Topic: Any Crazy Houserules?

[Nejira]

I roll all crits against PC's in the open.  I use a red die and a black die (blood before death) so there is never any confusion on what die is the tens and which is the ones.  I roll the red die, and if the player request it, I will strike the red die with the black die.  This has changed a lot of would be 90 something rolls into less harmfiul mid ranged rolls.  The real drama is when a 0 pop ups on the red die.

Do you mean that the result on the red die could be changed by request, to the black die?s result? Do you use the Fate Point option?

[windmarkbob]

I think what it means it that the player is given an option to, in effect, reroll the tens die for crit rolls.

Bob

[rdanhenry]

I think he meant what he said: When he rolls the black die, he rolls it so that it strikes the red die, which will typically impart enough force to roll the red die a bit more and probably come up better than a '9'.

[jolt]

I took it to mean that the red die (only) is rolled.  The player can then decided if he wants to keep that as the tens die or the digits die; then the black die is rolled. 

jolt

[yammahoper]

I roll the red die.  If the player wishes, I strike the red die when i roll the black die, which will most certainly cause the red die to roll aound and change its facing.  Usually better, but statistics being what they are, sometimes worse.

[Nejira]

Ah, I am gonna try that one out. Do you combine this with Fatepoints?

[yammahoper]

Yes, i use fate points.  5 at first level then one per level.  On rare occassions they are granted one in game as a reward, and almost always for roleplaying.

My fate point rule is a complete reroll.  The are mostly used to reroll crits or RR's.  On rare occassions, they have been used to reroll a skill check.

Still, without fate points, I have taken many parties to level 20+.  Striking dice is very efficient.  The best part is it retains all the integrity of the game, as the odds to get the same number are the same they were when first rolled.  I would like to see the curve on how effective it really is by some math geek.

[markc]

Yammahoper;
 IMO the math would show more results around the 3-7 range that would be normal for a d10 roll.

MDC

[jdale]

Still, without fate points, I have taken many parties to level 20+.  Striking dice is very efficient.  The best part is it retains all the integrity of the game, as the odds to get the same number are the same they were when first rolled.  I would like to see the curve on how effective it really is by some math geek.

Depends on whether striking the die is actually equivalent to a reroll, or if it sometimes just bumps the die so it turns by one or two sides (in which case there is a much reduced chance of getting the same result).

Also depends on when you choose to do it. For example, if you always choose to strike the die when a 9 comes up, but no other number, the chance of the first digit being 9 drops from 10% to 1%. The odds of the other leading digits increase accordingly, from 10% to 11%.

The average roll will be (ignoring open-ended and assuming randomness on a strike):

Normal roll: 50.5
Replace 9's: 46
Replace 8's: 42.5
Replace 7's: 40
Replace 6's: 38.5
Replace 5's: 38
Replace only 0's: 51.4
Replace 9's and 0's: 49.6
Replace 8's and 0's: 46.1
Replace 7's and 0's: 43.6

Just replacing 9's, the chance of open-ended up drops from 5% to 1.4%.
Replacing 0 and 9, the chance of open-ended up drops from 5% to 0.5%.

So replacing a 0 brings up the average a bit but does reduce the chance of open-ended up.

In practice, I assume a player will think about what is the threshold for a bad result. If the enemy needs a 90 to hit, then obviously they don't want to reroll an 8. If the enemy needs a 70, it's probably better to reroll 7+. So the system is probably more favorable to them than the numbers alone suggest.

[rdanhenry]

Since he said he uses this rule for crits, open-ended is not a concern unless he has some Large PCs.

[yammahoper]

Since he said he uses this rule for crits, open-ended is not a concern unless he has some Large PCs.

True.  My players also strike their dice.  A sstrike is hard enough to effectively reroll the die (even knocking them off the table from time to time, at which point you must declare play it as it landed or reroll on the table top.  If it lands on an angle, like between couch cushions, it's an auto table top reroll).  Back in the day, I carried a cigar box with me that all rolls were done in.  When I opened the box, everyone knew it was time for action.

[damilano]

Ah, the fine art of knocking the dice!

My group used to use a pair of d20s (0-9 twice), each die a different color.  These roll better and provide more opportunity to obtain a desired 10s place.

One player became EXTREMELY proficient at knocking dice.  He'd roll the tens place die, look up at each of us for drama, and then survey the surrounding surfaces looking for the best knock angle, calculate the necessary force, and knock that puppy.

He was like a gem cutter in his planning and like a billiards pro in his geometry.

Most times he'd improve upon the result.  But sometimes... well, sometimes he'd have been better off to leave well enough alone.  Occasional unexpected fumbles and huge crits did ensue, much to our amusement.

After a while, he learned to to leave a zero tens alone when rolling a crit on himself.

Many times I considered outlawing dice knocking, but it was so much fun for the players that I learned to adapt.

I'm still looking for a pair of d20s like that.

CMC

[shnar]

We used to knock dice all the TIME! And I still have a few D20s with only 10 numbers...

-shnar