Re: Custom Dice Simulator

Posted by MortiS-the-Lost on Apr 16, 2010; 1:06pm
URL: http://the-lost-and-the-damned.71.s1.nabble.com/Custom-Dice-Simulator-tp4820460p4912828.html

Some minor re-structuring of the forum maybe taking place over the next few months, so watch this space ... or rather watch where this space ends up

SamuelF wrote

I like the idea of tying initiative to a movement roll. Did the probability curves suit the racial traits you wanted to portray? People generally see Dwarves as steady and enduring and elves as more unpredictable.  I might exchange the two as they are, but I also think its good to push peoples pre-conceptions.

Well I wasn't trying to change peoples pre-conceptions more rigidity re-enforce them with game mechanics, making each race play differently without unbalancing the game.  

The idea was initially to give each race a different movement rate (on average). Dwarfs where given 1D12  because although 1D12 has an equal chance of rolling any number (being 1 dice roll) it also means they are the only race that could roll a 1 for movement which brings their over-all average down and means in general Dwarfs will often roll lower and thus move slower. Conversely Elves having 3D4 means the lowest number they could roll would be 3, so over all they would be more likely to roll higher than other races. Humans kept the original 2D6 as in HeroQuest giving them the mid-ground  and Halflings were later given D4+D8 which means although the lowest they can is still the same as a human they would roll lower on average. Of course the highest all the Heroes can roll is still 12 meaning no one race out-classes the others. One thing to remember through out, is that a Hero doesn't have to use up all of their Movement Roll if they don't want to.

Shortly afterwards came the idea of using the Movement Dice for Initiative Rolls, which in the case of our games means rolling to see what order the players get to place their miniatures on the board and then who goes first. Currently I am working on expanding on the rules further to add a Surprise-Roll mechanic using the Movement Dice for Initiative Rolls, by which when a Hero opens a door to discover a room full of monsters they will roll their Movement Dice (as an initiative test) opposing an Initiative Roll made by the GM for each group of the same monster type in the room. If the Hero rolls higher they continue their turn as usual, but if a group of monsters manages to roll higher they get to interrupt the turn sequence and immediately Move and perform an Action in the same way a Wandering Monster does when drawn while searching. This rule will take a while to be implemented though as it requires me to work out Initiative/Movement Dice for each of the monster races/types.

The other thing we also use the movement dice for is Agility Tests. This covers pretty much the same situations similar tests do in most role-play games (Dex tests in D&D, Agility in WFRP, ect). Most commonly in our games this means climbing out of or jumping over Pit Traps or other such obstacles. Basically the GM will work out a number based on the difficulty of the action in question and the Hero has to roll over that number using their Movement Dice.
For instance if a Hero wants to jump over a 2” wide pit trap, they might be required to roll over 6. success mean the Hero makes it to the other side, failure they fall. An agile long-legged Elf is almost guaranteed to be able to make this leap, a human nearly as much, but a short-legged and heavily built Dwarf is going to have trouble. Also lets not for get the Halfling, who although also short of leg is a lot lighter and more agile than the Dwarf and thus will find it a little more difficult than a human, but not as hard as the poor Dwarf.

I'm sure some of you might be wondering why it's a 6 to jump across a 2” Pit Trap. Well rest assured we didn't just pull this number out of our arses. To work out the difficulty of a jump we take the distance and times by 3 (2” x 3 = 6 so a 6 or higher is required) the GM can of course add further modifiers to cover situations like slippery floors or strong winds. Climbing works in a similar way with bonuses given for using ropes ect.
The initial calculations for this are based on the assumed scale of 1” = 5ft and some time Me and Big Cat spent running and jumping about on our driveway with swords and a tape measure.

Bloody hell I've rambled on about that for a bit now.

SamuelF wrote

 If you or others have any ideas/requests for it or any other new pieces of software, then please run them by me. Computers are generally pretty useful as generators of random info.  

One thing I'd quite like is a random dungeon mapper application that generates a basic layout for a GM to flesh out. You can enter the maximum and minimum dimensions and number of rooms, the width you want the corridors ect and the program generates a random layout from the data. There are quite a few programs out there already but the one feature they all lack is the ability to enter the dimensions of your table-top or battlemat so you can guarantee the finished dungeon will be playable in your gaming space.

And a much more ambitious project that I attempted my self a few years back and later abandoned due to me wanting to have a life was a 3D map of the HeroQuest board which could be viewed from 1st person perspective by players and 3rd person by a GM and played over a network as a board-less version of the game. kinda like the SpaceHulk game on the Playstation and PC but with a human GM and turn based movement and combat. D&D 4th edition apparently came with software which did pretty much the same thing for D&D so I don't expect anyone to really want to pick up this project ever.