's fun to see an opponent's face when you starting picking up d6's, and they say (...) (16 years ago, 8-Jan-08, to lugnet.gaming, FTX)
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