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Shinizak
2010-09-03, 01:33 AM
So I've tried nWoD and oWoD, I gotta say I like the dice pool system of both, but I want to try something new, know any "similar but different" systems.

The Rose Dragon
2010-09-03, 04:28 AM
Weapons of the Gods. Basically, you roll a number of d10s, and get the largest set of dice, which gives you your result.

So, let's say you're rolling 7 dice. You come up with 9, 9, 7, 7, 7, 2, 0. Since the largest set is 3 7s, your result is 37.

It also has something called the River, which you can wash, float and flow dice through. It starts with no dice at the beginning of each scene, and it can keep a number of dice according to your rank in the martial arts world.

So, when you roll the above dice, you can float 2 9s to the empty river. Later, when you roll 5 dice to get 9, 9, 9, 7, you can flow both 9s to your dice roll, getting 5 9s, giving a result of 59. You can also wash one of the 9s and float the 7, having a higher flexibility in later rolls.

FelixG
2010-09-03, 05:15 AM
Exalted (and shadowrun i think?) has dicepools

Psyx
2010-09-03, 05:20 AM
Weapons of the Gods.

Sounds interesting. Tell us more!

akma
2010-09-03, 05:26 AM
Exalted and Scion have a dice pool system that 7-9 is one succsess, and 10 is two succses. And I don`t know much about shadowrun, but I once heard it requires a lot of d6.

Another D10 based system is ORE - One Roll Engine. You need to get pairs/triples/higher of a certain number in order to succsess. That specific number is the height. For exemple, if you get 10, 10 you got a height 10 width 2 roll, and if you roll 1, 1, 1, 1 you got a height 1 width 4 roll. For checks, the height is the quality of the thing you are trying to do, and the width is the speed in which you do it.

FelixG
2010-09-03, 05:30 AM
Exalted and Scion have a dice pool system that 7-9 is one succsess, and 10 is two succses. And I don`t know much about shadowrun, but I once heard it requires a lot of d6.

Another D10 based system is ORE - One Roll Engine. You need to get pairs/triples/higher of a certain number in order to succsess. That specific number is the height. For exemple, if you get 10, 10 you got a height 10 width 2 roll, and if you roll 1, 1, 1, 1 you got a height 1 width 4 roll. For checks, the height is the quality of the thing you are trying to do, and the width is the speed in which you do it.

That sounds like alot of fun, so im guessing a height 10 width 1 task would be excellent quality in the least amount of time?

Who publishes ORE?

akma
2010-09-03, 05:34 AM
That sounds like alot of fun, so im guessing a height 10 width 1 task would be excellent quality in the least amount of time?

Who publishes ORE?

You got it a bit wrong. The higher the width, the less time it takes. Besides, you need at least width 2 to succsess.

I don`t remmember who publishes ORE.

P.S. An ORE based system: http://www.arcdream.com/dennis/NEMESIS.pdf
Also, I found out who published it. It is written in the first paragraph here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godlike_%28role-playing_game%29

The Rose Dragon
2010-09-03, 06:48 AM
You can find a free introduction to Weapons of the Gods on RPGNow.com.

In fact, here's the link. (http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=120&products_id=56217)

prufock
2010-09-03, 06:54 AM
I haven't played those games, so I can't say if it's "similar but different," but the d6 system for the old Ghostbusters game was pretty fluid. In retrospect, it is considered the first RPG to use the dice pool system, and it still stands up as efficient, simple, and fun.

4 stats: Brains, Muscle, Move, and Cool. You get 12 points to spread among them, minimum 1, maximum 5. You roll that many d6 for all checks relating to that stat. Certain Talents (such as, for instance, "Seduce" for Cool, or "Brawler" for Muscle) give you an extra d6, as does certain equipment (a pair of brass knucks for Muscle).

The flat DCs could be a bit troublesome. For instance, if you had a 1 in Move, it's impossible to hit a ghost with your proton beam without using Brownie Points. But Brownie Points were excellent, essentially a precursor to Action Points, but you start with... I think 20?

Another interesting mechanic was the Ghost Die. Every time you roll a check, you also roll a Ghost Die, which is a special die with a Ghost as the 6. If you get a ghost, something bad happens. The GM decides.

And that's pretty much it. It's a rules light game. I think it was 12 pages or something.

Knaight
2010-09-03, 07:49 AM
The dice pool is among the most common resolution systems in RPG, right after roll and add. That said, Burning Wheel is a particularly good dice pool system worth looking into, and ORE is a pseudo-dice pool matching system, with one ORE game (Nemesis) free online. Burning Wheel is also technically free online, Nemesis has the distinction of being free online legally.

erikun
2010-09-03, 10:30 AM
Burning Wheel is a similar system. It uses a d6, with 4+ being a success. You can also improve the "grade" of a skill to increase the chances of success on a roll, up to 3+ or even 2+ with work.

Shadowrun uses d6 dice pools, with 5 and 6 being a success.

Faery's Tale uses d6, with evens being a success.

IronClaw/JadeClaw use a fairly unusual dice pool mechanic, where increasing a skill increases the size of the dice used. Increasing beyond d12 moves to another die, d12+d4. Dice are rolled together and compared to a target difficulty or opposing roll. Every die over the difficulty is a success, for set difficulties. For opposing rolls, all dice are compared from highest to lowest rolls, with the highest in each pair being a success. (Unopposed dice are automatic successes.)

The Big Dice
2010-09-03, 10:33 AM
Legend of the Five Rings and Seven Seas use a variant on the dice pool idea called the Roll and Keep (R&K) system.

You add together a skill value and a trait value to get your total dice pool, roll that amount of D10s and keep a number of them equal to the trait used. 10s are open ended and you're trying to beat a target number that could be between 5 and 50.