Anyone come across a good fantasy dice pool system?

[tedcahill2]

Has anyone come across a good fantasy RPG system that uses a Shadowrun-esque dice pools and hits/threshold system?

[Darrin]

Has anyone come across a good fantasy RPG system that uses a Shadowrun-esque dice pools and hits/threshold system?

Um... at the risk of sounding pedantic... Shadowrun, maybe?

Also, Earthdawn used dice pools, but I forget exactly if it was anything like Shadowrun.

[Cosi]

Why is this in the D&D subforum?


Also, Earthdawn used dice pools, but I forget exactly if it was anything like Shadowrun.

I think Earthdawn used a step system. You rolled multiple dice then added them together, and higher ranks let you roll bigger dice (so 1d4+1d4 -> 1d4+1d6 -> ...). That's not really a dice pool system, IMO.

Exalted is fantasy dicepools I think, but I wouldn't call it good. Dicepools in general are better suited to more grounded systems where characters are never expected to be overwhelmingly more powerful than normal people, and that's (comparatively) rare in fantasy systems. I guess you could look at the various Conan or Game of Thrones type games?

[Bronk]

I agree... Shadowrun itself is a pretty great game if you A: like dice pools, B: throw out about 90% of the rules, and C: keep it linked to Earthdawn. (Same for Earthdawn, but instead of dice pools you have to enjoy constantly referring to the step table, and in addition to a rules purge, it also needs to throw out the inane wait times to upgrade talents.) I don't know if the most recent editions address any of that.

I think all the World of Darkness games use, or at least used to use, a dice pool system, just with d10s instead of d6s.

[Deadline]

There's a fantasy version of the old West End Games D6 Star Wars system floating around. Don't have links to it at the moment, but that could work.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

If you’re open to something a bit more 4e, Pokemon Tabletop United has a sourcebook designed to allow more traditional fantasy gaming (without Pokemon training, even), and the combat and skills use the same d6 pool system