I just picked up Anomalous Subsurface Environment, and have the Kickstarter Lamentations of the Flame Princess coming. And after reading reviews of DCC with its Androids in its monster section, am noticing that more tech / sf elements are being dipped in the OSR chocolate than I recall being the norm back when I was first playing 1E / BB (except for Expedition to the Barrier Peaks).

If you have an OSR campaign going, how much do you add? If you've introduced guns / blasters / shooty things, do you make them extremely deadly or just another d8 of damage?

Some people use an exploding die mechanic wherein if you roll maximum on you damage die you get to roll it again.

I do things somewhat differently. I'm currently in the process of modifying my process, but this should give you a general idea.    part one and part two.

Quote from: Aos;547190Some people use an exploding die mechanic wherein if you roll maximum on you damage die you get to roll it again.

I do things somewhat differently. I'm currently in the process of modifying my process, but this should give you a general idea.    part one and part two.

That is quite a brutal critical hit table - certainly more realistic than just straight up hit points.

Quote from: Aos;547190Some people use an exploding die mechanic wherein if you roll maximum on you damage die you get to roll it again.

That's what I do, and it works pretty well for me. Its how gunpowder rifles and pistols work in my Albion game.

RPGPundit

I'm guessing you guys are using all-d6 for damage when talking about these exploding dice, correct? Because between a d4 and say a d8 exploding on a maximum result, you run into probability problems in which the lowest die type actually may have a greater chance to explode with a greater average damage.

Quote from: Lynn;547179I just picked up Anomalous Subsurface Environment, and have the Kickstarter Lamentations of the Flame Princess coming. And after reading reviews of DCC with its Androids in its monster section, am noticing that more tech / sf elements are being dipped in the OSR chocolate than I recall being the norm back when I was first playing 1E / BB (except for Expedition to the Barrier Peaks).

If you have an OSR campaign going, how much do you add? If you've introduced guns / blasters / shooty things, do you make them extremely deadly or just another d8 of damage?

At the moment, with the megadungeon I'm building right now, there are plans to incorporate some amount of ancient tech, particularly weird tech left behind by the Mi-Go and other extraplanar beings as they tried to exploit the magical properties of the mountain which hosts the megadungeon.

I don't know about "shooty things" yet, but there will be brains plugged to machinery, weird generators and various types of apparatus the PCs might find and get to work in the complex, teleporters, and more.

Quote from: Benoist;547318I'm guessing you guys are using all-d6 for damage when talking about these exploding dice, correct? Because between a d4 and say a d8 exploding on a maximum result, you run into probability problems in which the lowest die type actually may have a greater chance to explode with a greater average damage.

Personally, if i were to use this mechanic I'd use multiple d4. The  more powerful the gun the more d4.

Quote from: Aos;547320Personally, if i were to use this mechanic I'd use multiple d4. The  more powerful the gun the more d4.

I can see that working, plus the d4 is pointing and looks like a projectile so... LOL

Anyway, the point is that exploding dice work best when we're talking about the same die type. If we have several die types involved with this same mechanic, then the probabilities become funky.

Quote from: Benoist;547318I'm guessing you guys are using all-d6 for damage when talking about these exploding dice, correct? Because between a d4 and say a d8 exploding on a maximum result, you run into probability problems in which the lowest die type actually may have a greater chance to explode with a greater average damage.

Actually, IIRC the higher dice will still do more average damage over time, because the higher average on any single roll is more than sufficient to offset the lower probability og exploding rolls.

In Melan's Fomalhaut setting, futuristic weapons (various rayguns, laser swords, etc.) typically do between 1d10 and 3d10 points of damage (some with other die types), all with exploding dice. They also have another, even more useful special ability: they ignore most types of protection, so the target's armour, shield and even certain types of cover are useless.

I had done some probabilities based on this type of thing with a homebrew system I was fooling around some few years ago. It basically used a kind of scale of dice akin to DCC's with the Zocchi dice involved, and there were exploding mechanics. I had found out that some average results were actually more likely for some types of small dice than higher ones. I don't have the probability sheets anymore, and you might be right it wouldn't reflect on average results combined, only for some specific results - I honestly can't remember anymore than that. I do remember I was struggling with this issue at the time.

Maybe ggroy or some other math-inclined people (you maybe?) could work out the probabilities of each result on a single exploding die of each type.

Quote from: Premier;547327they ignore most types of protection, so the target's armour, shield and even certain types of cover are useless.

I think this is actually more important than the exact amount of damage done.

Full math analysis of exploding dice - http://axiscity.hexamon.net/users/isomage/rpgmath/explode/

Average rolls per dice type (man tables are hard to do in forums)

Die    Average rolls    Average value
d4    1.3333334         3.3333333
d6    1.2                 4.2
d8    1.1428572         5.142857
d10    1.1111112         6.111111
d12    1.0909091         7.090909
d20    1.0526316        11.052631

So a d4 explodes more often but still doesn't do as much damage as a d6

I wonder if I was thinking of the discrepency between d4 and d6 on the graph.

I honestly can't remember anymore.

Quote from: Lynn;547179I just picked up Anomalous Subsurface Environment, and have the Kickstarter Lamentations of the Flame Princess coming. And after reading reviews of DCC with its Androids in its monster section, am noticing that more tech / sf elements are being dipped in the OSR chocolate than I recall being the norm back when I was first playing 1E / BB (except for Expedition to the Barrier Peaks).

Blackmoor and the Wilderlands both include fair amounts of sci fantasy.

Quote from: Lynn;547179If you have an OSR campaign going, how much do you add? If you've introduced guns / blasters / shooty things, do you make them extremely deadly or just another d8 of damage?

I ported in Metamorphosis Alpha tech and used it as written in my AD&D campaigns, so a laser pistol or protein disruptor did anywhere 5d6 to 20d6 damage. Makes the [strike]laser cleric[/strike] radiant lance look like a bad joke.

I have black powder firearms in my setting, approximately equal to that extant in England and the American Colonies at the time of the American Revolution.  I don't make them deadly so much as I do very easy to acquire basic proficiency; the Colonial Militia in my setting are very much a Pike-and-Musket infantry army with increasingly-mobile artillery support.  For a defense-focused military group, it's fantastic.  For most PCs, they're better off with a bow- for now.