Taking Initiative of Initiative

Despite everything that has been happening, I have been trying to keep up on my six-month plan for OverBurn. While my notes are a scattered and unrefined, I have to call a success for May. I was able to finish my three goals for that month.

May

• 6 month Plan
• Chapter Outline
• Core mechanics

I wanted to have more of an actual rough draft for the the core mechanic, but I have found that putting my ideas to cohesive words to be more difficult than I thought. To recap, here are my goals for this month.

June

• Archetypes
• Races
• Skills

I am well on my way with this section as I have nine basic archetypes, or classes if you will, and four unique species; I don't know why we call them races.

The mechanic I wanted to discuss in this article is 'Initiative'. Initiative plays a crucial part in combat and there are several types to consider: Fixed rating, roll once per combat, roll every round, count down (rolled or fixed), count up, speed or advantage. The initiative that I am leaning to is a simple d6 roll and you count down from 6, this is different that the count down method, but it gives a pecking order to initiative. Why did I choose this method? because it is quick and easy. It allows for the round to be more dynamic as different people take the lead each round and must contend with unexpected combat shifts. It also keeps initiative quick so that it is not another aspect that bogs down combat.

There are some additional rules that I am adding to make combat more interesting. For one, a character cannot take an action against someone who is die-a-metrically opposed on the die. This means your init and your opponents init can not add up to seven. If you are going on a 6, you cannot attack someone going on a 1; if you are going on a 3, you cannot attack someone going on a 4; etc. I do not think this will be overly detrimental to players, but should add a few interesting situations. I am curious as to peoples opinions of Initiative and what they prefer to use. Also, if you have any questions on the ones I have listed, I will be happy to elaborate.

The Rule of Fibs

Through my many years of gaming, I've always had a problem with 'experience' systems. I never realized this problem; it normally just materialized into a frustration with the game. I have since discovered the beauty of Fibonacci. So what is Fibonacci? I like to call it the rule of life, the system is related to the golden ratio and a basis for how living things grow. I am not a Mathematician so my answer may not be 100% accurate (but that's it in a nutshell).

So what does this have to do with experience in a role-laying game? Well, in my opinion, the problem with most experience systems is that they allow characters to quickly ascend to levels that puts them above the mean of the game. This lends to a unsatisfying scenarios as many of the challenges are beneath the player. Fibonacci allows a game master to put a limit on progression without actually placing a limit. There becomes a point when acquiring the next level is just not as feasible. Lets compare a Fibonacci experience system to D&D 3.5, as I still haven't had the urge to buy the 4th edition books.

Level 1 0

Level 2 1,000

Level 3 2,000

Level 4 3,000

Level 5 5,000

Level 6 8,000

Level 7 13,000

Level 8 21,000

Level 9 34,000

Level 10 55,000

Level 11 89,000

Level 12 144,000

Level 13 233,000

Level 14 377,000

Level 15 610,000

Level 16 987,000

Level 17 1,597,000

Level 18 2,584,000

Level 19 4,181,000

Level 20 6,765,000

As you can see, by the time you hit 20th Level it will cost 6.7 mil+ as oppose to 190,000 it costs in D&D. I know what some are saying: "That cost's too much." and for D&D, I agree with you. But for a RPG that you pump experience directly into skills/powers, this rule is great. It prevents people from overloading one skill/power. Players who want to get the most for their experience will spread it around causing something that is difficult to find, a well rounded character.

This is the system I decided to use for experience in OverBurn. I also present this video which helps illustrate Fibonacci.

Chances of Success

I was thinking today on probability of success for a die system that uses multiple of the same die. Similar to Shadowrun, World of Darkness, 7th Sea, etc, I wondered what the actual percentages were for the various polyhedrons used in gaming. So I sat down at my computer and drafted up the following chart.

I am leaning towards a multi d10 system with a 9 or 10 qualify for a success. I'm curious, based on the chart, what other people like (please no d20 requests).

# dice	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
d4 Chance of Success
4	25.00%	43.75%	57.81%	68.36%	76.27%	82.20%	86.65%	89.99%	92.49%	94.37%
d6 chance of success
5,6	33.33%	55.56%	70.37%	80.25%	86.83%	91.22%	94.15%	96.10%	97.40%	98.27%
6	16.67%	30.56%	42.13%	51.77%	59.81%	66.51%	72.09%	76.74%	80.62%	83.85%
d8 Chance of success
6,7,8	37.50%	60.94%	75.59%	84.74%	90.46%	94.04%	96.27%	97.67%	98.54%	99.09%
7,8	25.00%	43.75%	57.81%	68.36%	76.27%	82.20%	86.65%	89.99%	92.49%	94.37%
8	12.50%	23.44%	33.01%	41.38%	48.71%	55.12%	60.73%	65.64%	69.93%	73.69%
d10 Chance of Success
7,8,9,10	40.00%	64.00%	78.40%	87.04%	92.22%	95.33%	97.20%	98.32%	98.99%	99.40%
8,9,10	30.00%	51.00%	65.70%	75.99%	83.19%	88.24%	91.76%	94.24%	95.96%	97.18%
9,10	20.00%	36.00%	48.80%	59.04%	67.23%	73.79%	79.03%	83.22%	86.58%	89.26%
10	10.00%	19.00%	27.10%	34.39%	40.95%	46.86%	52.17%	56.95%	61.26%	65.13%
d12 Chance of Success
8,9,10,11,12	41.67%	65.97%	80.15%	88.42%	93.25%	96.06%	97.70%	98.66%	99.22%	99.54%
9,10,11,12	33.33%	55.56%	70.37%	80.25%	86.83%	91.22%	94.15%	96.10%	97.40%	98.27%
10,11,12	25.00%	43.75%	57.81%	68.36%	76.27%	82.20%	86.65%	89.99%	92.49%	94.37%
11,12	16.67%	30.56%	42.13%	51.77%	59.81%	66.51%	72.09%	76.74%	80.62%	83.85%
12	8.33%	15.97%	22.97%	29.39%	35.28%	40.67%	45.61%	50.15%	54.30%	58.11%