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Project Nemesis is a fan driven website for games that use the One-Roll Engine (like Nemesis, Wild Talents, Reign and Monsters) or Chaosium's Basic Roleplay System (BRP) (like Call of Cthulhu) and the Delta Green setting.
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Differences between regular, hard, and wiggle dice PDF Print E-mail
Written by Benjamin Baugh   
Wednesday, 14 February 2007

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Some people grasp the mechanics of the ORE-system but find it problematic trying to picture – not systematically but narratively - the differences between regular, hard, and wiggle dice.  What is the difference between them, from a narrative standpoint? For an observer, how is the hyperstat, hyperskill, or power going to appear different from each other?

Normal dice (N) abilities have flaws in the performance, no matter how flawlessly they are carried out because they are 'human'. Hard dice (H) abilities are performed mechanically flawless every single time. Wiggle dice (W) are performed with finesse, so that on a flawless performance, there is more humanity to it, even though it's flawless.

Example 1: Hyperbody in a weightlifting competition. All three characters roll a 10.

  • (N) Contestant 1 performs a clean jerk, and with superhuman effort presses the weight over his head. You can see every muscle in his arm struggling with the effort, as sweat beads down his face, but he's done it!
  • (H) Contestant 2 is a machine! He performs the jerk flawlessly, pistoning his arms upward to take it cleanly to full extension!
  • (W) Contestant 3 makes the weight look effortless, smoothly transitioning from his perfect jerk into a clean motion as his arms extend, making you think that it's the easiest thing in the world!

Example 2: Hypercoordination in a martial arts forms tournament. All three characters roll a 10.

  • (N) Contestant 1 put in a good showing, hitting all of the forms with a precision and strength of will that the judges are sure to ... Yes ... 10's across the board!
  • (H) Contestant 2 pulled off the form in a textbook example of flawless execution. Every move was executed with precision... I don't see how the judges will give him less than ... Yes! 10's again!
  • (W) Contestant 3 was poetry in motion to watch- you could almost imagine that he was using the form to fight shades of his opponents- he was so good that he let us see what the form was meant for. There's no doubt that ... Yes! It's a three way tie! 10's across the board!

What would it mean if you had three guys who bought two regular dice in body... then one bought 4 more regular dice, while a second bought 2 hard dice, and a third bought 1 wiggle die? All three are now considered hyperstats, but the sheer dice of the first would indicate doing more "damage" as per the hyperbody table, while the second is always striking the most vulnerable spots, and the third is grace incarnate. But how would those three guys look when performing next to each other, 6d vs a 2d+2hd vs a 2d+1wd?

(N) The guy with the d6 is *stronger* when bench pressing or whatnot, but whether he can succeeded at a max lift is never certain- I don't recall the odds on 6 dice. Yeah, he can hit harder... when he hits. He's like a regular guy who's potential has been pushed into the superhuman ranges. He has to psyche himself up when going to pick up his max load. Sometimes he screws up. Sometimes he fails. He's the guy with superhuman muscles.

(H) The guy with the hard dice is strong... dangerously strong. Sometimes, he can't control it, and sometimes he hurts people worse than he wants to. In a straight up dirty brawl of a fight, the odds are he's going to beat the ass out of the guy with the 6 dice. He'll beat his face to hamburger. But his strength is almost on autopilot. Either he beats the other guys down like a punk, or he's going to get his own ass handed to him. Drop one HD to minimize the harm you do, and you drop them all. He 'doesn't know his own strength'. He'll break things when he lifts hard- twisting them in his grasp. He's the guy with neuro-chemical booster glands that gush super hormones into his system.

(W) The guy with the wiggle die is the weakest of the three, but he  always succeed and he always (within the options afforded by his 2 regular dice) gets the results he wants. Further, he keeps that wiggle die even if there is some kind of penalty effect going on. And, when combined with skill dice, he's doing even better. He's the Enlightened Monk who weights 90 pounds in his robes, but can still kill you with one finger.

 

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.

 
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