[4e] Players Roll All the d20s
greyorm:
Quote from: Finarvyn on December 17, 2008, 06:50:04 PM
Somehow that doesn't sound right because I think SAGA was card-based instead of dice-based, but some game of that general era used this general concept.
It is not the SAGA system; you are correct in that it utilized cards rather than dice. However, SAGA did function similarly, in that players always played cards to attempt actions or in response to events, and the GM only set difficulties (though in at least one iteration he was able to modify the difficulty through the use of special cards he could obtain during the course of play, IIRC. I am fuzzy on the specifics, it has sadly been around decade since I last played SAGA).
However, there was an article in Dragon magazine during either the late 80's or early 90's which described a "players always roll" or rather "players roll for 'defense' " style of play for AD&D, which took many of the dice out of the GM's hands. As I recall, instead of the GM rolling a monster's to-hit against a character's AC, the players instead rolled to-defend against a monster's THAC0 for their character.
...
Ah-ha! My Google-fu is with me tonight: the article was titled "Defend Yourself!", written by Blake Mobley for Dragon #177, the ish for January of '92.
Anyways, I didn't see it at the time, but this would be a much more dynamic and de-whiffing way to play trad games, as I can see such a refocus of the action causing players to describe the event rather than relying on the GM, which then allows the characters to shine (makes it easier for "My paladin parries the blow!" instead of the standard GM-oriented roll-fail of "The orc misses you": "I" instead of "you" events are much more engaging in play). Which, as I recall, was also the reason SAGA implemented the players-do-everything/player-centric resolution format.
Finarvyn:
Quote from: greyorm on December 17, 2008, 10:51:17 PM
...an article in Dragon magazine during either the late 80's or early 90's which described a "players always roll" or rather "players roll for 'defense' " style of play for AD&D, which took many of the dice out of the GM's hands. As I recall, instead of the GM rolling a monster's to-hit against a character's AC, the players instead rolled to-defend against a monster's THAC0 for their character.
...
Ah-ha! My Google-fu is with me tonight: the article was titled "Defend Yourself!", written by Blake Mobley for Dragon #177, the ish for January of '92.
Good catch. I'll have to dig into my pile o' Dragon mags and read that one. :-)
maldito:
Sounds really cool, to bad I'm very advansed in the game I'm designing right now, but maybe in the future I'll do a game with "only player rolls" rules. How didn't I thought that before.
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