It's always important to get back to the basics. I sometimes forget about the different ways that rolls can be made. As an amateur TRPG content creator, I need to expand my knowledge. Thanks for this!
My favourite opposed roll system is the Ironsworn system where you roll 2d10 as challenge dice and you try to beat those scores with a D6+modifiers. Beat both scores it's a strong hit, beat none and it's a miss. Beat one and it's a weak hit.
Works great creating a lot of weak hits and driving the story into interesting directions.
That's such a good system! It's hard writing these posts because the space limitations mean a lot of great examples end up on the cutting room floor. Thanks for bringing this one up!
There’s also opposed rolls as a matrix. Both rolls are actually skill checks, and you have a table for how to interpret the different combinations of crit success, success, failure, and crit failure. You can also do this narratively, using the combination of results from both rolls to give you the overall vibe that you talk through or act out (a slightly more complex method than the black or white die held up to end a scene in Fiasco).
Seems like such a simple mechanic, but with some nuance it can be really interesting and fun. Oath and Root are two of my favorite games and I really like how they both use this mechanic.
Great article! During playtesting I realized that d6 opposed dice were too sensitive to small post-roll modifiers. So I wrote a small Python program mapping the winning, losing, tie probabilities for any dice. It can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/57e7jcmh
Thank you for the awesome article! Opposed die rolls are close to heart for me... So much that I made up a math spreadsheet about them for one of my games 😂 I hope you find it useful!
It's always important to get back to the basics. I sometimes forget about the different ways that rolls can be made. As an amateur TRPG content creator, I need to expand my knowledge. Thanks for this!
Awesome! Thank you, and I'm so glad you liked it!
Quietly adding this particular post to my must-reads for game design. I would buy the Skeleton Code Machine posts compiled into a zine, I think.
👀
My favourite opposed roll system is the Ironsworn system where you roll 2d10 as challenge dice and you try to beat those scores with a D6+modifiers. Beat both scores it's a strong hit, beat none and it's a miss. Beat one and it's a weak hit.
Works great creating a lot of weak hits and driving the story into interesting directions.
That's such a good system! It's hard writing these posts because the space limitations mean a lot of great examples end up on the cutting room floor. Thanks for bringing this one up!
There’s also opposed rolls as a matrix. Both rolls are actually skill checks, and you have a table for how to interpret the different combinations of crit success, success, failure, and crit failure. You can also do this narratively, using the combination of results from both rolls to give you the overall vibe that you talk through or act out (a slightly more complex method than the black or white die held up to end a scene in Fiasco).
That sounds really interesting! There are so many ways to adapt and modify opposed rolls.
Seems like such a simple mechanic, but with some nuance it can be really interesting and fun. Oath and Root are two of my favorite games and I really like how they both use this mechanic.
Great article! During playtesting I realized that d6 opposed dice were too sensitive to small post-roll modifiers. So I wrote a small Python program mapping the winning, losing, tie probabilities for any dice. It can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/57e7jcmh
Thank you for the awesome article! Opposed die rolls are close to heart for me... So much that I made up a math spreadsheet about them for one of my games 😂 I hope you find it useful!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AmhxKJLJKYak6OYgO0TyTgJuwWWEMbzFStkgm5FNZlM/edit?usp=drivesdk