This is what John Grümph calls the risk die in his Game Chef entry, Soulfire.
We've talked about it and I'm not sure about the term condition, but I'm considering using the symbol ∆ instead of dR. It also feels more elegant to say "roll delta six" than "roll dee are six".
What do you think? Too late to change?
I prefer the R. It directly connects to the "r" in "risk," and it doesn't evoke scientific notation. Also, it's closer to the mastery rune in Heroquest than I like. :)
ReplyDeleteI would leave it as it is. dR works.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how to type a triangle
ReplyDeleteYeah delta is gonna be harder to type. I like dR a lot. Don't mess with the good notation, get some of the bad -
ReplyDeleteWhat I struggle with is a good notation to indicate a static Advantage. I currently use d4/Adv or d6/Dis but it kinda sucks. Dungeon World b[2d4] and w[2d6] isn't any better.
I am kinda tired, but I seriously had to read this post three times just to figure out what on earth was even being proposed. I'd be a little concerned you'd lose some clarity here.
ReplyDeleteI do like the way the delta symbol looks. I get the desire to change. I like dR though, especially compared to games that just use "usage dice" and don't specify it with the dR or something other than just d20>d12>d10>d8>d6>d4
ReplyDeleteAaron Griffin, tangent! -- I've been pondering advantage and disadvantage as superscriped text, so... d6b would be roughly equal to 2d6-pick-the-best, and w = worst.
ReplyDeleteI do like the simplicity of "dR"
ReplyDelete∆ is simply the greek letter.
ReplyDeleteAs I worked on the concept of Risk Die, I found much more applications than the risk or the use of things - for journey, for clockcount, for power's cooldown, etc.
I wanted to call it the Scale Dice (but there is no equivalent in french - so Dé de Condition tor now), because its use is to scale things and to slide from one dice to antother. ∆ is the symbol of variation in mathematics, things that change - so it made sens to me.
dR is certainly easier to type, but it's also bulkier and it emphasize on only one aspect of the uses of the dice. Beside it tell the players : "You may risk something if you try" and shy away cautious players. It should tell them : "Go on, make your move no matter what - it's just a dice !"
My own thoughts brought me to Sd : shrinking die (and its opposite, Gd : growing die).
ReplyDeleteI use "resource die" and keep dR, myself
ReplyDeleteAnd here I was hoping for a hive mind consensus, so that I don't have to decide... :)
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone. I'm thinking about all this.
dR est aussi évocateur en français qu'en anglais.
ReplyDeleteMais du coup qui a la paternité du concept ?
(I just want to say that I took some French in high school and my son goes to a French immersion preschool, but whenever I read you guys talking in French I realize how freaking much I don't know!)
ReplyDeleteSorry Aaron Griffin, I just wanted to say that dR has the same meaning in french or english. Eric should keep it.
ReplyDeleteMagi max no problem! It's a good thing.
ReplyDeleteAaron Griffin the "translate" link/button usually helps quite a lot.
ReplyDeleteAfter due consideration, if you want to go Greek, dR risk dice should be ∇ nabla dice.
Also worth noting that dR is derivative notation in math, roughly indicating change - implying the die is not constant but can change
ReplyDeleteAaron Griffin Hey languages. They ain't easy. My English is only good because I had family abroad when I was a kid, read RPG books when I was a teenager, watched a lot of American TV when I was a student, and moved to Ireland when I was 35 =)
ReplyDeleteIn my own MM hack, I used one of the phonetic "d" for the letter d in dR (so it looks like ɗR), but I like the idea of using uppercase delta. It saves space, avoids confusion...
ReplyDeleteYou could also look for another "d" variant, there are plenty of symbols that looks like a "d", but are slightly different.
The thing with ∆ is that it works verbally as well.
ReplyDelete