I'll just jump right into it.In my defense, I do have a bunch of probabilities written out at the very end of the PDF, for both one-off rolls as well as rolls over a sustained period.merxa wrote: ↑Mon Dec 05, 2022 11:41 pmXd6 skills. I am somewhat partial to this as i’m focusing on a 3d6 game engine, but i strongly suspect the skill DC math for xd6 skill checks will not work out smoothly, especially when say a challenge must be done by multiple characters, it’s likely some will outright be unable to succeed and others will find the DC trivial, so players may encounter many challenges where they are succeeding 90%+ of the time or failing at the same (or higher) rate, with relatively little inbetween.
Just as an example, you average 3.5 on 1d6, so every d6 gives you +3.5, so at 2d6 you’re averaging 7, which is impossible to achieve on 1d6, 4d6 you’re averaging 14, impossible to achieve at 2d6. Or say 3d6, averages 10.5, but 2d6 will only roll 10,11,12 one out 6 times. If say the expectation is PCs are running around with 3d6 and 4d6 in skills, you’re looking 10 and 14 as averages, and ranges of 3-18, 4-24, achieving dc 11 on 4d6 ~84%, and 50% at 3d6. If you move it up to say 15, you achieve that ~44% at 4d6 but merely ~9% at 3d6. As you can see, there isn’t a big ‘sweet’ spot, you very quickly accelerate down both sides of the probability hill.
If you really like the Xd6 skill system, my suggestion is use a bigger die, like a 1d10 or 1d12, that should help a tiny bit by giving a larger range where someone with 3d12 and another with 4d12 are looking at a dc 20 check and neither are feeling abject defeat or laughing off the trivial dc, even the 2d12 character can feel like they have a chance instead of no chance. My preferred solution to you is instead pick one, ie 3d6, and try to get that right, balancing it against Xd6 is i think too hard and will cause too many headaches, and Xd12 isn’t really a fix either.
An important part of the game is that I do want things to be dramatically different as you progress from Tier 1 to Tier 4. One thing I like about xd6 is is that it quickly scales up on the lower end while raising the overall ceiling of numbers to a not-insane level. Additionally, each level grows more consistent at performing 'simpler' tasks than the last. DCs scale from 4 (totally trivial) to about 22, I think. The DC 4 is only a problem for the most pathetic of characters and anything beyond that quickly makes it impossible to fail. The DC 22 is completely impossible until you have at least 4d6 in that skill, and even then you'd have to get super lucky or use the Finesse power to maximize your skill roll. You aren't even supposed to regularly succeed on those checks unless you're a giga-badass. The expectation is that PCs are running around with 1d6 and 7d6-8d6 in some skills and 2d6-5d6 for the rest. If you can't do it, and nobody else in your team can, AND none of ANYONE'S pokemon can... then maybe the party should consider alternative solutions. Between 4-10 controllable characters in the early-game and 10-20 in the late-game, there are tons of options at your disposal. A DC 14 isn't even something that should regularly show up until the party hits tier 2 and has access to 5th rank skills.
Tier 4 status effects are Not Good. We're talking "you eat shit and die" levels of Not Good. The least nasty one gives you a -6 to all rolls and slowly inflicts skill damage until you die. Even at the highest levels, these effects should be rare. The most likely reason you would even see the Vaporized condition for most of the game would be if a high-tier creature inflicted a badass status effect on a low-tier one. I'm considering not giving easy access to anything beyond Tier 2 status effects - Tier 3 should be as bad as it gets without some kind of external assistance.merxa wrote: ↑Mon Dec 05, 2022 11:41 pmStatus Afflictions, I don’t really understand how they are applied and everything that determines the tier, but the step from tier 3 to tier 4 is dramatic, from damage to death in many cases. My intuition tells me you probably want a buffer tier or two between being on fire and getting vaporized. Keeping with fire, catching on fire is listed as DC 12 – returning to the Xd6, you have 0% at 1d6, ~2.7% at 2d6, ~37% at 3d6, 84% at 4d6 – exposure to catching on fire mechanically goes from being guaranteed death, certainly death, unlikely death, and i’m an action hero.
This would still mean that a Tier 4 creature inflicting the Paralyzed condition on Tier 2 or lower creatures would just outright fucking kill them, but that's not a fight that poor bastard had much of a chance in to begin with.
I fully admit that the statuses are pretty messy. There's an argument to be made for making some of the Tier 2 statuses into Tier 1 instead and just adding something more intermediary. Singed and Chilled are really specific, for starters. It's also a bit unclear as to which status effects can be saved against and which require items or other forms of healing. Hmmm.
