To Wild Die or not to Wild Die

[DougRed4]

I do the Wild Die pretty similar to what cheshire and gharkal have described. Most often I take out the Wild Die and the highest other die. But occasionally - especially when it's an appropriate time in the narrative - I have the person add it up normally but they also have a complication. Other times, often when it's a routine skill roll or something not critical, I'll have them simply add it up as normal.

A couple of other instances where I can think of where you wouldn't use the Wild Die. Charts that give direction, like the Grenade Scatter chart or the optional one that shows what part of the body gets hit.

[Red 331]

[Red 331]

[Red 331]

So far, here's what I've taken from this forum topic discussion:

The wild die is always included in a die roll.

A roll of a 6 with the wild die should always result in rolling again.

When rolling a 1 on the first roll of the wild die, there are three main options:

1. Just add it as a 1 with no other implications
2. Subtract the 1 and the highest remaining die roll, and determine the result from the remaining dice normally
3. Add the 1 as part of the total roll, to determine whether or not there is success. Then, regardless of whether the roll is success or failure, introduce a complication.

It sounds like Option 2 makes the most sense for most of the time, Option 1 may be appropriate for certain situations (like those Garhkal mentioned - if we can find the references, or perhaps a few other cases where the other 2 options would be less logical, and Option 3 can be introduced as the GM sees fit (using some helpful guidelines identified by Cheshire).

I think it's very interesting comparing the Wild Die to the new dice pool system developed by Jay Little at Fantasy Flight. Basically Option 3 is very similar to an Advantage/Threat result, which can add "complications" regardless of overall success or failure. I think it's a great way to add flavor to the game. To some extent, I think the FFG method has some nice features, in that you can provide a more direct link to an Advantage/Threat. If you add a Setback Die as a result of rain to some skill test, for example, and it results in a threat, you can correlate the threat directly to the rain. However, I think the R&E d6 Wild Die may allow for greater GM creativity, allowing the GM the latitude and creative license to determine the nature of the complication.

Interesting stuff. I'm enjoying the conversation.

[TyCaine]

[garhkal]

[TyCaine]

The way I read that is that ALL die rolls get the Wild Die whether listed or not since the phrase beginning with 'including' is just meant as an example list (at least to me), not a definitive list of which rolls use Wild Die... Which I take to mean even the resist Dark Side and Mortally Wounded rolls...



T.C.

[DougRed4]

That's how I read it as well.

[Quetzacotl]

Well, but in some cases, it just doesn't make any sense (like Grenade Deviation, Hit Zones, what systems are hit when ship gets lightly or heavily damaged etc.).

[Red 331]

[cheshire]

Though I've seen a number of rolls that seem to imply that there is no wild die in place. For example there are a number of "d6 percentile" charts in the Scouts books, as well as body hit location tables that seem to suggest that there is no wild die, otherwise certain results would be impossible. Though it never specifies, it seems to assume you won't use it.
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[Quetzacotl]

@Red
Distance, maybe, the Wild Die might be usefull here. But what about the direction, the deviation chart in what direction the grenade goes if the person doesn't make the grenade difficulty. Here the Wild Die really doesn't make any sense. Same for the hit location.

Of course one could just throw the normal die and an additional Wild Die to see if there might be a complication... but I don't think that was part of what the authors of the rules meant when including the Wild Die -.-

[garhkal]

[DougRed4]

Yeah, the Grenade Scatter chart and the Hit Location charts. It's almost like I threw that out there on the top of this page!

[TyCaine]

I think it's fairly obvious it should be used where possible to add an element of luck and fate (both good and bad) to the die rolls, but it's also equally obvious that some cases don't warrant or just don't seem to fit with the addition of the Wild Die.

Some of the cases mentioned here I would have not even thought of had it not been for this discussion, but I can see myself thinking twice in some of these cases...

Which means some of these grey areas will really come down to GM's choice on a case by case basis.


T.C.