CSJ's Things Repository (RPGs, writing, music, oh my!)

Here's one of the issues I ran into that's bogged down development. This, along with other things was originally posted on the omegaupdate forum which is sadly rather dead and incapable of helping out with these sorta dilemmas.

I have had a hard time deciding between one of two options.

Option 1: Fixed d20 dice pool (5d20)
Under this mechanic, you roll five dice. Like in a d20 game, you aim to beat a given target number. However, success is not simply pass/fail. Instead, the number of rolls meeting or exceeding the target number is counted. Three or more passing rolls = success. I've done a hella amount of math and the like for this thus far, but there are some pros and cons.

Obviously, WotC's d20 system is the closest real-world analogue, but since this is built from the ground-up, the mechanics will be rather different. All dice rolls will be d20s for instance, because screw having to buy a whole bunch of dice to play.

+ Degrees of Success/Failure (No need to roll twice for crits ever again!)
+ Allows some fun dice mechanics (remove a die, add a die, boost 1 die, etc)
+ Scalable (Can handle large changes in player attributes, provided ingame challenges keep up)
- Big d20s on the table
- Potentially calculation-heavy (you will need to calculate a target number)
- Odds of success shift a lot from buffs

Option 2: d8 pool
Basically, somewhat like above, but with a larger number of smaller dice. Player stats determine how many dice are rolled. This could either be direct (ie; everyone starts with 1 die) or from a base (ie; everyone starts with 8 dice).

For those familiar with them, think games like Shadowrun, World of Darkness, and ye olde D6

+ Gr8est system ever!!!!!!!!
+ No big d20 dice
+ Easier to design
+ Also allows fun dice shenanigans
- More dice on the table
- Balancing numbers in base 4
- Can also require complex calculations
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Most design work has gone into option 1, but nothing has been fixed to it yet; there's not much yet to be lost from a switch and it might be faster in the long run.