OT: WRG 1925-50

> On Tue, 8 Sep 1998, Alan E & Carmel J Brain wrote:

> Take Matilda IIs vs Pz Is, and you will do well. Take them vs Pz IIs,

As I see it, the problem with the WRG rules is that something based on single
1d6 rolls will err in one of two ways: Chances significantly less than 15% are
either completely ignored, or elevated unjustly to the
1/6 status.

> Mikko Kurki-Suonio wrote:

Yes and no. The REAL problem is that the data is really fuzzy.

What the heck does that mean? Well, it means that after all the looking up of
charts, tables, applying modifiers etc etc we get a chance of
(say) 25%. But in actuality, the chance could be anywhere from 3-60%.
There's one heck of a deviation.

Making%age rolls etc just "adds an air of verisimilitude to an
otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative".   The fact is, that many of
the minor modifiers are drowned out in the noise of what's NOT simulated.

By only using D6s, the precision of the random-numbers and the accuracy
of the chances are well-matched. If we'd just tossed coins, we wouldn't
have this (too little precision). If we'd used D20s, we also wouldn't have
this (too much precision).

Probably a D8 would have been a better match, but a D10 would be too
fine-grained.

As far as I can see, it's only probabilities of <5% that were ignored: 1
in 6 ( 16.66%) is mapped to anywhere between 5-25%.

> On Sun, 13 Sep 1998, Alan E & Carmel J Brain wrote:

> Making %age rolls etc just "adds an air of verisimilitude to an

Yes, I agree. Pointless precision, and especially the illusion of
precision (66.666% seems more precise than 4/6 to the average
non-mathematician) are bad things.

> By only using D6s, the precision of the random-numbers and the

> Probably a D8 would have been a better match, but a D10 would be too

> As far as I can see, it's only probabilities of <5% that were ignored:
1
> in 6 ( 16.66%) is mapped to anywhere between 5-25%.

Except that gamewise, sure things are never good. Even if they represent the
<5% or >95% oddities.

Switching to d12, as I proposed earlier, is easy. Just basically double
all the numbers -- the game works exactly as it did before. Except that
now you have the option of including a 1/12 chance for the odd shots.

E.g. 1 is always no effect, 12 is always at least neutralize (lucky track hit
or whatever).