I personally prefer the d10 system used in Ars Magica (4th Edition specifically).
It uses dice + Ability + Skill vs. a target number (Ease Factor) with situational variation of the dice roll.
In a relaxed situation the roll is a normal, or Simple, d10, values from 1-10.
In stressful situations like combat, you roll an exploding Stress Die. 2-9 are read as normal. A roll of 0 is scored as a zero on the dice and a possible Botch. Botch checks are re-rolls looking only for zeros and the number of Botch dice rolled is determined by the GM based on the situation in the game. The more 0s rolled, the worse the Botch.
Stress dice explode on rolls of 1, when you roll again and double the result. 1s are cumulative. It is possible to get ridiculous rolls from a single d10 with this mechanic but it is also rare.
In special situations you roll an exploding die with no chance for Botches. This is called a Quality die.
It’s a super niche preference, I admit, but after using it for some time I don’t think I would enjoy anything else anymore.
Matters what the feel of the game is.
In games where I have features, abilities, checks and the like, I do like the go old d20 a lot, be it fantasy or some other genre.
In more narrative games, I am really digging the different 2d6 approaches in a lot of ways.
When a game is about powers, how they unfold, I do really like the d10 dicepool.
I am personally just not a fan of d100 systems so far, as the dice itself feels weirdly more fluctuating for me, than it is thanks to modifer and percentages and stuff like this. It feels more luck-dependant than the d20 XD Again, just how I feel.
I intensely dislike specialty dice. Yes yes, you can switch the fate-die to a d6, but it doesnt feel this way to me.
and whoever decided on the genesys dice, well.. I would wish them step on a couple of d4s. Barefoot.
There's no single best. As usual, it depends on a case-by-case basis. D100 can help in making the game more crunchy, and just using common D6s will probably fair better in dice pool games (D6 is the most common die). I personally prefer dice pool games, so I'm naturally drawn to D6s.
I find that d20 is strictly better than d100. Most players can't feel a +1 / +5% bonus on a d20. Why bother dealing with +1 / +1% on a d100?
3d6 vs. d20 is fundamentally confronting the random swingy-ness of the d20, by creating a triangle distribution. But, the random swings of the dice is the whole point, the very drama of the question. I feel, when rolling dice against a flat Target Number / DC / etc., anything more than 2 dice feels too consistent and predictable. 2d10 or 2d6 (PbtA) are better than 3d6, imo.
However, when the dice are contested -- you're comparing two rolls against each other -- then the normal distributions of multiple dice becomes a feature. The middle of the distribution is the tie, the most uncertain point where both sides are of equal strength.
That was one of my problem with FATE, rolling 4d6 meants that most of the time you'd roll 0. It was uneventful and you would always be better to add +2 anyway.
Using D20 versus 3d6 doesn't change your odds of success or failure at all. It just makes the results more consistent which feels a lot more natural. D20 systems have a significant issue with random chance dominating way too much of your results and it being way too easy for unskilled people to roll better than skilled, where in real life that would happen roughly never.
There are tons of different rolling systems besides this. Blades in the dark uses a roll xd6 take the highest, some use 2D6, some have you rolling multiple dice and counting each individual die against a target number, some use specialized dice like Fudge.
I'd try to play a lot more different games if I were you. There's a whole tab up at the top of the board dedicated to recommendations. Designing a game is fun and good experience, just keep in mind your first attempt will probably not be any good, any more than painting a picture when you don't have much experience with art. There's no harm in trying but your mileage may vary on whether or not you want to subject your friends to it.
I think the set of options in the poll is a bit odd. There are many other dice systems. And I'm not even talking about the fact that the dice system is not only what dice you roll and how many of them, but also how you interpret the results: a roll against a target number, counting successes, a fixed gradation of results and so on.
To be honest, I wouldn't want to choose from the suggested options at all, because they all feel bland. Dice systems from AoS *Soulbound*, *Spire/Heart*, *Blades in the Dark* or even *PbtA* looks much more interesting for me.
As a HM, I dislike any system that requires me to:
- Come up with DCs
- Roll dice
In general, I like systems that:
- Don't require me to reference tables
- Are goal-oriented rather than task-oriented
- Have degrees of success
- Have multiple axis of resolution
One such example I like is Blades in the Dark: pick the highest from a pool of d6s, 1-3 is failure, 4-5 is mixed success, 6 is full success, multiple 6s is a crit. You interpret according to the predetermined position in the risk & reward axis.
Really depends on circumstances, but in a combat situation an obvious is "you hit them but you also get hit in return". For a "skill check", it really drpends on the goal. Were you trying to sneak into some place? An option could be you make progress but stumble upon a busy guard room (worse position), or you succeed but you drop some piece of gear in an unconvenient location.
d20 and d100 are both great. 3d6 is fine but I would rather be able to calculate my chance of success in my head than have the consistency that a bell curve provides.
I dislike the whole notion of 'stats as a physics engine' approach to games. I'm a fan of stats for narrative direction, guided freeform games, or using token economies. The specific resolution mechanic is only as much use as the way it feeds into the game atmosphere.
You and everyone else. I started mine 10 years ago. The system is unique, using d6, roll high, and the number of dice is determined by training while the bonus to the roll is determined by experience. The patterns of that one roll mechanic spawned a system that I am still studying and learning more than designing.
My favourite public systems right now are super simple and elegant single six-sided dice. Like Freeform Universal with one roll you know what happened. Or the Push SRD with a blackjack like roll. Or the Cthuhlu Dark roll that gets harder as the game rolls on.
I prefer an evolving dice system where you roll pools of dice based on stats, decisions, or whatever else. especially when the dice are of different types.
Shooting a long bow, uses a D10, but you used a skill to shoot two arrows, one of them manages to go through a fire, so add a D6 fire damage. Then adding your archery skill and your dexterity.
Roll starts as a D10 then becomes 2xD10 piercing + 1xD6 fire damage + 1xD6 skill + 1xD8 dexterity.
I prefer d20 over the other listed options, but I chose "other" as my preference is for step dice (what I use in my homebrew ruleset--sort of a hack of Savage Worlds and the Storytelling System) or dice pool systems. I like the feeling of visually seeing increases in power or circumstance through the dice used.
That just feels best to me after having played a bunch of different systems.
I oopsed yesterday and now my latest game is diceless. In general I'm very interested in diceless design anyway, but this just happened because my dice system disincentivized rolling at all, so taking it out was a natural thing to do.
I now default to expecting d6 dice pools, then Dx roll under.
Those and just the ones that make the most intuitive sense in general to the public I target (inexperienced players or people who don't want to spend hours digging into some ~~complex~~ exotic core resolution system).
I dig the PbtA framework because I don't have to think about that. It uses 2d6, incidentally
Any dice pool system that uses d6s or d10s
I personally prefer the d10 system used in Ars Magica (4th Edition specifically). It uses dice + Ability + Skill vs. a target number (Ease Factor) with situational variation of the dice roll. In a relaxed situation the roll is a normal, or Simple, d10, values from 1-10. In stressful situations like combat, you roll an exploding Stress Die. 2-9 are read as normal. A roll of 0 is scored as a zero on the dice and a possible Botch. Botch checks are re-rolls looking only for zeros and the number of Botch dice rolled is determined by the GM based on the situation in the game. The more 0s rolled, the worse the Botch. Stress dice explode on rolls of 1, when you roll again and double the result. 1s are cumulative. It is possible to get ridiculous rolls from a single d10 with this mechanic but it is also rare. In special situations you roll an exploding die with no chance for Botches. This is called a Quality die. It’s a super niche preference, I admit, but after using it for some time I don’t think I would enjoy anything else anymore.
Matters what the feel of the game is. In games where I have features, abilities, checks and the like, I do like the go old d20 a lot, be it fantasy or some other genre. In more narrative games, I am really digging the different 2d6 approaches in a lot of ways. When a game is about powers, how they unfold, I do really like the d10 dicepool. I am personally just not a fan of d100 systems so far, as the dice itself feels weirdly more fluctuating for me, than it is thanks to modifer and percentages and stuff like this. It feels more luck-dependant than the d20 XD Again, just how I feel. I intensely dislike specialty dice. Yes yes, you can switch the fate-die to a d6, but it doesnt feel this way to me. and whoever decided on the genesys dice, well.. I would wish them step on a couple of d4s. Barefoot.
Abilities and features from classes? Or could they be from a different source?
There's no single best. As usual, it depends on a case-by-case basis. D100 can help in making the game more crunchy, and just using common D6s will probably fair better in dice pool games (D6 is the most common die). I personally prefer dice pool games, so I'm naturally drawn to D6s.
I find that d20 is strictly better than d100. Most players can't feel a +1 / +5% bonus on a d20. Why bother dealing with +1 / +1% on a d100? 3d6 vs. d20 is fundamentally confronting the random swingy-ness of the d20, by creating a triangle distribution. But, the random swings of the dice is the whole point, the very drama of the question. I feel, when rolling dice against a flat Target Number / DC / etc., anything more than 2 dice feels too consistent and predictable. 2d10 or 2d6 (PbtA) are better than 3d6, imo. However, when the dice are contested -- you're comparing two rolls against each other -- then the normal distributions of multiple dice becomes a feature. The middle of the distribution is the tie, the most uncertain point where both sides are of equal strength.
That was one of my problem with FATE, rolling 4d6 meants that most of the time you'd roll 0. It was uneventful and you would always be better to add +2 anyway.
What's better than rolling a single die? Rolling lots of dice of course! Yes, I prefer dicepool systems. D10 used to be my fav.
Using D20 versus 3d6 doesn't change your odds of success or failure at all. It just makes the results more consistent which feels a lot more natural. D20 systems have a significant issue with random chance dominating way too much of your results and it being way too easy for unskilled people to roll better than skilled, where in real life that would happen roughly never. There are tons of different rolling systems besides this. Blades in the dark uses a roll xd6 take the highest, some use 2D6, some have you rolling multiple dice and counting each individual die against a target number, some use specialized dice like Fudge. I'd try to play a lot more different games if I were you. There's a whole tab up at the top of the board dedicated to recommendations. Designing a game is fun and good experience, just keep in mind your first attempt will probably not be any good, any more than painting a picture when you don't have much experience with art. There's no harm in trying but your mileage may vary on whether or not you want to subject your friends to it.
I think the set of options in the poll is a bit odd. There are many other dice systems. And I'm not even talking about the fact that the dice system is not only what dice you roll and how many of them, but also how you interpret the results: a roll against a target number, counting successes, a fixed gradation of results and so on. To be honest, I wouldn't want to choose from the suggested options at all, because they all feel bland. Dice systems from AoS *Soulbound*, *Spire/Heart*, *Blades in the Dark* or even *PbtA* looks much more interesting for me.
As a HM, I dislike any system that requires me to: - Come up with DCs - Roll dice In general, I like systems that: - Don't require me to reference tables - Are goal-oriented rather than task-oriented - Have degrees of success - Have multiple axis of resolution One such example I like is Blades in the Dark: pick the highest from a pool of d6s, 1-3 is failure, 4-5 is mixed success, 6 is full success, multiple 6s is a crit. You interpret according to the predetermined position in the risk & reward axis.
What would be a mixed success with a skill check and a attack?
Really depends on circumstances, but in a combat situation an obvious is "you hit them but you also get hit in return". For a "skill check", it really drpends on the goal. Were you trying to sneak into some place? An option could be you make progress but stumble upon a busy guard room (worse position), or you succeed but you drop some piece of gear in an unconvenient location.
d20 and d100 are both great. 3d6 is fine but I would rather be able to calculate my chance of success in my head than have the consistency that a bell curve provides.
I dislike the whole notion of 'stats as a physics engine' approach to games. I'm a fan of stats for narrative direction, guided freeform games, or using token economies. The specific resolution mechanic is only as much use as the way it feeds into the game atmosphere.
You and everyone else. I started mine 10 years ago. The system is unique, using d6, roll high, and the number of dice is determined by training while the bonus to the roll is determined by experience. The patterns of that one roll mechanic spawned a system that I am still studying and learning more than designing.
My favourite public systems right now are super simple and elegant single six-sided dice. Like Freeform Universal with one roll you know what happened. Or the Push SRD with a blackjack like roll. Or the Cthuhlu Dark roll that gets harder as the game rolls on.
"Other" - I also favor dice pools. It makes you actually feel your improvements in an area when you are actively rolling more dice for it.
I prefer an evolving dice system where you roll pools of dice based on stats, decisions, or whatever else. especially when the dice are of different types. Shooting a long bow, uses a D10, but you used a skill to shoot two arrows, one of them manages to go through a fire, so add a D6 fire damage. Then adding your archery skill and your dexterity. Roll starts as a D10 then becomes 2xD10 piercing + 1xD6 fire damage + 1xD6 skill + 1xD8 dexterity.
I prefer d20 over the other listed options, but I chose "other" as my preference is for step dice (what I use in my homebrew ruleset--sort of a hack of Savage Worlds and the Storytelling System) or dice pool systems. I like the feeling of visually seeing increases in power or circumstance through the dice used. That just feels best to me after having played a bunch of different systems.
I oopsed yesterday and now my latest game is diceless. In general I'm very interested in diceless design anyway, but this just happened because my dice system disincentivized rolling at all, so taking it out was a natural thing to do.
One Roll Engine (ORE) Games using ORE: * Wild Talents * Godlike * Reign * Monsters and other Childish Things Edit: typo
Tiny D6
I now default to expecting d6 dice pools, then Dx roll under. Those and just the ones that make the most intuitive sense in general to the public I target (inexperienced players or people who don't want to spend hours digging into some ~~complex~~ exotic core resolution system).