Exploding dice. Are they good or bad?

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D'pends on how you roll

>>48781340

Depends on the system.

They get god damned wacky at times. Savage Worlds for example, might have a grunt get a raise on an attack (only one raise on attack rolls, because people forget that god damned rule all the time) for an extra d6 of damage with an Aced attack.

The resulting damage roll might have an explosion or two that could cause a bunch of raises. I had a basic fat security guard cause 32 points of damage in a single attack roll because of exploding die and one shot murder a player once.

I now use a GM screen when I play savage worlds.

>>48781405

>Savage worlds

A game where a kitten can roll well enough to one shot godzilla and farmer can punch a giant in the toe hard enough to knock it off the end of his foot, up through his ballsack and out the top of his head.

Shit gets wacky. On one hand, it is a terrible, terrible flaw, on the other hand it makes for such awesome gaming sessions that playing without it is blasphemous.

The chaining exploding dice aren't very common, but ho-boy do they make for some fun stories.

>>48781340
It's fun the first few times, but it gets expensive if you keep replacing them and I really don't like having to wear eye protection at the table.

>>48781340
They are fun as fuck.

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>>48781465
It has a great effect on how players act though. My ranged weapons users dive in for cover first thing, and my melee fighters creep through houses and hallways hoping to land ambushes.

All it took was one player taking a sniper round to the chest that put the heavyweight fighter down to make the rest of the posse feel the icy chill of death creeping up on them.

>>48781340
Here is /tg/'s best story about exploding die, in Dark Heresy, so take it for what you will: https://1d4chan.org/wiki/The_Guy_Who_Cried_Grendel

>>48781340

Love exploding dice, whether they're a normal part of the system (Savage Worlds, old Shadowrun), or a special thing for certain circumstances (new Shadowrun, Burning Wheel and derivatives). Such a simple and fun mechanic.

>>48782038
>It has a great effect on how players act though.

I like that kind of lethality for that reason. Any random schmuck should have the potential to put you down in one shot if he has a gun. So people learn to give those weapons the same fear and respect they deserve IRL, and suddenly the players have much more realistic attidutes about this stuff.

It's what we call 'emergent behavior'.

>>48782292

Well it all depends on what kind of story you are trying to tell.

>>48781737
underated post

>>48782347
>Well it all depends on what kind of story you are trying to tell.

True, but I just feel like violence shouldn't be treated so lightly.

People are constantly playing these high-powered fantasy violence games with nigh-invincible PCs and wondering how to make fights risky or meaningful. Simply turning down the power-level, making things less predictable (especially with damage and turn order), and including some harsh-but-fair bad outcomes can go a long way toward accomplishing that.

Depends on whether you are holding them in your hand or not

>>48782472

I hear yah. Personally my party started with a lot of GRIMDARK stuff so the OPness is pretty awesome

>>48781465

>Playing fantasy game in SW
>Players are tasked with finding soul jars of the evil spirit trying to enslave civilization
>One is in a cave by the sea
>Because of crit fails and dice explosions, party is TPK'd by a giant crab
>tfw when the world is doomed to eternal darkness because of a giant fucking crab

>playing Fantasy Craft
>archer shoots at villainous mind flayer
>critical hit, goes straight to wounds (a smaller HP pool than ones vitality, if it runs out you die)
>boost the damage with a d4 action die to see if we can maximize our big critical
>4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, plus my character's bonus of 4
>instakill
I wasn't sure how to feel. On one hand, we were losing and my character was six wounds (no vitality left) from dying, but on the other hand it kinda felt like we only won because we got lucky. I guess we did though.