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Orzel
2010-02-21, 06:04 PM
I once wanted to design a game where all the "rolls" are done at the start of the game. The same rolls would happen in the same order and be used for every character.

For example if the game used 20 sided and 6 sided dice, the players and GM would create an order that the numbers 1-20 and 1-6 would appear with no duplicates:

2, 3, 4, 15, 6, 18, 14, 17, 8, 1, 11, 19, 20...

Each time a dice is rolled for any character, the next number in that set is used.

So I tried a quick encounter of 4E D&D with my younger cousins using this rule. It was hilarious to watch them try to be the one who gets the 20.

"No Twin Strike. You can have the 1. Don't feel like missing twice."
"Why did you put the 2, 3, and 4 next to each other?"
"Stop delaying."

So I'm sharing this house rule to you all while designing a simple little game that turns this rule into a evil offspring of D&D and UNO (reversing order, skipping numbers, and the like).

Iferus
2010-02-22, 02:59 AM
Oh, all the free action skill checks I would make mid-battle....

Vaynor
2010-02-22, 03:00 AM
An interesting idea, but I can't see this ever working out.

cheezewizz2000
2010-02-22, 03:02 AM
Player: What mosters are we fighting?
GM: Take a knowledge nature check
Player: Sweet. Would the walls hold up to being fireballed?
GM: Uh... Ok. Knowledge Architecture. Do you want to know the result of the first one?
Player: Nah, it's ok. Hey, are we on a 20 now? Sweet. I attack.

Orzel
2010-02-22, 10:11 AM
Free action limit. The trick is to have a game with lots of meaningful rolls and a limit on bull rolls. This way you dash thru the order many times.

Milskidasith
2010-02-22, 10:42 AM
Free action limit. The trick is to have a game with lots of meaningful rolls and a limit on bull rolls. This way you dash thru the order many times.

Even one free action a round is basicaly a free reroll once per round.

Zom B
2010-02-22, 12:51 PM
You could have the list and keep it secret from the players. To make it even harder to follow, scramble 1-20, put it in a list, scramble 1-20 again, and follow the first set with the second scrambled set. Make sure you re-do it at the beginning of each game session.

Or heck, here's a program you can copy and paste into notepad and save as a .vbs file to generate a scrambled 1-20 list (no duplicates) if you want. Do it every encounter.


option explicit

Dim rollset(20)
Dim rerollmarker
Dim rollstring
Dim i
Dim j
Dim msg

Dim nl 'easier than writing vbnewline over and over again
nl = "" & vbnewline & ""

do
rollstring = ""
for i=1 to 20
do
randomize timer
rollset(i) = int(Rnd*20)+1
if i > 1 then
rerollmarker = 0
for j = 1 to i-1
if rollset(i) = rollset(j) then
rerollmarker = 1
end if
next
end if
loop until rerollmarker = 0
rollstring = rollstring & i & ") " & rollset(i) & nl
next
rollstring = rollstring & nl & "New set?"
msg = msgbox (rollstring, vbYesNo, "Preroller by Zom B")
Loop until msg = vbNo


Or if you want to just generate a set of numbers that are all 1-20 (duplicates possible):


option explicit

Dim rollset(20)
Dim rerollmarker
Dim rollstring
Dim i
Dim j
Dim msg

Dim nl 'easier than writing vbnewline over and over again
nl = "" & vbnewline & ""

do
rollstring = ""
for i=1 to 20
'do
randomize timer
rollset(i) = int(Rnd*20)+1
' if i > 1 then
' rerollmarker = 0
' for j = 1 to i-1
' if rollset(i) = rollset(j) then
' rerollmarker = 1
' end if
' next
' end if
'loop until rerollmarker = 0
rollstring = rollstring & i & ") " & rollset(i) & nl
next
rollstring = rollstring & nl & "New set?"
msg = msgbox (rollstring, vbYesNo, "Preroller by Zom B")
Loop until msg = vbNo