BedrockBrendan, I'm callin you out!

gleichman · April 03, 2013, 05:28:20 PM

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;642647I have a game by them called Ambush Alley. I remember it being pretty good (it was specifically for counter-insurgency miniature combat).

Link for those interested.

We did a quick 40K conversion to Tomorrow's War, played better and matched fluff more closely than any official product ever published. I can't speak highly enough of their game.

RPGPundit · April 04, 2013, 07:04:05 PM

Anyone familiar with my tastes knows that I don't care for dice pools, and yet I think Servants of Gaius is amazing, on account of the setting material and how the system ties into the setting. If I run another Roman campaign, it will be with this system.

RPGpundit

RI2 · April 04, 2013, 08:23:15 PM

I've never been a dice pool person, but I like what Bedrock does with it. Servants of Gaius is probably my favorite of the games using the mechanic, but that is due to the subject matter. I like Terror Network a lot as well.

I should note, I have done layout and graphic design work for Bedrock, so my opinion might be biased.

Richard

John Morrow · April 05, 2013, 12:24:24 AM

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;642553Partly, but it was also subjective. I never really like games like vampire that much, but always found the d10 dice pools helped me not to think about the mechanics too much (especially if you take out counting successes). So for me it is a quick and easy way. It also is murky in terms of probability, which is something I wanted. You know its better to have 4d10 than 2d10, but most people have a harder time calculating probabilities on the fly with dice pools instead of say a d20 or d100. To me that felt more like life where I don't actually know my numerical chance of hitting someone in the face, but just have a general sense that it is easy or hard (a lot of people do disagree with this last point though).

I used to believe that opaque probabilities were good, but I no longer do. While people in real life don't necessarily know their precise numeric chance of doing something, they also have a lot of intuition and feel about whether they are likely or unlikely to succeed that's missing in a tabletop RPG. I think knowledge of precise odds compensates for the intuition and feel that the player can't experience directly and that giving players the odds helps them make informed choices rather than guessing.

Zachary The First · April 05, 2013, 06:47:56 AM

Quote from: RI2;643049I've never been a dice pool person, but I like what Bedrock does with it. Servants of Gaius is probably my favorite of the games using the mechanic, but that is due to the subject matter. I like Terror Network a lot as well.

I should note, I have done layout and graphic design work for Bedrock, so my opinion might be biased.

Richard

I saw your name in there as I was reading through last night. Really nice work.

RI2 · April 05, 2013, 07:34:15 AM

Quote from: Zachary The First;643116I saw your name in there as I was reading through last night. Really nice work.

Thanks Zach. I did the graphic design and layout on Arrows as well, and that is some of my best work. Well it was until City of Clocks came out.

Richard

Bill · April 05, 2013, 08:15:20 AM

A comment on dice pools.

Many dice pool systems irritate me.

Dice pools do come in many flavors, however.

Network does have a very simple and sleek dicepool compared to most systems that use a dicepool.

Limited addition, no mental gymnastics, and no minigame involved.

Question for the Savage Worlds fans; Do you consider SW to be a dice pool system?

gleichman · April 05, 2013, 08:17:02 AM

Quote from: Bill;643124Question for the Savage Worlds fans; Do you consider SW to be a dice pool system?

Not a fan of SW, but for what it's worth- no.

Grymbok · April 05, 2013, 08:51:04 AM

Quote from: Bill;643124Question for the Savage Worlds fans; Do you consider SW to be a dice pool system?

I agree with gleichman - with only two dice and the fact that you just take the result of the highest, SW is essentially just giving everyone a free re-roll all the time, rather than being an actual dice pool.

RPGPundit · April 08, 2013, 12:27:05 PM

Quote from: Grymbok;643137I agree with gleichman - with only two dice and the fact that you just take the result of the highest, SW is essentially just giving everyone a free re-roll all the time, rather than being an actual dice pool.

Yeah; I wouldn't call two people a "bunch", so I wouldn't call two dice a pool.

RPGPundit

Bill · April 08, 2013, 01:53:58 PM

Is Vampire still a dicepool game when the characters are rolling 2 dice?

Rincewind1 · April 08, 2013, 01:55:34 PM

Quote from: Bill;644167Is Vampire still a dicepool game when the characters are rolling 2 dice?

Yes, since it just means you're being shitty at what you're about to do. To make a joke on the subject of "what's a group/pool", it's obviously 3, since that's the number of people law often considers a gathering.

gleichman · April 08, 2013, 01:59:48 PM

Quote from: Bill;644167Is Vampire still a dicepool game when the characters are rolling 2 dice?

I never touched Vampire after 1st edition and so don't know (and couldn't care less) about it's current version. But if the number of dice rolled varies and allows for 3 or more dice in a single roll, than yes.

I have a simple definition you see and it may even be a common one, but it may not be standard. I think an early version of the dice pool concept (Shadowrun 1st edition perhaps) was defined by a 'pool' of dice that you assigned to specific tasks or parts of tasks while holding others reserve for different purposes.

Bill · April 08, 2013, 02:29:38 PM

To me there are two types of die pools.

The standard one, where you roll a few dice and note successes.

The strange distracting one where the two dicepools play poker together.

I don't mind the standard type if the number of dice you roll is controlled.

The strange type bothers me.

Grymbok · April 08, 2013, 04:21:28 PM

Quote from: Bill;644188To me there are two types of die pools.

The standard one, where you roll a few dice and note successes.

The strange distracting one where the two dicepools play poker together.

I don't mind the standard type if the number of dice you roll is controlled.

The strange type bothers me.

I don't have anything against dice pools as a concept. My main concern is that many implementations have greater handling time and more opaque probabilities than other methods, and offer nothing in return.

Of course these days with dice rolling apps the handling time issue can be addressed at least (albeit at some loss of physicality - if rolling dice wasn't fun in itself we wouldn't have the game of Yahtzee, after all).