Re: (TFT) 3d6

[Joe Hartley <jh@brainiac.com>]

On Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:52:53 -0500
<Gavin@TheFantasyQuest.com> wrote:
> In my mind it goes like this:
> Merits of 1d20:  Easier to tally, 5% increments, "gamey" mechanic of rolling 
> a die commonly associated with RPGs.
> Merits of 3d6:  The bell curve
> 
> I hear people say, "The Bell Curve is better because it better demonstrates 
> reality" and stuff like that.  But how?  Why?  In what way?

I'm a huge fan of 3d6 but as the archives will show, I'm not a big fan
or trying to realistically model combat.  I love the fact that to roll
an 18 or a 3 your odds are 216 to one.  That's less than half of one 
percent!

If you're using a 1d20, each time you add a point to a stat, you increase
the likelihood of rolling for that stat by 5%, no matter what the level.
With 3d6, it can be more or less.  Going from a 10 to 11 increases your
odds by 12.5% - a really nice jump! - but going from 15 to 16 only adds
2.78%.   I've found this distribution of probability to make creating
characters in TFT much more engaging than with 1d20.

That's really what it comes down to for me - the diminishing returns on
adding to the stats as a character grows.

-- 
======================================================================
       Joe Hartley - UNIX/network Consultant - jh@brainiac.com
 Without deviation from the norm, "progress" is not possible. - FZappa
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