[Forge-main] Re: Mecanics

[Enrique Perez]

Hail! Ricardo wrote:
> Statistically, the bell curve is one of the best models of real-life
> probability distributions. As Enrique suggests, however, this is
> sacrificed by the added complexity of additional dice rolls. Ideally, I
> would like to keep dice rolls to a minimum, and have one at most.
> 
> Plenty of other roleplaying games have single die rolls. For example,
> d20 only uses 1d20 (when they could so easily have changed this to
> 2d10). The reason they use it, and the reason I would use it, is that
> the added 'realism' is unnecessary in most RPGs, where reality is often
> sacrificed for heroic super-reality.
 
A compromise is to use exploding dice. Where if you roll the maximum you reroll 
adding the next
die roll. For example, if you roll six, you roll again getting three for a 
total of ( 6 + 3 ) = 9.
This gives you most of the advantages of the bell curve, while only needing to 
add dice one in six
times.

Duncan wrote:

> First, let me apologize to you, Enrique: I don't think
> that I once said "Hello!" to you after you introduced
> yourself on the message board, and that was rude of
> me.  I mean, I knew Ricardo before I posted, but I
> didn't meet you until we began this exchange;
> therefore, sorry for my negligence.  I'm pleased to
> see that you didn't take it personally.  Nice to meet
> you, and I look forward to working with you on FORGE!

No worries, I'm glad you're helping with the game mecanics and I love your idea 
with of the Greek
world. I didn't say hello to you or Jerry on this list, so Hail Duncan and 
Jerry fellow wonder
talkers.

Duncan wrote:

> At some time in the near future, Herakles / Hercules,
> who's been living in Olympus since his run-in with the
> poisoned robe, begins to get ambitious.  He looks at
> his father, Zeus.  Now, the king of the gods has
> become lazy: in the last few thousand years, he has
> drifted further and further away from humanity, and
> allowed them to do as they please.  Herakles decides
> to change this, and, just as his own father overthrew
> Kronos and Kronos himself overthrew Uranus, he
> overthrows Zeus, becoming the new king.  He heads back
> to Earth with some of his supporters, and returns
> humans to the "right path" by every means necessary. 
> Humanity all over the world has Ancient Greek culture
> forced upon them, and Herakles demands that they
> spread his name across the universe.

> Five hundred years later, Hekacles' plan is working
> out, even if he himself is now becoming lazy. 
> Spacecraft exist, but so do dueling heroes with blood
> in their veins.  Lasers and other forms of advanced
> weaponry are prevalent, but said weaponry consists
> mostly of swords, spears, and the like rather than
> cowardly guns.  Magic swirls alongside technology;
> gods visit men.

Another possibility of how history could diverge from ours is in the battle of 
Syracuse, where
Archimedes worked with the Greeks to hold off the Roman attackers:
http://www.mcs.drexel.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/contents.html
http://www.mcs.drexel.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/Siege/Summary.html
http://www.mcs.drexel.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/Siege/Polybius.html

The Greeks almost survived the siege, losing because the Romans made a sneak 
attack while the
Greeks were partying during a festival to the Artemis.

What if the Greeks had better counsel from their gods? What if Herakles told 
the Greeks to keep
alert at all times? The Romans were going to starve the city; but, throughout 
the siege Archimedes
was planning ahead and we can only imagine what nifty means he would have used 
to feed the city.
Conveniently, since we're writing about this we can more than imagine this and 
simply write what
developments would be made as Greece and Rome got into an arms and technology 
race.

Enrique


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