Die Rolls
<h3>for checking level of success
some of this is currently deprecated, will update soon</h3>
Level of success in FaerieMUD is determined by the roll of a number of dice. Dice are used as an abstract representation of the effects of chance on events in the world. In FaerieMUD dice are not actually "rolled" by throwing polyhedral pieces of bone or plastic on a flat surface even though we talk about them as if they have "sides." Instead we similate the effect by generating a number pseudo-random numbers in specific ranges (a six-sided die is thus represented by a random integer in the 1-to-6 range).
Ged's ponderousness:
<blockquote>I wonder whether enough dice can produce emergence.
— Ged, the Gray's Hain
Like, heavy, man.
"Panzerfaüste Designer's Notes" which are relevant:
<blockquote>The central theme of [the Panzerfaüste] rules is the linking of all actions to morale and seeing all results as potentially having morale effects. This is emphasised in the combat system, where deaths are peripheral, with the purpose of fire being to reduce your opponent's will and ability to fight.
— Matthew Hartley & Steve Blease
We will try to develop a die-rolling system which incorporates this kind of reflection of the morale.
Scotus' paraphrase:
<blockquote>I wonder if it is not the complexity of the die-rolling mechanism, but this reflexivity (linking all actions to X and seeing all results as potentially having X effects) which would produce emergence.
— Scotus, the Proesy Faerie
Note that this does not require that the morale be the only secondary statistic which has this reflexivity. Indeed the reflection can be indirect (as when an action is linked to inspiration resulting in effects on concentration while another action is linked to concentration resulting in effects on inspiration or as when all three are so linked).
The System
Level of success in FaerieMUD is determined by the roll of a (usually large) number of evaluations. It is in the number of evaluations that we will incorporate the reflexivity by saying the current value of relevant secondary statistic will determine the number of evaluations. (And the secondary statistics will, of course, be the places where all results will be directly expressed.)
The only tricky part of this system of reflexivity is determining which secondary statistic is the "relevant" one. For this purpose, we will assume that all tasks (or verbs) will reside in Developmental Objects. That means they are either primary statistics (least likely, but we will still consider them), traits or skills. It is easy to decide that the relevant secondary statistic for a task which resides in a primary statistic is the one based on that primary statistic. Similarly, each trait has a primary characteristic which has the most effect upon it (one exception being a pentary trait). We will assume the corresponding secondary characteristic is the relevant one. For skills, we know each skill is an element in the periodic table of another developmental object (another skill in the case of a related skill or a subskill; or a trait or primary statistic). So, we simply have to follow the tree up to the primary statistic, choosing a related secondary characteristic in the process.
The primary statistic is subtracted from the developmental level of the task itself. The secondary statistic is then added to this difference to determine the number of evaluations.
Each evaluation consists of the roll of a number of n-sided dice which is compared to a difficulty level?.
The number of dice rolled is determined by the the period of the developmental object? (primary statistic, trait or superskill) where the skill resides. The number of sides is determined by balance number? of the period of the relevant skill or trait or statistic:
Dice # of # of Critical Critical Chance of Required Average Balance Sides Dice Evaluations Failure Success Critical to go up Attempts Notes -1 2 -1 1-2 - 0 256 ∞ can't learn 0 3 0 3-10 - 1 128 ∞ need teacher 1 5 1 11-18 1 5* 220% 64 64 master reduces 2 7 2 19-36 1 7* 38.8% 32 6.7 master required 3 11 3 37-54 1* 11* 2.8% 16 10.8 4 13 4 55-86 1,2,3* 10,11,12,13 15.6% 8 31.2 5 17 5 87-118 1,2,3,4* 13,14,15,16,17 6.3% 4 110
"Can't learn" means that anyone with such a skill level cannot even learn the skill. (Their culture doesn't even have the concept).
"Need teacher" means they cannot learn without help. (Their culture may have the skill, but they've never seen it done. They can progress at this level by watching others only.)
"Master reduces" means they can learn (slowly) by themselves, but they can significantly reduce the time this learning takes.
"Master required" means apprentices require a master to learn at this level, but the master does not reduce the number critical successes or failures needed to advance.
For example, a lock-picking task may be based on a locksmith skill and associated with the dexterity trait and residing in the mind. The period of the skill would determine the number of sides on each die while the period of the dexterity would determine the number of dice in each evaluation. The secondary statistic (concentration) associated with the mind would determine the number of evaluations. (So, a lock-picker with a locksmith skill of 61, a dexterity of 92, and a concentration of 75 would roll five 11-sided dice for each of 75 evaluations until her concentraiton was reduced.)
Similarly, a balancing task might be based in the grace trait?. Grace is associated with the body's primary statistic which is vitality. The body's secondary statistic is energy, which will determine the number of evaluations. The period of the grace trait would determine the number of sides on each die while the period of the energy would determine number of dice in each evaluation. (So, a balancer with a grace 35 and an vitality of 42 - implying an energy starting at 42 - would roll three 5-sided dice for each of 42 evaluations until her energy was reduced.)
Each task is assigned a difficulty level? from 1 to 35 and a means of evaluating success. A developmental object can return a level of success when it is given a request which specifies the difficulty level.
Level of success is determined by comparing the each die roll with the difficulty level. This results in Base Successes and Base Failures as follows:
Base Successes = the number of times the die rolls were equal to or greater than the difficulty level
Criticals = the number of times all the dice had the same number
Critical Successes = the number of times all the dice had the same number and were equal to or greater than the difficulty level
Critical Failures = the number of times all the dice had the same number and were less than the difficulty level
Level of success is determined by subtracting the Critical Failures from the Base Successes and adding the Critical Successes. If it is a negative number or zero, that number is returned and a failure results. The requesting context is required to supply an interpretation of what such various levels of success or failure means.
If the level of success is a positive number that number is returned to be interpreted by the calling context.
Any time a critical for a task in the current balance of a specific Developmental Object occurs, experience points are generated as follows:
Source of task Skill EPs Trait EPs Primary Statistic EPs Primary Statistic 1 Trait 1 1 Skill 1 1 1
If more than one critical occurs on one success determination, each one can generate a separate experience point, starting with the leftmost column.
Multiple-Check Actions
Some tasks require multiple tests (or at least the application of multiple factors) to determine success. Firing an arrow at a distant enemy is an example:
- first you must aim and fire, testing against your archery skill and your dexterity
- then you must overcome the effects of wind and smoke on the battlefield
- then your arrow must penetrate the armor of your foe, finally determining damage
One possible method for resolving such a task is a series of tests, each using the previous level of success as the number of dice for the next test (but retaining the original period to determine the number of sides on each die).
- roll against archery skill to determine the difficulty level for a roll against dexterity
- for instance, a roll of difficulty level 6 (determined by range) might result in a difficulty level 13 roll against dexterity for a single success, a difficulty level 12 roll for 2 successes, difficulty 11 for 4 successes, difficulty 10 for 8 successes, difficulty 9 for 12, difficulty 8 for 16, difficulty 7 for 20, difficulty 6 for 24, difficulty 5 for 28, difficulty 4 for anything over 36
- the dexterity roll could then be made against the new difficulty level with the resulting successes being passed to the next test
- then the difficulty level produced by the wind and smoke can be determined by the conditions and a roll made against that difficulty
- the roll should probably be made against archery skill again
- but this time the number of dice is determined by the successes produced by the previous roll, which may be less than the developmental number of the archery skill
- the number of sides on the dice is still determined by the period which derives from the archery skill developmental number
- then the difficulty level produced by the armor can be used for another archery skill roll
- again the number of dice is determined by number of successes on the previous roll, which is certainly less than the original developmental number
- the number of sides on the dice is still determined by the period which derives from the archery skill developmental number
- the damage is calculated from the number of successes as described under Level-of-Effect Tasks in means of evaluating success.
This method of resolving complex tasks with a variety of influences being taken into effect presupposes that an optional second parameter can be sent in a request to a developmental flyweight object for a die roll result. The first parameter remains the level of difficulty, but the second is a number of dice which overrides the developmental number if it is less than the developmental number.
Such a method of incorporating a variety of influences into the result has the advantage of being portable and independent of the number of such influences. But it does require the addition of another parameter in the die roll method of the developmental flyweights.
Ged's Principle
<blockquote>At lower levels success is the best teacher, while at higher levels failure teaches best.
— Ged, the Gray's Hain
See also Developmental Objects?.
— Scotus - 23 Sep 2000
The discussion so far has all been about automatic determination of results. With reference to Playability, where does the player get to interact? It seems to me that it would be more fun to have some say over how hard your character is going to try. Not for every action, of course.
On a side note, the level of abstraction we choose for combat (and whether it is fixed at all, or determined by the involved parties) will determine the amount of influence players need to be given. At a very low level, players must be able to dictate the how of their fighting, whereas at a high level they may merely specify how much energy to expend or just sit back and watch.
Anyway... the roleplaying game, AD&D, gets widely criticised for being far too combat oriented. Straight spheres, I say, you just need more rules for combat so it gets more space in the book. In retaliation to this however, a card based system was brought out. Each player receives a hand at the beginning of the session, and they may choose when to play each card. The suits represented class skills - ie clubs represents sneakery, spades fighting prowess, diamonds magic and hearts spirituality. With a description of action (which has to be appropriate to the card), the highest card wins.
Taking ol' George again... If George plays a high fighter card to start with, he may lop off dear Dragon's wing. However, he will then have a gruelling battle ahead of him, playing medium and low cards. If he played a range of medium and low cards to start with, then the high card might believeably give him a coup de grace later in the combat. Sneakery and spirituality will tend to be more defensive (except for backstabbing/turning undead), while fighting and magic are more offensive (although magic is also a great tool, of course).
Jus' some thoughts...
— AlexisLi? - 01 May 2002
