"Rolling a mix of dice colors" Topic

One dice mechanic that I use in my games is rolling 2 dice colors at once to represent different factors that shouldn't interact linearly.

Example: red dice represent rate of fire and white dice represent ability of weapon to affect to the target.

A four man rifle squad rolls 4 red dice and 4 white dice to attack enemies in the open.

A hit occurs for each red die that matches any of the white dice.

The odds of each shot hitting in this instance are 52% but if they are at longer range I can only count matches that are 4s+ etc.

If a casualty occurs in this squad I will only roll 3 red dice. If I decide to attack a target in good cover I will roll only 2 white dice, the odds are now only 30%.

Between the 2 dice colors and the values rolled I can cover three multiplying factors without doing any math or looking at tables.

1-6 white dice and up to 6 range bands for result values, a single shot weapon can have a chance of hitting anywhere from 3% to 67% with good resolution depending on range and cover. The system allows for a whole squad firing without increasing complexity.

Does anyone else do something similar?

Good idea.
Always good to see new ideas being tested and played. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Keep it up.
D6 can be used in many many creative ways.

martin

Not sure if this is what you mean, but my homebrew WW2 tank rules resolve shots by rolling 3 dice at once – green, white, and red. The green die is the spotting check and if it fails the other two dice are irrelevant, whereas if it succeeds the white "to hit" die is checked. Only if it succeeds does the red "to kill" die become relevant.

@Martin, thanks!

@Eumelus, yes this is what I mean when I ask if anyone uses other mixed dice methods. I would say your method is better than mine for games where an attack either misses or hits, but not as well when there should be a possibility of multiple hits like when firing at infantry.

Excllent ideas !

In our naval gaming we use different colors of dice for the primary and secondary weapons to speed up play.

Yes, I have done this, and do this for some games.

I generally prefer larger dice for more granularity though, e.g. D10s or D20s.

You can also conduct multiple attacks quickly doing this, if you assign one die color to each individual/unit/vehicle.

I do this. In my AWI homebrew, the player rolls dice to see how many orders he can issue on his turn. If he has "allied" units in his force ("Hessians" or French), these dice are in a different color, as they can only receive orders from their own dice, not from the dice for the primary forces (Brits or Patriots).

A long time back I experimented with a design calling for different colored dice to differentiate different levels of combat ability or types of attacks, including "magic." Green dice might only hit on a 6, Red dice on a 5 or 6 and Yellow (magic dice) on a 4, 5, or 6. One can achieve the same thing by rolling independently, but different colors speed things up.

In the Aliens RPG, you roll an appropriate number of black d6s (skill level + related statistic would be typical), and succeed if you get at least one 6. More 6s are higher levels of success.

As long as you're succeeding at tasks, you keep rolling all black dice. Once you fail at something, you get a yellow d6, to represent stress (notably cortisol and adrenaline). A yellow d6 gives you an additional chance to roll a 6, but it also gives you a chance to roll a 1, for failure and panic.

Every time you fail at a roll, you get another yellow d6.

You can get rid of yellow dice by resting in a safe place for a long time.

Yeah, right, a safe place to rest in the Aliens universe!

It worked really well in the convention game I played recently.

I do this for D&D. I have a cup that covers most of the character's rolls with separate colors, and always roll the whole cup and ignore the dice that don't fit the check I'm making.

Example 1 Rogue:
Blue D20 + D8 + D4 + 4D6
Green D20
The Blue are the to hit die and damage for the 2 weapons he might use, plus sneak attack damage for when that applies.
The Green is if he has Advantage.

Example 2 Fighter:
Blue D20 + D8
Green D20 + D8
Red D20 + D8
He gets 2 attacks which are the Blue and Green roll + damage. The Red D20 is if he gets Advantage on a roll. The Red D8 is his Superiority die if he elects to use a Battlemaster ability.

OSL---that is a neat mechanic. May try something like that for my zombie game.

Yes, I might have to 'steal' it, too… ;-)

I use a D20 and a D6 in my Colby Saloon shoot-out game. The D20 is the "To Hit" number modified for terrain or movement. The D6 shows the damage to the figure if hit. A hit can affect movement, agility or strength, which in turn will decide how long that figure will survive. It's a workable system and no one is "Blown Up" instantly.

In the O Group WW2 rules you roll a 'spotting die' along with the 'to hit' dice against most targets. The result of the spotting die affects the chances of then converting hits into suppression and casualties.