[D6 Star Wars] Variable Damage versus Fixed Damage

[Matthew]

One of the things that used to irritate me about D6 was the amount of dice rolling involved in combat, which was all fine and dandy when things were small scale, but could slow combat down significantly when a dozen or so combatants were involved. In D&D you can roll 10 goblin attacks with 10 dice all at once, but the way that D6 works you have to roll every storm trooper attack separately, then roll all the damage separately.

I like rolling lots of D6, but not so much when it means that rolling all NPC activities takes up much more time than PC activities. I remember this was particularly obvious during a space port shoot out where there were multiple sides in addition to the PCs. Being a novice game master at the time I had elected to roll all the attacks as they occurred, and one player became so frustrated that he exclaimed "Why don't you just decide what happens with the guys not shooting at us?" He was right, of course.

So what about something like this? Instead of rolling damage and resistance, fixed totals are used corresponding to the total dice:

1d6 = 3
2d6 = 7
3d6 = 10
4d6 = 14
5d6 = 17
6d6 = 21
7d6 = 24

...and so on. To increase the variability, maybe ever 5 points over the target difficulty grants +1 damage. So, for example:

Storm Trooper
Blaster Rifle 4D
Strength 2D
Equipment: Blaster Rifle (5D), Storm Trooper Armour (1D)

Hero
Blaster Pistol 5D
Dodge 4D
Strength 3D
Equipment: Blaster Pistol (4D), Blast Vest (+1)

So, the hero has been caught out at medium range against three storm troopers, meaning they only need a "10" to hit him. Luckily, he has the initiative, so he burns a force point to double all his attributes and take three actions: 1) Dodge 2) Shoot 3) Shoot.

1) His Dodge is thus 6D, but he rolls low and gets 15.
2) The three Storm Troopers roll 4D to hit, turning up 20, 20 and 4.
3) The damage from their blaster rifles is thus 18 each, but the hero has 6D+1 resistance because of his force point and he turns up 25 and 19.
4) The hero takes two shots on 8D each, scoring 33 and 38, which translates to 18 and 19 damage.
5) The Storm Troopers resist on 3D scoring 7 and 17 (wild die) respectively.
6) The first Storm Trooper is incapacitated and the second stunned.

Still a lot of rolling, maybe fixed defences would be better?

[bosssmiley]

Anything that reduces the amount of dice flying off the table during play has to be to the good.

Further simplification: perhaps only the active character, or only the PC, rolls. Passive/NPC characters (as you prefer) have flat DCs, or possibly roll a single wild die over a flat DC. So a 4d skill switches to a semi-floating DC of 10+1d.

I know it'll involve a little retro-fitting, and will reduce some of the delicious "string-of-1s" randomness of the d6 system, but it might help things to run a little quicker in complex situations.

The bonus damage for degrees of success rule is good. It's something a lot of other systems could use IMO. The Thunderous Papercut (roll well TH, then roll piddly damage) is the sort of mechanical b0rkage that should have died a long time ago.

[LibraryOgre]

I like a combination, actually... and rather like Boss Smiley's "Only PCs roll more than the wild die."

So, the example would go like this:
Storm Trooper
Blaster Rifle 4D
Strength 2D
Equipment: Blaster Rifle (5D), Storm Trooper Armour (1D)

Hero
Blaster Pistol 5D
Dodge 4D
Strength 3D
Equipment: Blaster Pistol (4D), Blast Vest (+1)

The Storm troopers would each roll 1D6+9 for their attack (3 for the regular dice, 1d6 for the wild die), with the d6 exploding. For damage, they'd do 1D6+12.

This slightly favors the heroes, since the average on 1d6 is actually 3.5, without utterly destroying the NPCs.

[truemane]

What I usually do in my d6 games (or used to do since I haven't table-topped a d6 game in years) was to pre-prepare a large list of rolls. I'd have 50 or so listed from 2d to 10d. And then I'df just take them off the top, cross them off as I use them, and Bob's your uncle.

It did remove some of the fun of actually rolling dice, but in larger combats it streamlined matters immensely. I used to do the same thing with passive checks. Have the players roll a string of dice before the game starts and use them, one after the other, whenever I wanted them to roll for something but didn't want them to know I rolled it.

And, of course, important NPC's always got to actually roll. Because they're important.

[Matthew]

Anything that reduces the amount of dice flying off the table during play has to be to the good.

Aye, I like dice rolling, but there is definitely too much in D6 if you have more than handful of combatants.

Further simplification: perhaps only the active character, or only the PC, rolls. Passive/NPC characters (as you prefer) have flat DCs, or possibly roll a single wild die over a flat DC. So a 4d skill switches to a semi-floating DC of 10+1d.

Good idea. That would mean basically static defences, I would not bother with the wild die, but I might allow character points to be additional rolls. Basically it would mean that dodging would be useful depending on range:

Short = 5 = 2D+0 or more
Medium = 10 = 3D+1 or more
Long = 15 = 4D+2 or more

I know it'll involve a little retro-fitting, and will reduce some of the delicious "string-of-1s" randomness of the d6 system, but it might help things to run a little quicker in complex situations.

I agree.

The bonus damage for degrees of success rule is good. It's something a lot of other systems could use IMO. The Thunderous Papercut (roll well TH, then roll piddly damage) is the sort of mechanical b0rkage that should have died a long time ago.

Yeah, it is not so bad in very abstract combat systems, but D6 seems to tend towards the more specific. If static defences and static damage were used, I would be tempted to make it 1D per 5 above difficulty.

Interestingly, D6 Space offers a body point (that is to say, hit point) system with armour as damage reduction. That might be worth considering. To be honest, anybody hit by blaster fire should be incapacitated straight off the bat, with only character points being likely to prevent it. How many wounded Storm Troopers do we really see in Star Wars? They pretty much go down after every hit...

So typical damage from blaster fire is:

Pistol: 4D = 14
Rifle: 5D = 17

Storm Trooper armour reduces damage by 1D, and they usually have 2D or 3D strength, which might mean 7-10 Body Points. What if:

Reduced to 0 or less Body Points = Incapacitated
Reduced to less than 3 Body Points = Badly Wounded
Reduced to 3-6 Body Points = Lightly Wounded

Any other wounding hit is considered a stun.

Maybe a bit too Dungeons & Dragons, I dunno.

Try the example again...

The hero has been caught out at medium range against three storm troopers, meaning they only need a "10" to hit him. Luckily, he has the initiative, so he burns a force point to double all his attributes and take three actions: 1) Dodge 2) Shoot 3) Shoot.

1) His Dodge is thus 6D, which means 21.
2) The three Storm Troopers roll 4D to hit, turning up 20, 20 and 4.
3) No hits on our hero.
4) The hero takes two shots on 8D each, scoring 33 and 38.
5) This translates to 5D+1 and 5D+2 damage, turning up as 23 and 26.
6) The Storm Troopers have 10 Body Points and 4 Armour.
7) Both go down in a hail of blaster fire.

Still a problem for rolling multiple Storm Trooper attacks, but if we implement the wild die solution we're only rolling 1D:

1) His Dodge is 6D (17+1D), which turns up 27 (wild die)
2) The three Storm troopers roll 4D to hit (10+1D), rolling 25 (wild die twice!), 12 and 11.
3) No hits on our hero.
4) The hero takes two shots on 8D each (24+1D), which turn up 27 and 28.
5) Both shots were 15 over required number, so +1D. the hero rolls 5D damage (14+1D) and scores 18 and 19.
6) The Storm Troopers have 10 Body Points and 4 Armour.
7) Both go down in a hail of blaster fire.

Quite liking this. Have to decide what to do about wild die turning up "1" (reduce the total by 1D, maybe?), and it kind of reduces the excitement of rolling large handfuls of opposed dice, but it definitely solves the multiple dice issue. Have to give this some thought.

I like a combination, actually... and rather like Boss Smiley's "Only PCs roll more than the wild die."

So, the example would go like this:
Storm Trooper
Blaster Rifle 4D
Strength 2D
Equipment: Blaster Rifle (5D), Storm Trooper Armour (1D)

Hero
Blaster Pistol 5D
Dodge 4D
Strength 3D
Equipment: Blaster Pistol (4D), Blast Vest (+1)

The Storm troopers would each roll 1D6+9 for their attack (3 for the regular dice, 1d6 for the wild die), with the d6 exploding. For damage, they'd do 1D6+12.

This slightly favours the heroes, since the average on 1d6 is actually 3.5, without utterly destroying the NPCs.

Aye; I think it doesn't really matter too much whether you use "3" or "3.5" in the figuring, but the idea of just rolling the wild die is very appealing.

[DMfromTheAbyss]

Wow been awhile since I've seen any mention of Star Wars West end.

I think just having the PC's and actions directly involving the PC's rolled, does a fine job of cutting down on clutter. Any NPC vs NPC action is just story/cinematography based.

Taking the randomness out of the NPC's rolling could be seen as either gimping them (if they need to have a lucky roll in a situation) or as an advantage. (hey these guys never roll that bad? what gives?)

I've had characters saved when a particular STR roll to resist damage botched by having the enemy botch the damage roll just as much.

From doing a lot of d6 - d20 conversions generally for every 1D of a stat you can pretty much count it as 3-4 points, it works out pretty well, but you have to eyeball it a bit.

Just my 2 cents.

[Matthew]

What I usually do in my d6 games (or used to do since I haven't table-topped a d6 game in years) was to pre-prepare a large list of rolls. I'd have 50 or so listed from 2d to 10d. And then I'df just take them off the top, cross them off as I use them, and Bob's your uncle.

It did remove some of the fun of actually rolling dice, but in larger combats it streamlined matters immensely. I used to do the same thing with passive checks. Have the players roll a string of dice before the game starts and use them, one after the other, whenever I wanted them to roll for something but didn't want them to know I rolled it.

And, of course, important NPC's always got to actually roll. Because they're important.

I think that I would miss the visceral action of rolling the die, the aesthetic of pre-prepared dice rolls does not appeal to me.

Wow been awhile since I've seen any mention of Star Wars West end.

You might be interested in this thread: West End Games Releases D6 Core Rules as Free PDFs (though, to be honest, when I went to their website and forums I found no such news, which makes me wonder...)

I think just having the PC's and actions directly involving the PC's rolled, does a fine job of cutting down on clutter. Any NPC vs NPC action is just story/cinematography based.

Sure, but even so large battles become a pain to run, say with six PCs and twenty NPCs.

Taking the randomness out of the NPC's rolling could be seen as either gimping them (if they need to have a lucky roll in a situation) or as an advantage. (hey these guys never roll that bad? what gives?)

I agree, I think the rules are better applied uniformly, rather than by PC/NPC. Decreasing the randomness, though, is I think a laudable goal. I really like the idea of only rolling the wild die, as things remain quite random, but become a good deal easier to predict.

I've had characters saved when a particular STR roll to resist damage botched by having the enemy botch the damage roll just as much.

Aye, me too, but... I think those occasions are rather unsatisfying, especially when you are taking about four batches of rolls just to determine the results of one attack.

From doing a lot of d6 - d20 conversions generally for every 1D of a statistic you can pretty much count it as 3-4 points, it works out pretty well, but you have to eyeball it a bit.

Yeah, the 3-4 point deal does seem pretty reasonable.

Just my 2 cents.

Much appreciated!

[LibraryOgre]

Aye; I think it doesn't really matter too much whether you use "3" or "3.5" in the figuring, but the idea of just rolling the wild die is very appealing.

Depends on the level you're playing at. If you're shooting a wookie, it can matter a bit if their soak is 18 or 21. Or if the capital ship is doing 18 or 21 damage.

[Matthew]

Depends on the level you're playing at. If you're shooting a wookie, it can matter a bit if their soak is 18 or 21. Or if the capital ship is doing 18 or 21 damage.

Right, I mean it doesn't matter as long as you stick with one method, since both attack and defence will be reduced in the same way, i.e.

4D Soak = 9 + 1D
4D Damage = 9 + 1D

or

4D Soak = 10.5 + 1D
4D Damage = 10.5 + 1D

But not...

4D Soak = 9 + 1D
4D Damage = 10.5 + 1D