Re: The GZG Digest V1 #219

Jon Wrote:

>Well, I've been skimming through all this as it is posted (and saving
some
>bits for more detailed reading and consideration later), but I do have
a
>few comments.
>1) While I realise some players simply don't like it on principle,

The principle dosen't bother me, In fact I rather enjoy seeing new ideas
in
game mechanics.

> the chit
>system WORKS.

I agree it does.

>Given that, why replace it with a dice-and-chart system

I only use 1 chart for criticals. Hardly the upper end or even the
middle of
the pack for "Dice-and-Chart"

>that
>is actually MORE complicated? OK, the chits take a few seconds to draw
from
>the pot, but you then have all your results right there in front of
you,
>end of story.

Of all the DS2 games I have played, very few (one maybe two) of them
were
not interrupted with ,or punctuated by, a search for all the damage
chits. I
have no problem with the Chit method in itself, but if you loose a die,
you
can pick up another of the same type and continue on, someone will
stumble
over your die sooner or later. If you spill the chits, you have to find
all
120 of them, which as I posted earlier, is sometimes half the battle
(Retrieving them from floor or baseboard ventilation grates, household
pets,
ect. being the other half). If it was a deck of cards, even half the
size of
normal playing cards they would be easier to find and wouldn't fall in
to so
many irritatng places, and I probably wouldn't have gotten involved in
this.

>The dice system proposed could, at an extreme, actually
>require players to have upwards of FIFTY dice available for the game
(there
>is concievably a case where both players could have to roll five each
of
>the same die type for a single shot).

The most dice a player would need are thirty. 5 each of D4, D6, D8, D10,
D12, and D20. I know very few gamers that couldn't bring at least that
many,
and most are good enough sports to share. Most gamers I know could bring
twice that much without a second thought, and provide for those without,
so
I generally consider the avalability of dice to be a non issue.

I am advocating a static armor number so that only one player is rolling
dice (3 times the armor level) to keep an inordinate number of dice
being
rolled on the table. Adding the numbers is the same procedure as the
chit
draw, it just changes what numbers are added. It's just the critical hit
table that gets difficult to explain, but it is in fact rather easy, I
have
played homemade games with that sort of resolution before.

So the main reason why I want some agreement on this dice resolution is
practicality (ugh thte P word). In a crowded and noisy game room with
three
to five games going on at the same time, and anywhere from two to twenty
people per game or tournament (a Battletech tournament I took part in
was
sheduled for up to twenty-four) trying to retrieve spilt chits is nearly
impossible. Worse yet is when at one of the group member's house and the
chits are dropped into thick carpet, down a vent, stolen by the cat,
ect. It
becomes impractical to not come up with a dice system for use once the
chits
are gone.

I will re-compile these dice rules, as far as I have seen this
discussion
get, and re-post them. It may be easier to look at that way.

PS:
    I know I can buy more chits in the stand alone chit pack, but first
I
need the money to buy a whole new chit pack. Of course I only need new
damage chits
( I have never lost any of the others ), and I still need to buy the
Fleet
Book so I really don't have that much to throw at the problem. If I
actually
run low on dice <HA> I can almost always scrounge enough
change to spend 30 cents on a replacement.