Running the numbers

[sonarean]

So, a few posts ago, I talked about running the numbers on dice pool vs single die systems.  My premise was that you're far less likely to fail in a dice pool system than with a single die + modifiers roll.  Naturally, it depends on the size of the pool, but here are my findings for both d6 (a la Shadowrun) and d10 (a la nWoD)  systems:  (Note, I'm

Comments

Interesting

[talkingturkey]

An interesting breakdown of how dice pools achieve successes. Actually, Chris Sims, one of the original designers who worked on 4E has blogged about how he uses 3d6 instead of d20 for his 4E games. He has the math skewed to work toward about a 65% success rate in his game.

Also, just an aside. The current 4E design team has reset the success bar for 4E and expects PCs to hit on an 8 in a typical combat encounter now instead of a 10. So, if you re-evaluate looking at typical success coming around 65% on a D20, what does that do for your numbers?

Re: Interesting

[sonarean]

Doesn't really do anything for the numbers, actually. You're still looking at needing a pool of around 3 dice for either d6's or d10's. 3d6 give you 70%, 3d10's give you 65.7% If you up the d10's to a pool of 4, then you've got a 76% success rate. Either way, you've still got a higher success rate than the d20 roll.