Dice and Die Rolls

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Dice and Die Rolls#

3d6#

Instead of a d20, roll 3d6 (roll three six-sided dice and add the results together). This changes the uniform distribution of the d20 into a bell-curve distribution of results between 3 and 18.

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This means that is more likely to get a result in the middle of the range, which avoids the “swingyness” of the d20, for more expected results. Very low and very high outcomes are much more unlikely.

When a character has many positive modifiers, the results tend to be consistent towards the upper end, meaning more successes and less surprise fumbles.

Criticals#

  • A natural 1 (a result of a 1 in the die) is a Critical Failure.

  • A natural 20 (a result of a 20 in the die) is a Critical Success.

(Regardless of any positive or negative modifiers)

This means that there’s always a 5% chance of succeeding and a 5% of failing in any roll, regardless of how many Bonuses & Maluses a character might have.

Tip

For extra impact, you can have a Critical multiply the amount of Effect by 2.

For example, if the Difficulty is 15 and a player rolls a 20 (for a total of 23 because of their modifiers), the regular Positive Effect of that roll would’ve been 8, but with this rule it would be duplicated, up to a 16!

The same can be applied to Critical Failures (the Negative Effect is duplicated).

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