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Replace Damage Dice with Whaaaaat?!?! (Extended) (Patreon)

Published:
2023-01-13 22:37:44
Imported:
2026-06
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Videos

Content

PDM shows how Tracy Hickman of Dragonlance/Ravenloft fame uses 2d20s to calculate damage. Speed up your game. Simplify your life.



Files

Previews only

d20 Damage 1.mp4

Comments

Bagel-Man

Excited to watch this when I get home PDM!

Joel A.

Awesome sauce 🤣!

MrGunn

Great stuff PDM! Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Although I think you may have shaken the psyches of some people: ‘Wait, D&D is just a game? Rules as written mean nothing and are completely malleable, like variables in an algorithm…’😱 EMOTIONAL DAMAGE!!!

Andrew

hey, just so you know---my players actually bring beer. It's taken a number of years to get them trained, but it is achievable! The promised land is REAL!---and wow, Paranoia. That takes me back.

Jay

Yep. I've been playing games or homebrewing my own for a very long time to keep bean counting to a minimum when it comes to HP and damage. Too much math, no matter how simple, slows the game and players loose the immersion. Tracey Hickman has some great advice in the XDM books for sure. Great video.

baldrage

Good video, although I fear it will be lost in the OGL hubbub if you put it on YouTube now. I take a similar narrative approach, but without rolling a d20 for damage and consulting a chart. Roll a nat 20 on your attack roll? Then you do normal damage roll + max of your damage dice (e.g., d6+6 or d8+8) and maybe some bonus effect, like chopping off a limb, tail, or wing, or poking out an eye. Maxing out your damage roll, say a 7 or 8 on a d8 attack, might also get a bonus effect, depending upon how much health the adversary has remaining.

Lee Caddick

I love this idea, I switched to average damage really early on to keep things moving and that worked great but I miss the suspense that comes with the players not knowing how hard the hit is going to be, this seems like a great fix.

jnlsn family

I use Mordheim- damage and hit matrix. Bigger Sword, you rank higher on the matrix and are more likely to do damage. Crits on a 6 and if you roll 6 on the to wound phase it explodes and you can do extra damage. Some weapons are more likely to cause stunned results, some are better against armor, some bleed. Weak character, you're dead in a hit. High level character? You might have 5 hits. It avoids the whole " I hit, you hit, I hit, you hit, I hit" boringness of combat. I automatically makes players think tactically and creatively when they are not perched on a mountain of hit points.

Brent Norton

Since hearing about the hits system over hit points, I’ve enjoyed the hits system more. Simpler and faster style of game for my larger groups. In my notes all my monster have hits an example zombies have 1 hit unless the players rolls a 1 on the damage die, then it stays up. It’s not perfect but it allows us to have fun.

Robert DeLuca

I love this!… and in 35 plus years none of us had a favorite 6 or 8 sided dice, but we all had favorite 20 sided dice. My players even hid certain dice from me because they rolled too high!… this just adds more flavor!

Giulliano Salgarello

I just use the attack roll. If it hits AC, 1 injury. Minions can sustain 1 to 2 injuries and tough monsters 5 or 10. Natural 20 it's 2 injuries and you roll on the mutilation chart. Randomly generated gruesomeness. Oh yeah 🧌

Jay
>>99577792

YES! I really appreciate your ideas regarding damage. I do something similar with Critical Hits in D20 and other style games. Critical hit rolls that result in just more damage dice rolls can become lack luster if you roll 1's and 2's with the damage dice. The concept of inflicting some kind of bane on a foe like disabling a limb when comparing factors such as damage done by weapon, type of damage, and how much health or HP the foe has remaining can be done on a whim by a GM with a little practice. Great post.

James M Spahn

Just a heads up, XDM 2nd Edition is actually available as an audiobook! I just stumbled across it on audible.

Melissa K

I'm totally trying this! I play with teens and I'm trying to find ways to make it less clunky.

Tim Ford

Fantastic video! It's like Christmas when a new PDM video appears. For my table... I'm not sure I'd make a battle axe do more damage than a dagger. It really depends on the situation. It's easy to imagine situations where a dagger is more effective -- e.g. against very heavy armor where you need to get in between scales. If your system already accounts for that (e.g. by granting other advantages to the dagger, like throwability or dual welding), so be it. Things balance out. But if I'm playing in a system with fewer rules, I think I'd just let the player tell me narratively how they're achieving significant damage with the dagger. e.g. "I stab it three times in quick succession, in the same amount of time it takes Gimli to swing his axe once, thereby doing significant damage".

Jay

FYI, Paizo creators of Pathfinder Announce new System Neutral Open RPG Creative (ORC) License. Nope I’m not joking it’s called ORC. Third-Party Creators such as Kobold Press, Chaosium, Green Ronin, and many others are joining the ORC License. Paizo’s ORC License Page Link: https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6si7v Roll for Combat (YouTube) video “We React to Paizo's ORC Announcement Live | Roll For Combat Clip” This is video tells what is in it in less than 12 Minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NjDZSRvYJs

Powell Crider

I really like this. I could see adding a third column for a matched foe. Very cool