What’s wrong with the Wild Die?

[Bren]

I'm always just a little bit surprised when I see posts where people say that they don't like the Wild Die. I love it and I think it nicely explains things seen in the movies (on the 1 on the wild die side) Han's really, really lame Con in ANH or the time he steps on the twig when sneaking up on the Biker Scout in RotJ. And it’s always exciting when the players get a few sixes on the wild die at a dramatic moment.

This isn’t an argument about which is better, but I'm curious why people dislike the wild die.

1. So want makes you dislike the wild die?

2. And is your dislike from a GM or a player perspective?

[Solo4114]

[Whill]

[Solo4114]

That does, yeah. Thanks, Whill. Like I said, I hadn't really looked into the system in much detail. Only skimmed the 2E book. I'm still iffy on it, and would probably want to see it in action. Which, really, is my ultimate issue. I need time and a group to play with to figure this stuff out!

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

[The Brain]

Still it's infinitely superior to having multiple goofy symbols to interpret, and forcing the GM to come up with little silver linings and hidden snags almost constently.

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

[Whill]

[Kytross]

Here's what I do:

- Every six on a wild die is rerolled.

- Every 1 on a wild die, subtract that and highest die from your total.

Then I look at the resultant roll and decide on what happened. This comes from years of playing and trying different things. It applies to every player and NPC. It works out, for me, better than anything else I've tried.

If the die roll becomes very high from multiple sixes on the wild die I will give the player a great exposition for their success. If the wild die destroys their roll I will give them a catastrophic failure exposition, like the blaster blowing up in their hand.

On average this will increase your roll by one level of success on a 6 or decrease it one level on a 1. So a moderate roll will become a difficult success on a 6 or a moderate roll will become an easy roll on a 1.

It has an impact and the joy your players feel from rolling a six tends to exceed their disappointment from rolling a 1. Especially since you can negate a 1 on the wild die by using a character die.

The other thing to note is that as your players skills increase the impact of the wild die is diminished. It still impacts critical moments, when making heroic level rolls, but moderate rolls will barely be impacted by the wild die.

For instance, You have a player character with 4D dex (Like a farghul), +2D in Blaster bringing it to 6D and a specialization in blaster pistol, bringing the total to 7D, with an average roll of 24.5 (7 * 3.5), which is a very difficult roll. The group is trying to hit a npc at a moderate difficulty roll of 15. The PC is likely to succeed even if they roll a 1 on the wild die, which would bring their average very difficult roll down to a difficult roll. They are likely to exceed the moderate damage roll even if they don't explode with a 6 on the wild die.

I highly recommend keeping the wild die. The successes your characters get from that wild 6 makes them happy, and the failures from the wild 1 makes the game more memorable.

[shootingwomprats]

In my games I used a slightly modified version of what appears in the rules.

1. The Wild die explodes as a 6 as normal.

2. When a 1 is rolled on the Wild die I look at the situation. If its not a high pressure situation or one in which the outcome being doubtful adds nothing to the story, then I do not really bother, even ignoring Crushing Defeats (missing the difficulty number by 10 or more). In fact, if a character is doing something that really does not move the story forward or is side story fluff, I won't even require a roll, and assume the player was successful at what they were attempting.

3. If a 1 is rolled on the Wild die and the outcome could be in question or a failure could add to the drama of a given scene, I will ask the player, opening floor for suggestions from the other players as well, to narrate out a complication related to the use of the skill. The complication can have an immediate affect, take place in the scene soon, or leads into the next scene. It must make things more difficult for the players and add drama to the scene.

4. Critical Success and Crushing Defeat are times in which the player rolls 10 over or under the difficulty number. When doing so I ask the player, and open the table to the other players to make suggestion, on narrating a short term positive or negative modifier related to the skill used that gives the player or group an advantage or hindrance for that scene and possible another.

I have thought about doing away with the mechanic of subtracting the Wild die and the highest die as a penalty, since normally, a 1 on a die is already a penalty.

One quick point I would make about complications per the rules, a complication may happen if the player rolls a 1 on the Wild die and the total would be normally be a success. No mention is made of removing the Wild Die and the highest die, or the expenditure of character points, only that the roll would normally be a success.
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Don Diestler
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[MrNexx]

My rule of thumb is to always subtract the highest die, then consider the results:

If "minus highest" is still a success, then they get a "Yes, but"... a success but a complication. Luke figuring out how to lock the door, but missing that it will also prevent them from extending the bridge.

If minus highest is a failure, but would've succeeded with that die? Simple failure.

If the full value wouldn't have succeeded anyway, then you get a failure plus a complication... Han trying to hotwire the door on Endor's moon, but accidentally closing the door that's already opened.
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[Solo4114]

[Whill]

[The Brain]

In my experience the most effective way to avoid disastrous results from 1s on the wild die is the occasional offerings of free beverages and the occasional food item to the GM.

As to that other version and its means of boon/bane resolution my dislike of it is not only is it tediousness but that it usurps the control of the narrative from the GM the person in the best position to judge the needs of the game to be entertaining for the group to the whims of an absent game designer with not clue as to how a particular game has developed.

[Naaman]

My original group got rid of the "wild die" concept, and replaced it with the "lucky die" concept. The only reason to have a die of a different color was in case that die rolled a 6, at which point, it exploded. There was no penalty for rolling a 1 on the wild die.

It worked well for us: I feel that a ~17% chance of a mishap (depending on the GM--some I know are "all or nothing" types) is way to common; and if it is merely at the GM's discretion whether to assess a penalty or not, it can feel rather arbitrary when the GM decides to let the bad guy escape this time, when your last 1-on-the-wild-die had no effect.