New Luck Variant.

[Fred Brackin]

This occurred to me a few minutes ago in the other Luck thread but I thought it was not quite on-topic there.

This is an adaptation of a favorite "luck/dice grease" mechnism from another game. The Gurps version goes something like this.

"Every hour of game play (or other limit, I'm not wedded to the Luck mechanic) you may roll 1D6 and subtract it from a 3D6 Roll you just made."

If this looks vaguely familiar it's based on what I think were "Hero pts" in Eberron (though you added the D6 rather than subtracting). These were very popular when I was Gm'ing that game.

the special virtue of this should be the same in gurps as it was in Eberron. While this can get you out of a Crit Fail like regular "re roll" variants it can turn a near-miss into a success. my players liked that and I haven't seen anithger "Luck" variant besi9des buying successes that has this strong point.

Do you like it and/or what do you think it should cost? I'd consider it more useful than standard Luck.

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Do you like it and/or what do you think it should cost? I'd consider it more useful than standard Luck.

It's more useful in some situations, but less useful in others. Standard luck is actually very useful - it has about a 99.97% chance of pulling you out of a critical failure. At a 10 skill you would have a 75% chance of rolling a success on the the two extra rolls that Luck gives you. Heck, even at skill 8 you have almost a 50% chance of succeeding on the two extra rolls with standard luck. With your variant if I were rolling against an 8 skill and rolled a 15+ the luck would offer no help at all, other than maybe saving me from a critical failure; on a 14 it would have only a 1/6 chance of making a difference.

My gut tells me that your variant could be treated as a +0% modifier to regular luck.

[naloth]

If this can generate critical successes, I'd call it many more times powerful than regular luck. A roll of an 8 (25%) will generally "upgrade" to a 4 or less which is more than double the chance of rolling a 3 or 4 if you just roll 3d6 three times. You also have a much better idea of when this will be useful (i.e. if I only rolled a few points lower or of I need a much lower roll).

Perhaps 30-40 points at 1/hour?

[naloth]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

My gut tells me that your variant could be treated as a +0% modifier to regular luck.

That's all true, though I suspect you're looking the less abuse-able range of numbers. I'd get this for a skilled fighter to be able to bypass defenses when the roll is already close rather than using this to avoid critical failures. It can work something like Super Luck when you have already rolled a 6-8 first. It also works nicely to increase the number of hits you get with rapid fire, where you might not want to "waste" luck to try to get a better roll.

[dataweaver]

Instead of subtracting a die, how about just removing a die? That is, you make your roll, then discard one die of your choice. For success rolls, at least; Reaction Rolls and damage rolls operate on a “higher is better” model; so being able to toss an extra die into one of those rolls makes sense.

[khorboth]

I would let it add or subtract a die. That way, it could still be used for things like forcing an opponent out of a critical success or influencing damage.

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

Instead of subtracting a die, how about just removing a die? That is, you make your roll, then discard one die of your choice. For success rolls, at least; Reaction Rolls and damage rolls operate on a “higher is better” model; so being able to toss an extra die into one of those rolls makes sense.

That would be a giant advantage. Not only does it eliminate the possibility of a critical failure entirely it would also guarantee success on most skill rolls and increases the chance of a critical success dramatically. Rolling 4- on 2d6 is 13.9%, 5- is 27.8%, 6- is 41.7%.

What might be interesting is if it lets you roll an extra die on any roll and drop one die at your preference; thus you can drop highest die on your own skill rolls, lowest die on opponents skill rolls or your own damage rolls, etc.

[dataweaver]

Fair enough. But now you're getting closer to the current “reroll twice and pick the best of the three” mechanism — I don't know if that's a bad thing; but it bears consideration.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

What might be interesting is if it lets you roll an extra die on any roll and drop one die at your preference; thus you can drop highest die on your own skill rolls, lowest die on opponents skill rolls or your own damage rolls, etc.

That was a variant that occurred to me- roll 6d and choose the best 3d. Your version is probably more balanced though, so we could make it levelled, adding 1d per level.

What then are the odds of finding a crit on 3d when rolling 7d? 10d?

I do have a misgiving though, in that it doesn't feel "GURPSy", like rolling 2d10 or something instead.

[Ashtagon]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

If this looks vaguely familiar it's based on what I think were "Hero pts" in Eberron (though you added the D6 rather than subtracting). These were very popular when I was Gm'ing that game.

This feels like reverse-engineering a reverse-engineered mechanic. D&D's action points were (imho) an attempt to emulate GURPS ability to spend character points to improve die rolls or otherwise make good stuff happen.