New Player Hates All The Dice

[BlackSword]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

That was my first reaction as well. What's not to like about rolling lots of dice?

Why do you think I play a sorceror in d20. Sure, the might barbarian can roll 1d12+8 damage on his great axe, but wait til you hear the rolling thunder of d6's when the sorceror lets loose a Fireball.

 

Of course the game should be fun for everyone, so I see no problem altering the rules a little so she continues to enjoy the game. I think the idea of treating Killing and non-Killing (Energy Blast) attacks the same, except for defenses (and knockback) is a very workable solution. You might have to tweak the Stun multiplier some to balance it out with standard defenses in the campaign.

[Dust Raven]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

She does not like all the dice because they take to long to add up and they do not fit in her hands. I also use the groupings in sets of ten' date=' but she did not seem to want to budge on the dice thing.[/quote']

 

She can always buy smaller dice!

 

Other than using a dice rolling program, there are a number of easy solutions to this without forcing a change in how many dice are rolled or how. For one, someone else can volunteer to count them up for her. For two, maybe she'd enjoy playing a character that uses NND, AVLD, Drains, Entangles or other nonstandard attacks, all using less dice for the same active cost. Another option is to play a character that just doesn't do a lot of damage, but has a really high Find Weakness roll.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

I think it may be a bit of reluctance for some one who only has played D&D prior to this.

Ah, that could explain a lot. If the issue really is (at least in part) simple resistance to change, then perhaps she just needs a little time to get used to things. In the interim, do what you can to ease the transition, but be careful that the changes you make to fix the "too many dice" problem don't wind up exacerbating the "too much change" problem. The last thing you want to do is revamp the rules every other week to try and make her happy, when in reality change itself is the problem.

[Blue]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

I can make a bong out of this giant six-sider!

That's more Timothy Leary

[ghost-angel]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

That's more Timothy Leary

Dennis Leary's first Showtime standup (aeons ago) has an entire sequence of him talking about making bongs out of things...

[Dust Raven]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

Dennis Leary's first Showtime standup (aeons ago) has an entire sequence of him talking about making bongs out of things...

 

"What was the problem with just smoking a joint, eating a couple of Twinkies, and going to sleep? Was that a problem? They say marijuana leads to other drugs. No it doesn't, it leads to f---ing carpentry. That's the problem, folks. People getting high going, "Wow man, this box would make an excellent bong! *snort* This guy's head would make an excellent bong! *snort*" Relax! That's why I stopped doing drugs in the first place. Not because I didn't like 'em, but because I didn't want to build anything, ok?

-Denis Leary No Cure For Cancer 1992

[nexus]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

I occasionally make use of Arooo's dice roller' date=' found here: http://www.aroooo.com/rpg_stuff/dice_roller/

 

It's a great utility and has a setting specifically for the Hero System that can roll for normal damage, skill rolls, killing damage, etc. It also has settings for other systems as well, so it's very versitle.

 

Thanks, I've been looking for a good online die roller.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

Of course the game should be fun for everyone' date=' so I see no problem altering the rules a little so she continues to enjoy the game. I think the idea of treating Killing and non-Killing (Energy Blast) attacks the same, except for defenses (and knockback) is a very workable solution. You might have to tweak the Stun multiplier some to balance it out with standard defenses in the campaign.[/quote']

 

I have experimented with harmonizing the damage mechanics for Normal and Killing Attacks in a few games, just to see how they played. In my case I went in the opposite direction from Ndreare, rolling Killing dice as Normal dice of equal Damage Class. For the Stun Multiplier I used an option presented back in HERO System Almanac I for increasing Stun for Normal dice, where each +1 Stun Multiplier equates to a straight +1 added to the Stun rolled on each die, e.g. 12D6 with +1 SM would add 12 to the total rolled on the dice. For Killing damage I would start by subtracting 1 from the Stun for each die.

 

The result is much more predictable damage, with Stun for Killing attacks grouped around the lower-middle range compared to Normal attacks. You don't get the slight edge in Body damage rolled for Killing dice the normal way, but I actually liked how Body squared with Resistant Defenses, e.g. 12 Res Def usually stopped all the Body from DC 12 KA.

 

In the end, though, my group preferred the "feel" of the standard KA, so we went back to that.

[Chris Goodwin]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

She does not like all the dice because they take to long to add up and they do not fit in her hands. I also use the groupings in sets of ten, but she did not seem to want to budge on the dice thing.

 

Then maybe Hero is not the game for her.

 

I don't say this lightly. The dice are a pretty superficial part of the system. If she doesn't want to budge on that, then it's likely that, as she gets deeper into the system she'll find other things she doesn't want to budge on either.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

Thanks' date=' I've been looking for a good online die roller.[/quote']

 

Dan Simon posted a slick little HERO dicerolling ap to the boards last year: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26898

[Derek Hiemforth]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

This is another good little dice-rolling tool...

[prestidigitator]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

These days, I think this feat could be recreated on anything more complicated than a toaster.

 

So, if your player hates rolling dice that much, there is an alternative that would not mess with the underlying math of the game.

Well, you know what Java was originally used for, right?

 

Speaking of which, UeberDice is a nice little program. Simple but generic and versatile (though possibly written a little more for the programmer), and can also plot distributions for you! I've gotten by quite nicely with it by bringing up one instance for rolling Skills/Attacks, one for Normal Attacks, and one for Killing Attacks.

 

I'll have to check out some of those others.

[Lucius]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

Well, you know what Java was originally used for, right?

 

.

 

Well, the first near-Humans to use Java for anything were Homo Erectus, once called "Java Man" because the first such remains were found there. Presumably they used the island for the same things any hunting and gathering culture used their habitat for.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary regards that as being as valid a use as any...

[prestidigitator]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

Well, the first near-Humans to use Java for anything were Homo Erectus, once called "Java Man" because the first such remains were found there. Presumably they used the island for the same things any hunting and gathering culture used their habitat for.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary regards that as being as valid a use as any...

Touche! Well, I'd rep that one if I could.

[Lucius]

New Player Hates All The Dice

 

Touche! Well' date=' I'd rep that one if I could.[/quote']

 

Thank you. I just don't know what it has to do with rolling dice. Were you suggesting Java Man was a gambler?

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary tries to imagine prehistoric casinos....

[prestidigitator]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

Thank you. I just don't know what it has to do with rolling dice. Were you suggesting Java Man was a gambler?

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary tries to imagine prehistoric casinos....

I was accusing your toaster. And your coffee maker. It is a conspiracy.

[Dust Raven]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

This is another good little dice-rolling tool...

I don't know what's wrong with my dowloading stuff, but there was no extension on the content of that zip file.

[prestidigitator]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

I don't know what's wrong with my dowloading stuff' date=' but there was no extension on the content of that zip file.[/quote']

Add '.html'.

[Dust Raven]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

Add '.html'.

 

Thanks.

[Dust Raven]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

Add '.html'.

 

Wait, no good. I just tried that and it open a page of gibberish.

[prestidigitator]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

Thanks.

NP

[prestidigitator]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

Wait' date=' no good. I just tried that and it open a page of gibberish.[/quote']

Oops. Than maybe you are losing more than just the extension.

 

Do you ever check MD5 checksums or such things for downloaded packages? If so, do they often come up wrong?

 

EDIT: Oh, and open it up with a plain text editor. Does it look like HTML code (there's some Javascript near the beginning; it's all pretty legible).

[Wiretwister]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

Chessex games sells a dice package with 24 physcodelic colored dice, it's like rolling a rainbow on acid, this may help, also dying the white dice pink and purple will add visual effect

 

Humor aside now,

 

I find for rolling large number of dice, counting those pips can get at you. I find the numbered dice are more user friendly.

 

Wire.

[Dust Raven]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

Oops. Than maybe you are losing more than just the extension.

 

Do you ever check MD5 checksums or such things for downloaded packages? If so, do they often come up wrong?

 

EDIT: Oh, and open it up with a plain text editor. Does it look like HTML code (there's some Javascript near the beginning; it's all pretty legible).

 

Nothing at all like html code, nothing legible.

 

I PMed Derek about it.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: New Player Hates All The Dice

 

I don't know what's wrong with my dowloading stuff' date=' but there was no extension on the content of that zip file.[/quote']

 

Hmm... it came out as a perfectly functional .html file for me. Thing is, it unzips contained in a Folder named "herodice," which of course has no extension. Perhaps that's where the problem is.