I am developing a game based on the mechanics of the dices pool with successes with the result of 4+.
The mechanics will have a unique twist that renders it different from what has been seen up until now.
But I'm not here to talk about the twist rather I would like to talk about two possibilities that I would like to give to those who roll the dice.

1) Sacrificing the dices. (I talked about it here)
Do not cast some of the dice in the dices pool. You decide the number of dice you do not throw. If you exceed the difficulty threshold or your opponent's score when calculating the success margin, you can add 1 for each die that is not cast.

2) Condense the dices.
Do not throw the dice in the pool but only throw a single die. If you get 4+ it's like you've got a number of hits equal to the size of the dices pool otherwise you've got zero hits.

Comments, opinions?
The first mechanism should allow you to crush lower opponents, the second to try everything against superior opponents so the two mechanics interact in a pretty way.

It's difficult to balance your idea without knowing what this twist is...

1) I guess my first question is; what does "+1" for every un-used die mean? Does it mean 1 added to the result of the dice you rolled? (That would be mathematically inferior to just throwing the dice.) Or, is the +1 some separated effect ladder that you're using? In which case, I'd need to know the scale of it to know if it would be a balanced strategy. If it is balanced, it's interesting.

2) Yeah...I'd never do that. It just doesn't sound like an appealing strategy to put all your eggs in one basket like that. I'd rather throw the dice and get the 1/2rd odds for each roll.

//Panjumanju

Quote from: Panjumanju;1068899It's difficult to balance your idea without knowing what this twist is...

1) I guess my first question is; what does "+1" for every un-used die mean? Does it mean 1 added to the result of the dice you rolled? (That would be mathematically inferior to just throwing the dice.) Or, is the +1 some separated effect ladder that you're using? In which case, I'd need to know the scale of it to know if it would be a balanced strategy. If it is balanced, it's interesting.

2) Yeah...I'd never do that. It just doesn't sound like an appealing strategy to put all your eggs in one basket like that. I'd rather throw the dice and get the 1/2rd odds for each roll.

//Panjumanju

1) Perhaps an example will be able to clarify. Suppose you have 8 dice in swords and are facing an opponent with only 4 dice in dodge. Instead of rolling all 8 dice you roll only 6. This decreases the probability of beating the 4 dice in dodge of your antagonist. However if, despite the sacrifice, you still manage to beat him, you have +2 at the margin of success that in my system is very important. In short, sacrifice the probability of success in order to increase the margin of success in case of victory.

2) This point is a bit counterintuitive. There are desperate cases in which the probability of success is too low with normal roll. Imagine that you have 6 dice in acrobatics and are trying to make a very difficult acrobatics (6 successes needed). In this case it is advisable to condense the dices. Of course if you fail you will get zero successes and this implies a critical failure but at least you have a 50% chance of success.

Later i will talk about the twist and explain the system in greater details so everything will become more clear.

I like the risk factor.  The dice sacrifice to produce margin results is interesting - especially if the sacrificed dice can create special F/X depending on the skill or spell.

I also like the Hail Mary pass idea. When the shit hits the fan, you got 50% Success vs. 50% Fumble. Feels cinematic to me.

Definitely tell us more.

However...it will be interesting to see what players actually do with the system in actual play, and how they feel about it.

I am currently working:
1) to a light fantasy RPG based on French cards
2) to a massive fantasy rpg based on the d20
3) to a lightweight universal risus-like rpg based on the dice pool (the one I have spoken about here)

I think I will give priority mainly to project 2 which I believe will be published in Italian in January and after the test, perhaps in English too.
So I share some mechanics looking for opinions.
Here, too, the goal is the same: to change the chances of success in exchange for something else.

Critical successes and failures
If, during a trial or comparison, the result exceeds the difficulty threshold or the antagonist value of 8 or more is critical success. If the difficulty or value of the antagonist exceeds the result of 8 or more there is a critical failure.


Tests and comparisons with cautious approach
Whenever the player wishes, when he makes a test or a comparison, instead of rolling a d20 he can roll three and take the intermediate result. This option represents the attempt, by the character, to carry out the action with the utmost caution, taking care not to make mistakes but at the same time precluding new roads that could lead to better results than the norm.

If, for example, the results are 4, 15 and 17, 15 are taken.
If the results are 8, 12 and 20 you take 12.


Trials and comparisons with a bold approach
Whenever the player wants it, when he makes a test or a comparison, instead of pulling a d20 he can pull two: he takes as a result what is most distant from the number 10. This distance is calculated as a result - 10 if the result is greater of 10, like 10 - result otherwise. If the distances from 10 of the two results are the same you take the lower of the two.
This option represents the attempt, by the character, to carry out the action trying the real best he can do, running great risks of failing badly in the attempt to obtain an extraordinary result.

For example:
In fact, if the results are 4 and 15, you take 4 because 15 - 10 = 5, 10 - 4 = 6 and 6 is greater than 5.
If 8 and 10 takes 8, because  10 - 10 = 0, 10 - 8 = 2 and 2 is greater than 0.
If 7 and 19 you take 19 because  19 - 10 = 9, 10 - 7 = 3 and 9 is greater than 3.
If 4 and 5 you take 4, because  10 - 4 = 6, 10 - 5 = 5 and 6 is greater than 5.
If 12 and 16 you take 16 because 16 - 10 = 6, 12 - 10 = 2 and 6 is greater than 2.
If 1 and 19 you take 1 because  19 - 10 = 9, 10 - 1 = 9 .
If 2 and 18 you take 2 because  18 - 10 = 8, 10 - 2 = 8 .