SoA: Development Log 2

 

Writing has continued consistently since my initial Secrets of Arn and the first development log. I believe I have the character creation prompts locked down and I moved my focus to the Referee's "Secret Rule book." The secret rule book is basically how I would run games, what resolution processes to use, and what procedures to use to help keep the game going and to try to prevent the game from grinding to a halt. 

Even getting to this point was interesting because I went back and forth on how much should I include, how should I include it, or if I should just give some deep guidelines in running the game. I decided to use my secret rule book in its entirety so Referees have something to work with to make running the game easier. These Referee's can use it, change it, throw it out and write their own secret rule book, and do their own research. It is simply the tools I use but it is not law and might not even be the best way to handle things. It is simply what I do - nothing more and nothing less.

The heart of the decision and what all other decisions are going to be based off of is the dice, how they are used, and how they are interpreted. Though, due to the whole point of this project is to capture a certain style of play and to preserve history I need to take into account other aspects before making design decisions. Which, actually makes it easier in a way because a lot of how I would do things tends to align with history and the choice was simple. Use d6s!!!

The choice was made but the how presented difficulty and I ended up second guessing myself, third guessing myself, and spent some time wanting to chew my own neck off. After writing pros and cons list, having conversions with various people in the industry, I decided what was going to make the final decisions on how the dice work is going to come down to probabilities. 

Below is the classic 2d6 probability curve that let me explore options with different target numbers and opposed rolls. 

After some additional study, I ran the numbers with a 2d6/3d6 advantage mechanic. 

Now it is just a matter of deciding on the probabilities and I have to keep in mind that regardless how I set up it is going to work for the players the same as the referee. Looking at probabilities has helped me make some final decisions moving forward.

 Consistency and fairness is key because there is over 40 years of consistency!

I am going to end this with additional art by the talented Inked Gas...