Wild Die

[jmanski]

Thats some good stuff. I too think 1 in 6 is a little too often. I might try 1 in 36- just often enough to keep the anxiety level elevated.
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[Ankhanu]

I must have missed something earlier where there was a 1:6 possibility of complication. We've always played a 1 followed by a 6 was a complication. A 1 normally just reduces your total, increasing the chance of failure, but not something spectacular
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[Delkarnu]

The rule book pretty much says roll a 1 GM chooses the result, count normally, minus highest, or complication, so I think a lot of newer GMs use the complication or mishap too often.

The first games I played in, we pretty much had a mishap on every wild 1 for actions, minus highest for damage, almost killed the d6 system for me until I convinced the GM that it was unrealistic and he changed it.

[Gry Sarth]

We play it simple. A very low roll is a mishap and a very high roll is an extraordinary success. Rolling 1s and 6s in the Wild Die will affect how high or low your total is (by subtracting higher or rerolling) but in itself it will not automatically mean an extraordinary event; what you roll in the other dice is also very important.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[masque]

I agree with Gry. Not always, but most of the time, when one rolls a 1 on the Wild Die, we simply subtract the highest die from the roll; it hurts, but doesn't necessarily spell disaster. When rolling a 6 on the Wild, we allow a reroll on that die, with another reroll if one rolls another 6, etc. We're playing HARP now, but when my group plays D6, we've never had a problem with it. Occasionally, we forgo that when the GM (me or the other guy I share Gm duties with) has something specific in mind as a "complication", but for the most part, the "drop highest on 1, reroll (open-ended) on 6" works for us.
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[cheshire]

I'm not particularly consistent when it comes to how I play a 1. I usually base it on the situation. Usually I opt for the "plot complication" route. That doesn't mean that the player's roll doesn't succeed, just that when they succeed at what they were doing, it might have had some unintended consequences.

Of course there are other times I'll do the "take out the highest and lowest" route, and other times I'll just say, "leave it in there and calculate normally." However, that's usually when there isn't a complication that seems dramatically appropriate.
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[Delkarnu]

One other thing that I consider is the relative challenge of the task, someone with a D or 2 in (A) Medicine, is lot less likely to get a complication on a moderate first aid roll than someone with only 3D first aid working on the higher end of their skill set for the same roll

[garhkal]

The only time i will definatly make the 1 on the wild die a complication, is if all the others are also a 1... That to me is a pinical moment of complication.
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[jmanski]

For clarification: when I said "complication", I meant a reduction in the roll. I think 1 in 6 is too often to even affect the roll. I may change to 1 in 36 (or two straight 1's) for a reduction (-1d) and 1 in 216 (3 straight 1's) for a complication (unless I'm feeling evil of course)
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[garhkal]

Wow that is lienient. I take it you also do the same for 6's??
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[Ankhanu]

Half the fun is dealing with (or coming up with) the complications

And I say this as a man who rolls a lot of 1s followed by 6s.

The chaos that the wild die represents is such a delightfully (classic) Star Wars theme. There's always something going catastrophically wrong in the (original) movies... I've got a bad feeling about this... Likewise, they're full of unexpected spectacular successes (... don't get cocky!). Reducing the chances of these themes reduces the Star Warsiness of it all (imo, of course).

Long live the Wild Die and 1 in 36 chance of catastrophe (or just something to make things more interesting)! Viva la complication!
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[garhkal]

The most well known complication i have is if they do an astrogation jump with one, EVEN if they make the number, they fry the nav comp so have to get a full repair and reload......
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[DarthMortis]

[adamlumina93]

i think over my 13 years in playing this game I believe I have come up with a system that seems to please most players I have played with. For 6s on the wild die keep the same rules. For 1s I would propose the following: subtract the one and the highest other dice in the roll, not a catastrophe just a minor hiccup. Now if the majority of dice including the wild die are 1s then it is a major complication. To be honest at that I think its justified that their character just didn't put their best foot forward.

[garhkal]