1d100

[MadMaxHellfire]

I've been reading some ruleset lately, and noticed that all of those using any kind of d100 go for "1-100". 1-100 means that you could roll just the tens die but one roll out of five makes the system shit bricks, because a 0 is a success 9 out of 10 times when it doesn't turn into catastrophe, while a 9 is catastrophic 9 times out of ten when it doesn't turn into a simple failure and everyone can breathe again.
I get the suspense and all, but 0-99 means that a 0 is always happiness and 9 always sadness, with the units die rolled only, sometimes, 1 time out of 10 just for fine tuning, speeding time spent doing nothing by a lot.
I'm not even sure it's done for the uncertainty because I noticed how during the years more and more games with lighter and lighter systems have been invented (which was that one? "Love vs Laser"?), to me it feels more like the monkeys and the banana on the ladder "things are done this way, don't question them".
If you tell me "I always roll them both" I just don't believe you. You'd be spending half the session asking "which one was tens again?".

Which one do you prefer? Can you see any other dis/advantage of any of these systems I missed?

 

[Morblot]

"Both"? Dude, it's one die:

"Love vs Laser"?

Lasers & Feelings?

 

[JamesDixon]

Modern dice sets have 2 10 sided dice with one that is marked with the tens place (10-00) and the other with the ones place (1-0). You never have to declare which one is the tens die due to this.

Now for the nitty gritty. 1d100 is a linear die roll whether you use an actual 1d100 or 2d10 marked as above. Thus, you have a built in swinginess to the rolls. One minute you can get a critical success and the next minute your getting a critical failure. What matters most in a 1d00 system is the modifiers as they can be rather high in the stacking. That does help with "realism" of the world, but in the end it can lead to modifier stacking that puts DANDINO (D&D In Name Only) to shame.

For 1d100 the Mean is 50, Deviation is 28.87, Maximum is 100, and Minimum is 1.

My two favorite die mechanics are Hero System/GURPs 3d6 roll under and WEG's d6 System dice pool mechanics combined with the wild die.

For 3d6 the Mean is 10.5, Deviation of 2.96, Maximum of 18, and Minimum of 3.

For WEG d6 just keep adding 1d6 to get the numbers.

For verification of my numbers use https://anydice.com/ as it gives you the percentage for each number on the dice plus the Mean, Deviation, Maximum, and Minimum roll.

 

[agris]

You're in essence arguing that the complexity of tracking the skill to a 1/100th of a percentage is pointless, because as you laid out the die in the 10s place dominates the outcome.

I think this is generally right, despite really enjoying the NotGurps SPECIAL system (up to 200% skills). I think the real deciding factor when adopting a d100 mechanic is probably 1) how many skills are there and 2) what's the order of the skill points received per level.

Taking SPECIAL as an example again, there are ~20 skills? Having a 1-200 system makes sense with that number of skills and the general amount of SP around 20. That lets you fine-tune skills levels to hit requirements for perks or in-game challenges. Doctor 55 gives you different things than Doctor 60 and 85. With 20 skills, 20ish levels and 20ish SP/level, a d100 system lets you tune a character well and especially lets you play late-game bloomer hybrid builds that kinda suck / are hard but satisfying at the start because your payoff point is ~2/3 into the game and then you'll become a min-maxed deathmachine.

Bust most games aren't like that so, yeah, d100 is kinda annoying.

fakedit: shoutout to the best use of a d10,000 though. Hackmaster 4e's critical hit table!

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

"Both"? Dude, it's one die:

View attachment 23702

i've only ever seen one in my life: it was some kind of curiosity, big as a fist, weighted a ton and kept rollling and rolling and rolling and rolling and rolling. it can't be used on your average sitting room's table without some thick cover or you're going to dent it multiple times with every roll. also thick covers are sworn enemies of writing-on-a-thin-sheet-of-paper-especially-with-a-sharp-pencil-and-don't-even-think-of-rubbing-something-away-or-you'll-rip-the-whole-sheet-apart.

 

[MartinK]

When you want linear distribution, you can replace d100 with d20 and everybody will be perfectly happy. d10 should be fine too. Andy maybe, just maybe you can push it to d4.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

people attracted to sci-fi aren't afraid of some numbers, actually many want them, the more the marrier. just look at aftermath, so damn many rules and numbers thrown around, even randomly and needlessly. myself, i couldn't immerse in a scientific world whose details go only from 1 to 20. or even less. fine tuning is required, mandatory even, but a way to quicken calculations is always welcome. thus, 1d100.

 

[MartinK]

Well, if prices go up 1% in a week nobody notices, if prices go up 5% people talk, if prices go up 10% people complain, if prices go up 25% people riot. This is why I like d20 or d10. Of course if there are other reason to use d100, such as the skill advancement subsystem of Runequest or it is an aesthetic preference, the go for it.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

thank you for your personal permission, mylord.

 

[Lagi]

In d100 systems (2xd10) test are determine by the tens dice. But there is a clever approach of using the smaller result dice 0-9 for damage, or hit location (warhammer). Which save massive amount of time on dice rolling (because everyone need to discuss each potential dice outcome before they roll dice).

Yes, you could just roll at once for hit and damage with every other dice combination (k20+k8), but i never see anyone doing that, unless it's d100 mechanic.