[RPG][General] A brief aside, and More on Fight Dice-

With too few players available this past Friday, there was no game.
--Instead, after the SO got off work, we played Guillotine, which I greatly enjoy.

This morning, after breakfast, I had her roll up a Villains & Vigilantes character, and I then rolled one up for a silly, 'stop the super crooks' fighting scenario.
--I think she was more entertained by my character illustrations and the 'funny voices' than anything inherent about Powered individuals, anti-heroes or villains.
---The duo are the Frienemiests! -- Friend/Enemy Feminists:

* Danger Jane: 'Like the Punisher, but a chick.' -- her quote.
* Chequer: My Woman of Colour super-charisma, street-fighter with her own brand of energy-drink-soda. 'Chequer Cola, I love it!' -- With a Charisma 37 selling it, you'll love it too. ;)
---

Okay, that silliness aside, let's get back to Fight Dice that do the fighting.

I'm still too heavily invested in my 2d12 action mechanism to abandon it, but I've thought about rolling the Fight Dice alongside them, taking the highest roller of the FD to add to the 2d12s. This would make their inclusion of immediate value not only in the Strike, but also in the Damage, as every block of 5 greater than what necessary to Strike results in a Critical iteration:

1st +5: Maximum damage
2nd: Maximum + 1 rolled
3rd: Max. + 2x rolled
4th: Max. + 3x rolled
etc.

So, rolling a 5 or 6 on the highest Fight Die will generate a base-level Crit on an average roll of 13 versus a non-combatant-type (an unarmoured individual [AC10] in d&dish terms), and it only increases from there, with a rolled 30 (24 from the 2d12 + 6 from the highest d6 FD*) is looking like 17 over the non-combatant-type 'to-hit', resulting in Max. + 2x rolled damage. Ouch.

So, if I were to adopt this routine, multiple FD would nudge the Strike results ever closer toward Crits, without adding a lot of maths, as only the highest FD result would be added.
--I like this idea, as it plays with the positive probabilities without assuring high-FD creatures/characters vicious Strikes and Damage, meaning that a 0- or low-FD creature could still theoretically hold their own against a brute -- but not making this 'likely'.

Using this method would replace the FD# as a flat addition to Strikes, although Ability Score (and other) mods would still factor.

* = Shrimpy critters would be rolling d4s, Humanoids rolling d8's, and truly monstrous things would be rolling d10's or higher.

Thoughts?

My Father in Hospital; My recovery; Retrograde or ?-

* My father is at hospital but it may not be for a long stay, depending on what they find. He has been on dialysis for about a year now (3x weekly 3-hour sessions), and has recently shown signs of more rapid deterioration. He would be 88 this June 16th.

* I was lovingly scolded by dear friend, Reed 'ThirdRail' Decker, for not advancing the art of role-playing games with my Retrograde activities. I was specifically called out on the ridiculousness of actually rolling for long falls (such as my inelegant but simulationist accounting for lower atmospheric density of 32d6+1d4+32 for a terminal velocity impact).

The back story to all this involves our full-time, dual design sessions in Gainesville, FL. back at the dawn of the 90's as we literally were squatting in an apartment with an extension cord plugged into an active outlet in the building. Reed was working on a really marvellous Supers rules set ('Full Clock' if I am not mistaken), while I was writing my acid-inspired multiversal system which used (still in my parlour of tricks) colour logic to operate the engine. We (I) even woke poor Jack Herman of V&V (and Bill Willingham's Plotter/Scripter for the early Elementals issues) fame one Saturday or Sunday morning, not taking into account the time-zone difference to ask about V&V's rights status, etc.
Since our parting, Reed has not only abandoned dice in his games (yes, they are still games...cops & robbers didn't have any), but has chosen some really ... high-brow subject matter as the setting basis/bases.

So, I don't know if I ought to feel elated that I'm more, um, OS than not, or ashamed that I have become such a retrograde after reaching a pinnacle of RPG design nearly two full decades ago.

Dunno, can't care. I've got work to do...

Friday Pre-Game Monologue-

Hi,

* Ken has said that my questions actually forced him to think, so that is causing the delay. Let us take that as a positive sign.

* I have been expanding the role of the Ancients in shaping the PCs through four d% rolls to determine actual heritage, and the possibility of Imperial Legacy. Through this, I hope the little hints help form the image of the evolution of the setting, and how unique aberrations can develop into systematised mental routines or defining physical traits.
This is one reason why I think the subsequent book on Aberrations is necessary, as the full extent of the genetics-theme in the setting could easily drown the fantastical/adventurous, if included in the core rules -- and, may not even appeal to some play groups. By packaging it separately, it can play whatever role a given group assigns it in their game.

* It looks as if it was propitious timing for me to have started the APG secondary-characters, as Tybalt's player will not be present, again.
The new Apothecary 2ndary was happily fortunate to have rolled as an ancestor a Medical Officer, and along with the odd dreams and deja-vu, she gains a degree of competence at related Tests.
Ashta's ancestor was a Ship's Superstructure Technician, which immediately suggests a link to the Yirinn/Dryvv, and makes her Western Isles Vrun ancestry even more interesting.

* I need to think of which creatures will make the final cut of the book. Recent grog-hive-mind consciousness has informed me of the importance of a select and defining group of regular miscreants and inimicals upon whose weapons the PCs may fling themselves.

* Thinking of where I ought to look among my stuff, to find my copy of Jorune.

* When this work is complete, I think I'd like to run a Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes - Villains & Vigilantes crossover game. Likely just a mini-series (5-session?) affair, with pre-generated characters, likely on based on my most loved Bill Willingham Elementals setting.