Hedrality, is it an issue?

[catty_big]

Hi all

Some of you will know that a gaming buddy and I are working on a game where the resolution mechanic is that the characters always succeed but there will be some negative consequences of their action- being seen and reported on to the Dean/Police etc.- (called demerits). The demerits build up during the game and in the Epilogue get converted into demerit dice, which the GM rolls to decide the ultimate fate of the frat house the characters are members of.

At a skill check the players roll a d6 pool based on their character’s skill point total, with demerits at 1s and 2s. During the last few months of playtesting one or two people have suggested using a different dice or demerit trigger to reduce the demerits a bit. The game is currently regulated by House Points (akin to plot points, style points, bennies or whatever) such that the demerit total can be brought down either by re-rolls and/or reducing the dice pool (which is inversely proportional to the skill point total). I’ve experimented with having demerits at 1s on d6s and 1s and 2s on d8s, instead of 1s and 2s on d6s. The results were interesting. They showed that with only 1s on d6s there were nowhere near enough demerits being produced, but the system worked fairly well with d8s, which is to say that the HPs have less work to do. I’m perfectly happy to go with d8s, but I’m aware that there’s been a bit of a movement away from using hedralities other than d6 unless absolutely necessary.

So, my question is this: would folks prefer a system that uses d8s, where the mechanics work an absolute treat, but you need upwards of 14 dice, or d6s- which obviously most gamers have in abundance, but where the demerit totals are relatively high (but can be brought down using the House Points)? Not everybody will be interested in playing this particular game, obviously, in which case the question is hypothetical, not to say academic, but I’d still like to hear folks’ thoughts.

You can either debate the pros and cons of each and then suggest a preference, or just vote in the poll.

Thanking y’all in advance.
Cheers Leo

[vulpinoid]

I can't remember what the game is, but I remember it being discussed over on Story Games a few weeks back.

The game uses a scaled system of success.

1-2 = fail.
3-4 = minor success
5+ = major success

Normally you'd use d6s to roll. One die per skill you can bring into the situation.

If you've got advantages, you can bump up d6s to d8s (thus giving you a smaller percentage chance to fail on that die, and a much better chance of getting a major success).

If you've got disadvantages, the use these to cancel out the die increases, or you use them to drop dice from d6 to d4 (thus dramatically increasing the chance of a fail, while eliminating the chance of a major success).

Splitting the skills, advantages and disadvantages allows a really textured way to roll the dice with lots of factors going into them, but not needing to roll quite so many dice.

For your game, you could easily change the "fail" category to be a minor success with demerits thrown in.

Just throwing an idea out there.

[vulpinoid]

Reconsidering...if limiting to a d6 system, maybe a "2" could count as half a demerit (rounding down fractions once the whole roll has been accounted for).

[bender42]

I'd say go with the D8's. They seem to work better, and they add a touch of uniqueness to the game. And besides, the players should just suck it up and spend the $.10 on a couple of D8. Its not like they're terribly expensive.

[nils]

I think as long as you stcik to normal polyhedral dice, you're okay with gamers - everybody will have a bunch of these sitting around and - at least here in Germany - you can buy them in every normal toy store (or at least it used to be like that, I have not tried in a few years).

It's specialty dice like fudge dice that are a problem and - in my limited personal opnion - an absolute "no go". Yes, I know you can work around that, but then the game system could've just been designed to avoid them in the first place.

If you try to appeal to non-gamers then anything but d6's is probably a disadvantage.

Now, I hope you don't mean to have a player roll 14d8 at once to determine an outcome - 14d of anything seem a bit much.

[catty_big]

[nils]

if 14d is the absolute maximum then I think it's probably okay.

I don't think price is a hurdle, as you say dice are cheap.. but the more effort it is for someone to get a needed item to play the game, the less likely they are to play it.

[catty_big]