Dice System

[egamma]

Okay, my very brief read on on Sorcerer indicates that you roll a die, the GM rolls a die, and if your die is higher, you win.

Statistically speaking, you will win 50% of the time; you might as well use a coin toss.

Have you looked into the Fate system (3d6)?

[Tom]

Okay, my very brief read on on Sorcerer indicates that you roll a die, the GM rolls a die, and if your die is higher, you win.

Statistically speaking, you will win 50% of the time; you might as well use a coin toss.

Have you looked into the Fate system (3d6)?

Your assumption about Sorcerer is wrong. It's an opposed dice pool system, you don't roll just one die. I have looked very deeply at dice systems and their statistical properties. Again, I've written a five-page analysis into the rulebook explaining why I think Sorcerer is the best dice system out there. Here's the PDF: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9638874/explorers/sorcerer-dice.pdf

[egamma]

With an opposed die system, with both sides using the same die, the probability of one die defeating the other, over time, is 50%. Your very first chart shows this--both sides of 0 are equal.

Let's say you're rolling an opposed d3. Excluding ties, here are the possible results:

wins:
2 1
3 1
3 2

losses:
1 2
1 3
2 3

See? you might as well just have one person flip a coin. You say as much at the bottom of page xci:

if the pools are the same size, your success chance is 50%

My point is, why use dice at all if you want a 50% chance of success?

[vonGenf]

See? you might as well just have one person flip a coin. You say as much at the bottom of page xci:

if the pools are the same size, your success chance is 50%

My point is, why use dice at all if you want a 50% chance of success?

That's why the dice pools are not always of the same size.

[Tom]

With an opposed die system, with both sides using the same die,

Your mistake is your assumption that it is a die pool system. It isn't. It's a dice pool system. Dramatic difference. The pools are NOT necessarily of the same size. Look again at the PDF. You'll notice that both the number of dice the player rolls AND the number of dice rolled in opposition are variable.

[Gustav Kuriga]

Still seems meh to me.

[Tom]

Still seems meh to me.

Aha. You haven't seen anything of the game itself, you know nothing about the background, setting, gameplay, visuals, rules, adventures, characters, quality of writing, layout, content or really anything at all. So please help me along here: How did you arrive at this judgement?

[Gustav Kuriga]

Aha. You haven't seen anything of the game itself, you know nothing about the background, setting, gameplay, visuals, rules, adventures, characters, quality of writing, layout, content or really anything at all. So please help me along here: How did you arrive at this judgement?

I was speaking of the dice system, not the game.