Sycarion Diversions

If you’ve never heard of them, Sicherman Dice are a pair of dice which have the same odds for throwing every number as a normal pair of 6-sided dice. The numbers on the faces are different, but the odds of rolling a 3 or 18 are exactly the same as standard dice. It’s weird at first, but if you do the math, it makes sense.

What I have been pondering lately deals with a different usage of dice. A long time ago, two six-sided dice were used for tables in role playing games. However, instead of using the total, they were read as two numbers put together. In other words, one dice was a tens digit, the other a ones digit. This would provide 36 different rolls (11 through 66) and you had a one in 36 chance in rolling any one of them.

For the Sicherman Dice above - if they are used in this way, the range is different. You only get 24 different numbers. (11 through 84) because you can roll and number ending in 2 or 3 twice.

More detail tomorrow, just writing it down so I won’t forget right now.

Information on Sicherman dice from:
Weisstein, Eric W. “Sicherman Dice.” From MathWorld–A Wolfram Web Resource. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SichermanDice.html

When Gold Rush Games lost their web host unexpectedly, the website went down as did the ability to access the rules for the Action! System. Although the site is back up now, there is no way to download the Action! System rules.

So we decided to host them until Gold Rush Games returns. Normally, we only host files in Open Document Formats, but we did not want to alter the original RTF files.

We love the Action! System and believe that it can be developed into an enjoyable rule set for experienced players and new players alike. We believe it has many advantages over other OGL-Licensed system, especially because the rules for character creation are detailed twice in the core rules.

A very good set of expansion rules have been created by MechAssembler. The rules detail Mecha, mecha pilots, and large vehicles. Go visit and take a look. If we can gain permission, we will one day host those files here.

MagicQuest, a Fantasy rule set distributed by Com-Star Media, is also a well-designed system.

Please contact us if you know of any other Action! System products out there.

Let’s say you have a magic system similar to Lenga in your Action! System game. Three new attributes, spells are skill rolls based on one of the three attributes.

Roll nine dice and arrange them in a 3 X 3 square. You have eight chances to roll a syccess, how you determine those changes depends on the attribute related to the spell. Consider the dice positions below:

1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9

If the power attribute was the base of the spell, your eight chances would be determined by eight lines. Namely: 123, 456, 789, 147, 258, 369, 159, 357.

If the aptitude attribute is the base of the spell, your eight chances would be determined by corners. Namely: 412, 236, 698, 874, 426, 842, 684, 268.

If the defense attribute is key, total all four dice and divide by three. Yes, this gives defensive spells a slight advantage, but it’s not as much as you would think.

For example, casting a spell that turns a pound of lead into a pound of gold has a TN of 30. It relies on the ‘aptitude’ attribute which for you is 6. Your skill with this spell is an 8. Rolling attribute (6) + skill (8) + 3d6 versus 30. This means you need to roll a 16 or better. Instead of the 3d6, consider the following:

You roll nine dice in this pattern

3 4 2
5 1 6
2 6 5

Because it is an aptitude based spell, your eight ‘corners’ yield:

12
12
13
17
15
16
17
15

You have three successes. This means you get two extra dice for effect.

Give it a shot.

In Lenga, there are no real ‘undead’ so to speak. A thing is alive or it is not. The definition of alive is a union of body and soul. Once the soul has separated from the body, it travels to the afterworld, or it remains in the world of the living as an incorporeal being. The soul cannot travel into another body if it decides to stay in the living world.

The body, on the other hand, can be animated. It can even be given the power to speak and understand simple commands. However, it is not alive. It cannot think for itself and will only do exactly as it is instructed. Animations have no impulse to self-preservation. This means if ordered to march off a cliff, they will march off the cliff without hesitation. The body is just like any other object in this respect - any object (statue, block of wood, pile of dirt) can be animated. A reanimated body is called a skeleton or zombie in other game systems. An animated collection of material is called a golem in other game systems.

Either kind of animation is rumored to be able to understand 1000 words only. There’s a story of an ancient golem whose creator wanted to teach the monster every word he could. Unfortunately, he never made it past the A’s. Instructions to this golem can only be given in words that start with the letter A. Most magician syndicates have a standard list of 1000 words for ‘animations’. A few use Ganarii due to the nature of their spoken language. (Ganarii animations can almost pass as intelligent.)

The soul, however, travels to the afterworld at death. It first travels to Hades. Hades is a holding place for the soul until it decides to travel to the Elysium fields for rest, or to Limbo in search of a way back to the world of the living. Some souls never leave Hades - at first this may be due to indecision, but ultimately as Hades tends to destroy desire, a soul stays because it has no desire to move on.
The Elysium fields are a place of rest for those that choose it. Ultimately, it is a place that allows for continued ambition and desire with the comfort of immortality. The fields are large enough that those that do not wish to be caught up in the ambitions of others can readily escape. As a place that allows for desires, no one can be compelled in the Elysium fields.
Limbo is a place of motion. The soul in Limbo loses its identity. Once ‘blank’ it returns to the world of the living as another person.
There are gateways to these places in the world of the living. A few even try to direct the incorporeal souls that remain to Hades. Souls that enter directly into the Elysium fields from the world of the living are unique and very rare cases. Most are the ‘nobility’ of the Elysium fields. Many an emporer has sought to keep their power by attempting to bypass Hades.

However, there are tales of three mages that have chosen a fifth option. These mages were all stricken with the Phage that debilitates some spellcasters. In an attempt to find a cure (instead of seek treatment which robs them of their ability to use magic), these three sought to reconnect the soul with the body immediately after death. When the body dies and the soul separates, the Phage goes away. Seeking to take advantage of this, these three sought to return to their own Phage-free bodies.

To their delight, it worked. To their dismay, however, they found that the body must be sustained by magical power. Since the body died, it cannot produce new blood cells or heal by normal means. These three use magic to repair all damage to their bodies at a very rapid rate. (This extends to the cellular level.) As a result, they never age, never grow hair longer, never shave. Other body systems also shut down, so they do not eat or feel the need for sleep. The only living organ is the brain.

Unfortunately for them, they feel perpetually hungry. Occasionally, they consume the blood of sentient species. Doing so allows them to appear as normal humans in skin color. It also offsets some of the gauntness they are prone to have. One has been driven mad by his condition, the other two may not hold out much longer. They have supposedly recorded their steps in order to duplicate the process.

Only the gods or titans can actually create new life force. It is presumed that the presence of these three has gotten their attention and completely reviled them all. Many believe that the tales of these three mages are simply moral stories to teach children the evils of unbridled ambition.

I plan on this site having its own domain and seriously devoting time here. I hope to be able to make a little money as well. Before you hit the next link in your bookmarks, bear me out. I’m not looking to quit my day job or anything.

If it is on the website, it’s free. Can’t sell my ideas as yours, but otherwise do what you want with it. Expand it, shrink it, trash it, or more importantly, use it. Where does the money come in? Well, if you want something sooner rather than later, a few dollars moves the production up. Want something nowhere even mentioned on the site? Be my patron and I’ll make it for you. No risk. If you don’t like it, don’t pay and I’ll publish it on the website.

The areas that I intend to focus on are the following:

Football Simulation Game:
The free teams will be alternate reality teams. The NFL doesn’t allow free use of helmets or team names for free in a game. The players association doesn’t allow the use of a player’s name for free in a game. So, create an alternate universe where the USFL didn’t fold (copyright expired on USFL teams, logos, etc)

All the stats from the fall professional league (similar to the NFL) and the spring league (USFL) will be published. I figure you’ll want to know if the team you choose to play is actually any good.

Role Playing Games
Action-System! - Lots of stuff here. There will be a campaign setting called Lenga, two or more separate magic systems, a supers system, and links to other variations (like mecha). In fact, I plan on developing a completely different magic system every month in 2008. I’m going for never before done stuff, not a rehash of 5er or D20’s various systems.

D6 Mod7 - Everything done for the A!S will be translated to my weird variant. For some, rolling is just too odd.

Breakpoint - This will be the development of an idea that was posted on the RPG Lounge. I can’t find the author as both sites that originally held the information are gone. This system is a roll-under system. More than anything, I just want to see if it can be done.

Card Games:
Three themes here. One is the use of the Mavinian Deck. The other main focus will be creating card games based on the Dvorak rules. Lastly, I may get to games involving a standard 52 card deck.

Board Games:
This will be the smallest focus here. I may finish Aztec Parchisi, Takteek, or Babbage’s Engines, but time will tell.

See you soon!

Avalon Hill produced statistics based versions of the major sports. Baseball was the most enjoyable, especially because the rules for making your own players were included. The big, index-card-sized FAC cards that determined what happened were chock full of encoded information for any situation.

And then there was the dreaded, “Z”.

Some of the same things carried over to the football game, which I dearly loved, too. The one thing I did not like, though, was that it was almost impossible to figure out how to add your own players. This became a bigger issue when updated player rosters ended in 1991.

A few hobby sites have some ideas on card creation, but none of them seem compatible with original card sets. In other words, using their rules on the 1991 teams would not create something close to the ‘official’ cards from Avalon Hill. Not even close in some cases.

So I decided to attempt to reverse engineer a set of 1991 official cards. Turns out that almost every card is arbitrary in some way. Two statistically identical players can have different results. Art Monk’s card is wrong and only they know how they came up with Andre Rison’s card.

So, I’m in mid-process of refining a consistent and universal set of rules to generate cards. This, of course, will mean refactoring official sets. With all the football stats around, that’s not too hard.

More later.

Thinking about a board game based on this machine. Just jotting down a few ideas:

Move proceeds around a board as player assemble pieces to construct their machine. The first to make it to the patent office with a working analytical engine wins. Players first make a difference engine and either patent it or build one by commission. Pieces from difference engine funds analytical engine.

If a player builds one for patent and not commission, he or she can use all the pieces of the difference machine to build analytical machine. Everyone else can only reuse their original (before being commissioned) pieces.

There are three pieces - spacer, cog, and rack.

The rack is a piece that allows the machine to be built ‘up’ a level. Presumably, the more racks, the more variables that can be calculated at once, but also the longer it takes to finish the machine.

The spacer allows the machine to be built ‘out’ a level. Presumably, the more spacers, the more decimal places that can be calculated for each variable. Once a spacer is added, it is added to every level.

Cog is a bit of machinery that fits on the grid created by racks and spacers. For example, a machine with 5 racks and 8 spacers would require 40 cogs to complete.

There would need to be a funding source, so I guess each player is a hobbyist until if and when a company commissions a machine to be built. Each would have different specifications and different advantages (more cogs per turn, alternate build rules, etc.)

Upon completion, they would get paid and then start to build the analytical engine.

Need to add in bonus or random elements like:

Ada helps your project (build at twice the rate)
Building trouble (destroys rack or spacer)
Lose funding. Keep your pieces, lose those purchased by company commissioning the machine.
Cogs go bad and must be replaced. or only red cogs go bad.
An entire rack goes bad and must be replaced.
A green rack goes bad or a red rack goes bad.

Piece would be two different colors to distinguish pieces built by you, the inventor, and those purchased by company commissioning you. Say Green are built by you and red built by company. When difference machine is finished, you can use only the green pieces to start analytical engine. (Thus if you built it entirely yourself, you could reuse all the pieces.)

Analytical Engine would need fourth piece, don’t know what to name it. Maybe replace cogs or modify cogs. Maybe analytical cogs cost more, but difference cogs can be modified very faster. For example in one turn you may get an analytical cog or convert three difference cogs to an analytical cog.

Building rules:

Rack pieces can only be removed from the top down, not the bottom up.
Removing a spacer affects every rack. The cogs lost cannot be reused. (Someone may remove a spacer in order to finish their machine faster.)
When you start on your analytical engine, you must add at least one rack and one spacer.
A difference machine must be at least 6 racks by 6 spacers.

Unless directed by card or company paying you (difference engine only), you can only add the piece you land on while moving your token around the board. If you are being paid to build, it must be a red piece. If you are going it alone, it must be a green piece.

Yehuda at Jerusalem Gaming blog has an idea to spice up Rummy with Action Cards.

The article is here

Enjoy!

Blogged with Flock

Heads up English Majors and other mathematically challenged folks! D6 MOD7 Dice Sheets are now available on the Downloads page and at the links below. (I have an English Literature Degree by the way.)

The frequencies of each roll are given at the bottom of the page. They are generated completely at random, but you may decide to use a different sheet based on the frequencies given.

As noted on the sheet, it only works well if you start on the upper left corner and move down the columns. Remember to cross out numbers already used.

3D6 MOD7 Rolls | 2D6 MOD7 Rolls

As always, there may be a name change as I discovered a company named MOD7 and I do not want to harm their business (though I don’t think I really could. I have four readers.) So, I’m looking at D6 MOD 7 for now. Nothing shows up on Google when I search for it (except me).

Changes in DEF Ability

Because D6 MOD7 uses a smaller range of numbers to determine success (0-6 instead of 3-18), changes have to be made in DEF and in many Traits. DEF is changed to 3+REF from 10+DEF. Without this change, an average person (Stats and skills of 3) could never successfully attack successfully.

For example, Joe, an average guy is in a fistfight at a bar with Andy another average guy.

Old Rules: Joe uses STR + Unarmed Combat Skill + Roll. Andy uses DEF + REF. Since both are average guys, Joe is trying to meet or beat a TN 16. (DEF = 10 + REF or 10+3. REF = 3) He had a STR of 3 and a skill of 3, meaning he has to roll a 10 or better to strike Andy. Using 3D6, Joe had a 0.625 chance to hit Andy.

Because a MOD7 roll cannot go higher than 6, Joe could never hit Andy, even if he surprised him.

New Rules: Joe uses STR + Unarmed Combat Skill + Roll. Andy uses DEF + REF. Since both are average guys, Joe is trying to meet or beat a TN 9. (DEF = 3 + REF or 3+3. REF = 3) He had a STR of 3 and a skill of 3, meaning he has to roll a 3 or better to strike Andy. Using a MOD7 roll, Joe has a 0.574074074 chance to hit Andy.

Changes in Traits and Modifiers

Needless to say, traits that give +3, +6, +9 modifiers to skills or attributes would present a similar problem. Rather than list the specifics, here is the general guideline:

Traits that affect skills are +1 (Convenience) +2 (Edge) +3 (Gift)
Traits that affect initiative are +2 +4 +6
Traits that affect health or damage remain unchanged

For example: Hard to Kill remains unchanged +2 TGH, +4 TGH, +6 TGH applied to piercing damage. However, Athletic is changed to +1, +2, +3 to all Athletic Group skills.

Fast Reflexes is partly the same and partly changed. Convenience is still +2 INI, but +1 to Awareness Skill Rolls. Edge is +4 INI and +2 Awareness rolls, Gift is +6 INI and +3 Awareness rolls.

Fast Healer is also only partially changed: progression on the Time Chart remains the same, but skill bonuses at the Edge and Gift levels are +1 and +2 respectively.

Full list comes later.

As far as modifiers are concerned, modifiers to Initiative are the same, modifiers for attacking or any other skill roll are reduced by 2/3 rds rounding up. The numbers aren’t easy rounded, so a full chart will be created at some point in the future. Below are examples:

Combat modifiers for size:
Target Size ………………………………………………. Modifier
Gargantuan, 32m or more (ship, bridge) ………………. +4
Huge, 16m or more (whale, house) …………………….. +3
Very large, 8m or more (city bus, big mecha) ………….. +2
Large, 4m or more (horse, car, tree, sm. mecha) ……… +1
Medium, 2m (human) ………………………………………. 0
Small, 1m or less (dog, barrel) …………………………… -1
Very small, 1/2m or less (cat, head, limb) ………………. -2
Tiny, 1/4m or less (mouse, bullseye) ……………………. -3

Damage rolls are still the same

If a greatsword does 4D6 damage, it still does 4D6 damage. Theoretically, it would be four Major MOD7 rolls added together, but that would be impractical. Roll (add together 3d6, divide by 7, find the remainder) 3 + roll (add together another 3d6, divide by 7, find the remainder) 2 + roll (add together another 3d6, divide by 7, find the remainder) 0 + roll (add together another 3d6, divide by 7, find the remainder) 4 for umm, err. 12 points of P/L damage. Hah! Take that thou varlet!

It slows down play and besides, it’s a whole lot of trouble. It’s one thing to do that for one roll (Skill roll, initiative, etc.) it’s another to have to add a series of Mod7 rolls together.

However, if you do want to still use D6 MOD7 rolls for damage or any other rolls, Dice Sheets will be provided with pregenerated Major and Minor D6 MOD7 rolls. Simply add up as many as you need down the column to get your total and then cross them off the sheet. The numbers are created by a True Random Number Generator to provide dice rolls. Then three dice rolls are added together and modulus 7 is taken from the total, just like any other D6 MOD7 roll. In short, it saves you from the math. Using a TRNG prevents the biases to low number that occurs in many spreadsheet programs with Psuedo-Random Number Generators in them.