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finarvyn · Joined: 24 Jul 2009 Posts: 6 Location: Chicago Suburbs

I didn't want to hijack the other "Amber with dice" thread because this is more of a parallel idea than a continuation of the other one.

I also have considered the concept of using dice with Amber. I think that the hardest thing for me so far has been converting ADRP attributes into dice values. I have a possible scale for this and thought I'd share it.

Descriptor ... ADRP attribute ... absolute value attribute ... dice
Rock bottom ... -30 ... 0 ... 0
Shadow ... -25 ... 5 ... 1D
Chaos ... -10 ... 20 ... 5D
Amber ... 0 ... 30 ... 6D
Ranked ... 5 ... 35 ... 7D
Ranked ... 10 ... 40 ... 8D
Ranked ... 25 ... 55 ... 11D
Ranked ... 50 ... 80 ... 16D
Ranked ... 100 ... 130 ... 26D
Ranked ... 150 ... 180 ... 36D

I tend to top off NPCs at 150; Benedict is 150 Warfare, Gerard 150 Strength, and so on. This would top out dice at 36, which is a heck of a lot, but makes Gerard equal to about 36 Shadow dudes.
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Finarvyn
Amber Diceless player since 1993.
OD&D player since 1975

"It´s better to enlarge the game than to restrict the players."
- Erick Wujcik

finarvyn · Joined: 24 Jul 2009 Posts: 6 Location: Chicago Suburbs

Okay, so I have a dice scale. What to do with it? I’m thinking that when a character comes in conflict in ADRP, the GM simply compares appropriate attributes and makes a ruling.

What’s nice here is that a character would still have the 4 basic ADRP attributes. That part won’t have changed. We’ll just be using dice rolls to determine the victor instead of the GM. What this will mean is that Psyche, Strength, and Warfare would all be rated in terms of a number of dice to be rolled. Endurance could be rated as a raw score (hit points) or in terms of a number of dice (actual hits taken).

For this system, one would use the dice pool for that attribute instead. I have a couple of potential options in mind.

1) The “Tunnels & Trolls” approach.

I roll my dice and total them, you roll your dice and total them. The person with the higher number scores “a hit” and does damage equal to the difference in the two totals. (Example, if I roll 23 and you roll 15 then you take 8 damage.) The damage could go off of a character’s Endurance score.

2) The “Hero Quest” approach.

Roll a number of dice and certain numbers hit (maybe 4-6) while the opponent rolls his dice to block your hits (maybe 5-6 block a hit). Damage comes off of the character’s Endurance score (hit dice method) or Endurance dice (simple method).

3. Traditional ADRP method.

Hey, since the basic rules haven’t changed a GM could kick back into diceless mode with no problems.
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Finarvyn
Amber Diceless player since 1993.
OD&D player since 1975

"It´s better to enlarge the game than to restrict the players."
- Erick Wujcik

finarvyn · Joined: 24 Jul 2009 Posts: 6 Location: Chicago Suburbs

“Items” in the system.

Another chart is in order. Items tend to be rated differently than characters.

1 pt … 1D
2 pts … 2D
4 pts … 3D
8 pts … 4D
16 pts … 5D

I see these dice as being added to regular attribute dice, as appropriate. For example, if a character in a sword duel is wearing 8 pt armor, this would allow him to roll an additional 4D on defensive rolls in Warfare situations. A 4 pt sword would do an additional 3D in a Warfare attack.
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Finarvyn
Amber Diceless player since 1993.
OD&D player since 1975

"It´s better to enlarge the game than to restrict the players."
- Erick Wujcik

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 5:22 am Post subject:

I like what the items would look like as far as dice rolling goes. I'm having a hard time imagining anyone wanting to roll 36 dice at once, but 5 or 6, no problem there.

I think the key is to consider that items with 16 points (or 32 points if you wanted to go the extreme route) would be a match for the amberites in that discipline. Taking Strength, for instance, since it is easier to measure in our minds than so-called psychic abilities.

I think a point buy system for character creation based on item attributes and powers, then ranks associated with dice might work nicely.

If you stick to potentially rolling 36 dice, you'll have to call your game Amber... WITH DICE!!!
(Sorry, couldn't resist... Wink

)
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