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Is there a chart that classifies the different ways to use dice and skills (or whatever values the characters in the system have) to determine the success or failure of an action?

The following criteria interest me:

  • Randomness: What has more impact on success: the die roll or the skill?
  • Paradoxes: Are there circumstances when having a higher skill leads to decreased chances of success?
  • Success Levels: Does the system permit different levels of success/failure?
  • Complexity: How much time must I spend calculating or using lookup tables to determine the result?
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I have no clue what you are looking for, please edit to clarify. – anon186 Nov 14 '10 at 0:32
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Is there a difference between "dice systems" and "game systems" in your question? It seems like a very wide open question. – Pat Ludwig Nov 14 '10 at 0:53
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You're out of luck. There are as many ways to generate interrelated random numbers with dice as there are ways a language can use sounds to form meaningful words. New dice systems are invented all the time. In fact, inventing and testing new dice systems is a significant part of modern game design. – SevenSidedDie Nov 14 '10 at 1:19
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This is duplicate-ish of 3d6 vs a d20: What is the effect of a different probability curve?. Also, how can you determine if something is more random? Those interested in some math about randomness, check out Understanding "randomness" on StackOverflow. – LeguRi Nov 14 '10 at 3:32
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I think that this question is asking something along the lines of "how does the die rolling game mechanic impact game play", which IMO is still too open ended, but probably lends its self to a great deal more tightening. (As, for example rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/3274/… and rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/2654/…) – Simon Withers Nov 14 '10 at 4:37
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closed as not a real question by Jeremiah Genest, Pat Ludwig, SevenSidedDie, LeguRi, Adam Dray Nov 14 '10 at 4:25

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

1 Answer

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Yeah, this is pretty wide ranging, and as a result there's nothing out there that does all that comprehensively. John Kim has a starter comparison and explanation of different dice approaches that might provide you a good starting point... http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/systemdesign/dice-motive.html

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Ah, that in line I was looking for. This article does define similar criteria for the evaluation. Thanks for this hint. – Mnementh Nov 14 '10 at 10:39

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