Searching for costs on different dice damage

[zornwil]

Hugh Neilson (I think, possibly someone else but I think him) did a post on the costs of using different dice (d4, d8, d10, d12, d20) for damage. I really need that for Cyber Ninja Pirates, does anyone know where it is? I've tried a few different searches to no avail.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Searching for costs on different dice damage

 

PM me after May 2 and I'll track it down for you.

[zornwil]

Re: Searching for costs on different dice damage

 

Thanks much!

[zornwil]

Re: Searching for costs on different dice damage

 

Whoops, I found it, now I'm on higher bandwidth and had a few ideas to search plus the time was fast enough. It's at http://www.herogames.com/forums/showpost.php?p=587552&postcount=1 for anyone interested.

[prestidigitator]

Re: Searching for costs on different dice damage

 

Huh. That's interesting, Zorn. Thanks for calling it to my attention. I think if I were to try to assign costs, I would have to ponder the importance of distribution shapes as well as just average rolls. I'm not sure the probability of rolling 1-10 damage on a d100 really makes up for the equal probability of rolling 90-100 damage, both of which are certainly unlikely (downright impossible except for the 90, actually, but we could centralize the range a little bit and use the same argument) on 15d6. To be sure you run a large risk of being ineffective, but when you are effective, boy can you be effective.

[zornwil]

Re: Searching for costs on different dice damage

 

I was just thinking the beliow chart may be of interest to some - I adapted the notion of different dice as below. The logic I followed was to match the number against the largest dice type first that evenly divided into it, if that didn't work then match the next number down for which the largest dice type did, then apply the same logic to the reminder. This leads (deliberately) to erratic break points where you basically decide if you want a result that can vary greatly and less predictably or vary less so but be more predictable. The other rule applied was no more than 5 dice of a given type, assuming a lack of a lot of dice of the more esoteric types.

 

Points Damage

1 +1

2 ½d4

3 ½d6

4 ½d6+1

5 1d6

6 1d6+1

7 2d4

8 1d10

9 1d10+1

10 2d6

11 2d6+1

12 2d4+1d6

13 2d8

14 4d4

15 1d20

16 2d10

17 2d6+2d4

18 2d8+1d6

19 2d12

20 4d6

21 2d10+1d6

22 1d20+2d4

23 2d10+2d4

24 3d10

25 5d6

26 4d8

27 4d6+2d4

28 4d6+1d10

29 3d10+1d6

30 2d20

31 4d8+1d6

32 4d10

33 1d30

34 4d8+1d10

35 2d20+1d6

36 4d8+2d6

37 4d10+1d6

38 4d12

39 4d10+2d4

40 5d10

41 1d30+1d10

42 4d10+2d6

43 4d12+1d6

44 2d20+4d4

45 3d20

46 4d12+1d10

47 5d10+2d4

48 4d12+2d6

49 1d30+2d10

50 3d20+1d6

51 4d12+2d8

52 3d20+2d4

53 3d20+1d10

54 5d10+4d4

55 3d20+2d6

56 5d10+2d10

57 1d30+3d10

58 3d20+2d8

59 3d20+4d4

60 4d20

61 3d20+2d10

62 4d12+3d10

63 4d12+5d6

64 3d20+2d12

65 4d20+1d6

66 2d30

67 4d20+2d4

68 4d20+1d10

69 3d20+3d10

70 4d20+2d6

71 2d30+1d6

72 1d100

73 2d30+2d4

74 2d30+1d10

75 5d20

76 2d30+2d6

77 1d100+1d6

78 3d20+1d30

79 1d100+2d4

80 5d20+1d6

81 2d30+1d20

82 5d20+2d4

83 5d20+1d10

84 4d20+3d10

85 5d20+2d6

86 1d100+4d4

87 1d100+1d20

88 5d20+2d8

89 5d20+4d4

90 5d20+3d6

91 5d20+2d10

92 1d100+4d6

93 4d20+1d30

94 5d20+2d12

95 5d20+4d6

96 1d100+3d10

97 1d100+5d6

98 1d100+4d8

99 3d30

100 5d20+5d6

[prestidigitator]

Re: Searching for costs on different dice damage

 

The logic I followed was to match the number against the largest dice type first that evenly divided into it' date=' if that didn't work then match the next number down for which the largest dice type did, then apply the same logic to the reminder.[/quote']

I'm afraid I don't quite get you on this. Could you be a little more specific, perhaps even with a spelled out example?

[zornwil]

Re: Searching for costs on different dice damage

 

I'm afraid I don't quite get you on this. Could you be a little more specific' date=' perhaps even with a spelled out example?[/quote']

Heh, I saw your rep comment, thanks, I think!

 

I built an Excel doc showing for each dice type the specific break points for the number of points for each level of dice of damage, meaning that taking the original idea/article at face value and letting 1d20 = 15 points of damage, then the chart shows for d20 break points at 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90 (maxing out at not showing anything over 100). Break points for d6 = 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and so on. Taking 15 as an example, the highest die type that fits 15 points exactly is 1d20, as opposed to 3d6 which also fits "evenly" (meaning 3d6 is exactly worth 15 points), but is more dice of a lower type. The prejudice was to find that highest value. Now let's say we're talking about 25 as the example; only one die type evenly fits 25, that's 5d6. So we use 5d6. But let's say the example now is 28. No single die type evenly fits 28. But if we go down the chart we see we can do 25 with 5d6 plus 1/2 d6 for the remaining 3. But (and I didn't state this) I tried to stay away from fractional dice, too, so going down the chart we next hit 20 which equals 4d6, and the remainder is 8. Looking on the chart, 8 points can be paid for 1d10. So in my system 28 gets 4d6+1d10.

 

Of course a player wouldn't need to know that algorithm, just check the chart for how many points gives how many dice.

[prestidigitator]

Re: Searching for costs on different dice damage

 

Heh, I saw your rep comment, thanks, I think!

 

I built an Excel doc showing for each dice type the specific break points for the number of points for each level of dice of damage, meaning that taking the original idea/article at face value and letting 1d20 = 15 points of damage, then the chart shows for d20 break points at 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90 (maxing out at not showing anything over 100). Break points for d6 = 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and so on. Taking 15 as an example, the highest die type that fits 15 points exactly is 1d20, as opposed to 3d6 which also fits "evenly" (meaning 3d6 is exactly worth 15 points), but is more dice of a lower type. The prejudice was to find that highest value. Now let's say we're talking about 25 as the example; only one die type evenly fits 25, that's 5d6. So we use 5d6. But let's say the example now is 28. No single die type evenly fits 28. But if we go down the chart we see we can do 25 with 5d6 plus 1/2 d6 for the remaining 3. But (and I didn't state this) I tried to stay away from fractional dice, too, so going down the chart we next hit 20 which equals 4d6, and the remainder is 8. Looking on the chart, 8 points can be paid for 1d10. So in my system 28 gets 4d6+1d10.

 

Of course a player wouldn't need to know that algorithm, just check the chart for how many points gives how many dice.

Ah. I see now. Well, that's pretty cool. Nutty, but cool.

[zornwil]

Re: Searching for costs on different dice damage

 

It's good for the Cyber Ninja Pirates system I'm developing, for which the idea was to create esoteric break points but still be consistent with HERO core costing.