Trying to find some assistance in fine tuning a dice mechanic for a home-brew game system.
The dice mechanic is called "Lining up a Shot". It is to be the primary way of shooting a gun at a target.
In a nutshell, the concept is this: The player rolls two dice (lets call one an Accuracy die, and one a Stability die), and attempts to have the resulting two numbers both fall within a pre-determined parameter. Here's an example, using 2 d12s for die:
A sniper (the player) is trying to line up a shot on an enemy soldier (the gm). The battlefield is hectic. The result of the Sniper's Accuracy die roll must be above 5, and his Stability roll below 7, for his shot to hit the enemy soldier. Both dice are rolled simultaneously.
Does the probability of success seem sound here, or will every shot be statistically unsound? What do you think the average, unmodified set of target numbers should be?
I'm very appreciative for any answers or time you take to help me out here,
Thank you.
PLEASE do not reply with posts about using an existing mechanic, or a completely new one. The purpose of this post is to troubleshoot the existing idea. Thank You.
It's a bizarre mechanic for a d20 game but what the hell. I'd work on incorporating situational modifiers for firing with stabilization from a wall, tripod, or ally's shoulder, laying prone, and penalties from being threatened by an enemy. Conditions could cause penalties, as could nearby fireballs.
i'm not sure why you're using 2 dice, maybe because different modifiers affect each one separately? also saying one is good high but the other good low seems unnecessarily complicated. thats why they didnt use thac0 when designing 3.0 D&D.
your example would mean approximately 34% of the time these 2 conditions are met. so every shot will likely miss each time.
can you give more specifics on the mechanic and why you are designing it the way you are?
It's a bizarre mechanic for a d20 game but what the hell. I'd work on incorporating situational modifiers for firing with stabilization from a wall, tripod, or ally's shoulder, laying prone, and penalties from being threatened by an enemy. Conditions could cause penalties, as could nearby fireballs.
Yup, that's the idea. Accuracy dice can be modified with scopes, laser sighting and stocks and such. Stability can be modified by the encounter environment (rumbling tanks, mortar fire, cover, bracing for fire on tripods and such, being under suppressing fire)
i'm not sure why you're using 2 dice, maybe because different modifiers affect each one separately? also saying one is good high but the other good low seems unnecessarily complicated. thats why they didnt use thac0 when designing 3.0 D&D.
your example would mean approximately 34% of the time these 2 conditions are met. so every shot will likely miss each time.
can you give more specifics on the mechanic and why you are designing it the way you are?
I'm trying to simulate the concept of "lining up a shot", i.e, the conditions the shooter is under, and his weapon's ability remain stable and precise while firing. I'm doing all this because we're doing a modern combat game, but my players and I want an all new mechanic to try out. Kind of tired of what's out there, and we're a fairly creative and experimental lot.
I see what you're saying about having one high and one low. I'm just trying to conceptualize how to spice up the old "roll under this number" mechanic.
i'm not sure why you're using 2 dice, maybe because different modifiers affect each one separately? also saying one is good high but the other good low seems unnecessarily complicated. thats why they didnt use thac0 when designing 3.0 D&D.
your example would mean approximately 34% of the time these 2 conditions are met. so every shot will likely miss each time.
can you give more specifics on the mechanic and why you are designing it the way you are?
I'm trying to simulate the concept of "lining up a shot", i.e, the conditions the shooter is under, and his weapon's ability remain stable and precise while firing. I'm doing all this because we're doing a modern combat game, but my players and I want an all new mechanic to try out. Kind of tired of what's out there, and we're a fairly creative and experimental lot.
I see what you're saying about having one high and one low. I'm just trying to conceptualize how to spice up the old "roll under this number" mechanic.
Also, I think we all just like rolling more than one dice to hit. XD So...trying to keep the two dice bit.
well an intereting concept i was just introduced to by playing the new star wars rpg was the dice mechanic they use.
it uses specialty dice good dice to represent how good you are, bad dice to represent the obstacles in your way, so good/bad d6, d8, d12.
the interesting thing about the dice is that the sides are either blank or have 1 or 2 of each of 2 types of symbols. this means when you roll the dice you are calculating 1 set of symbols along with the other type of symbols. one set of symbols is comparing the success of the good dice to the failures of the bad dice, just to see if you succeed or fail at what youre doing. the other set of symbols on the dice are called advantage/disadvantage. what this allows you to do is succeed at something, but also succeed in a good way or a bad way. succeeding in hitting someone but too much disdvantage you fall on your ass in the process. or the opposite you fail to hit them but in an advantageous way of some kind, maybe knocking their weapon out of alignment so it will be harder for them to hit on their turn.
the star wars chart they give as stickers to modify normal dice is http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/StarWarsRPG/edge-of-the-empir e/beta/support/SWR01_Dice%20Stickers%20(high-res).pdf here.
do you think this sort of thing might be what you are looking for for multiple dice mechanic?