Hero dice

[Finarvyn]

This isn't really a "new" idea, per se, but it's the first time I tried it in an OD&D game.

I bought a cube of 12 dice that looked unusual (black with red pips) and handed out 3 to each of my 4 players. I told them that during the game session they could "spend" those dice in any way they wanted. They could add a d6 to a hit roll, a damage roll, a saving throw, whatever. They could heal up 1d6 hit points with it. They could be innovative and see what came up.

Worked pretty well, overall. They hourded them at first, then started spending like crazy toward the end of the adventure. The thief enhanced a move silently roll, the magic user enhanced the number of orcs she could cast "sleep" on, the fighter turned a key missed attack into a hit, and so on. (The fighter needed to burn all three of his dice to accomplish this, by the way. His initial roll was that bad.)

Today I have 5 players instead of 4. I'm thinking of giving each player 2 dice and putting the remaining 2 into a "community pot" for use on a first-come-first-served basis. My group is cooperative enough that I think they'll plan the dice use instead of someone burning them recklessly.

Anyone do anything like this? How did it work for you?

[derv]

I've never done this. But, I think players love this sort of thing. It can be a saving grace for them. I'm curious if you found 3 six siders per player to be too generous? And did you consider any other dice (d3 or d4)?

[cadriel]

It's an interesting idea. I haven't done it with physical dice but I've offered mulligans - players get to make one re-roll in the course of a game session (no exchanges, refunds or transfers; mulligans have no monetary value; all mulligans expire at the end of the play session). It usually only comes up when, for instance, a player blows a saving throw and I ask if they want to use their re-roll. Otherwise they mostly forget it exists.

[Zenopus]

Sounds like fun, Fin. Our DM does the same as cadriel, one re-roll per session. But you only earn it if you were at the previous session.

[Deleted]

I MIGHT do the "one reroll" thing. Otherwise, I personally find the idea very much against the spirit of OD&D as Dave and Gary conceived it. Especially Dave... BLACKMOOR didn't even have "Raise Dead."

Dame Fortune is a b*tch.

See also, "The Seven Geases" by Clark Ashton Smith.

[Finarvyn]

May 26, 2014 9:44:04 GMT -6 derv said:

I've never done this. But, I think players love this sort of thing. It can be a saving grace for them. I'm curious if you found 3 six siders per player to be too generous? And did you consider any other dice (d3 or d4)?

In our first game session it seemed like we had too many dice, but we were facing some powerful creatures and one character died anyway. The second session was a "zombie invasion" where a town had been invaded by a hundred zombies and they had to get in and rescue the princess and get out, and the players never got around to using any of the dice. I think that the dice become more important when they are facing a smaller number of nasties rather than a larger number of wimpies.

And I like d6's. I hadn't thought about any other type.

[waysoftheearth]

You could also try:

Lawfuls can share their bonus dice in a pool between them.
Neutrals have their own individual pool and can't share.
Chaotics have their own individual pool like neutrals, but: If they roll a 5-6 they spend someone else's bonus die instead. If they roll a 1-2 it costs them two of their own bonus dice.

[derv]

May 26, 2014 16:23:57 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

In our first game session it seemed like we had too many dice, but we were facing some powerful creatures and one character died anyway. The second session was a "zombie invasion" where a town had been invaded by a hundred zombies and they had to get in and rescue the princess and get out, and the players never got around to using any of the dice. I think that the dice become more important when they are facing a smaller number of nasties rather than a larger number of wimpies.

And I like d6's. I hadn't thought about any other type.

Most people that offer a "mulligan" are allowing a one time re-roll. It's a once and done thing which does not guarantee success. But, what your Hero Dice seem to be offering is a cumulative chance of success. I'm a little miserly in using such things in my games. But, If I was going to use something like this, I might offer an alternative to the rolling of the d6. If a roll is missed, I would give the player the option of rolling their dice in hopes of success or spending their dice, with no roll required, to guarantee a success (how many would depend on how much they missed their roll by, but it would always be a minimum of 2 dice). Once they make the choice, they can't change their mind. In other words, they can't roll one of their d6 in hopes of rolling a 5+ and when they roll a one, decide they're going to spend the dice. They'll have to keep rolling until they hit the target number or run out of dice.

In a save or die situation I think most players will be spending their dice pool.

[funkaoshi]

There are rules like this in 5e for the fighter and the thief. (Or there were in earlier play test packets.) I think they called them "expertise dice", and you could spend them on different actions depending on your class.

[idrahil]

Reminds me of spending character points in West Ends Games Star Wars.

The kicker there was that Character Points were also how you improved so if you spent that point to get an extra roll, you lost it for improving attributes and skills.

I might toy around with something like this but attach an xp cost to them.

[jmccann]

I could see a mechanism like this from an artifact, but I would not use this in normal play.

[EdOWar]

I'm generally not a fan of "meta" mechanics in RPGs. They tend to either add unnecessary complexity, are inappropriate to the setting of the game or, in the case of most modern RPGs, the characters are sufficiently robust to survive without them.

However, I do like handing out tactile gaming props to players. The system described here, while a meta mechanic, is very simple to implement, limited in scope (assuming characters can't earn additional hero dice during play) and have the additional benefit of being a tactile prop. I could see myself using such a mechanic in certain heroic type campaigns.

[Finarvyn]

May 31, 2014 12:24:45 GMT -6 EdOWar said:

The system described here, while a meta mechanic, is very simple to implement, limited in scope (assuming characters can't earn additional hero dice during play) and have the additional benefit of being a tactile prop.

And I like the fact that my players have shown a lot of creativity with this.
* Can I adjust my saving throw?
* Can I adjust the damage I do on a monster?
* Can I adjust the monster's attack roll on me?
* Can I adjust a treasure roll?
* Can I heal some damage?
* Can I adjust the number of monsters in a room?

Pretty much "yes" to any of these. It's a finite resource and one that doesn't seem to unbalance the game much.

[ratikranger]

I think the most important thing here is not to allow hoarding across sessions. What I wouldn't want to happen is one player never spending their "hero dice" or "hero points" or whatnot and accumulating, say, 14 of them. Then in one session, presumably an important finale-type thing, they bring them all out and completely ruin the game. But the "once per session, non-hoardable" thing sounds like it could be fun. Especially if it's mostly used to avoid "embarrassing" failures cause by those "super-swingy" d20s. :-)

[Malcadon]

May 26, 2014 8:25:19 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

I bought a cube of 12 dice that looked unusual (black with red pips)...

Yeah, my favorite color scheme.

I have seen this rule before, but I cant remember who proposed this (I think it was on YouTube or something). It is a grate idea, and a neat bit of resource-management that allows for small bursts of heroics (bursts of strength, catching a second wind, lucky brakes, favors of the gods, etc).