Versatile: when to use? (or splitting Specialties)

[James_Nostack]

I've got a character with a d10 power and the Versatile SFX, which permits me to split it into 2d8 or 3d6. Alternately, I've got a Vehicle Master specialty which lets me split my normal d10 into a 2d8 or 3d6.

When do I want to do this as a PLAYER? When do I want to do this as a WATCHER? (I tried searching and couldn't find an answer.)

Here are my guesses, maybe you can contribute your own...

You want to generate opportunities. With a 1d10, you generate an opportunity 10% of the time. With 2d8, you generate at least one opportunity ~23% of the time. With 3d6, you generate at least one opportunity ~42% of the time. In other words, this time you're probably "playing to lose" but you've got better odds of earning a Plot Point (and thereby growing the Doom Pool), or causing players to spend down their Plot Point reserves to upgrade their next push, stunt, or asset.

You want to have some leftover dice to add to your total, or to keep an effect die. If you have the "cash" for it, an extra d8 works great as either a way to boost your total, or as another effect die. (d6's probably work better when added to the total.) From a Watcher's standpoint, this is a lot cheaper when the dice you rolled are smaller in size: you create a reasonably effective action and you also drain the shallow end of the Doom Pool, which you often want to do anyway.

What else?

[siebharinn]

If you have some plot points to spend, you are better off rolling more dice that are smaller, and then use the PPs to pull them into your total.

[Morik]

Also, as a Watcher, you want to roll several dice that match the dice in the Doom Pool. This allows you to use extra dice for total or Effects.

[EldritchFire]

Anytime you have an SFX that lets you step up the effect die. That 1d10 has a chance of being a d12, but both of your d8s are now possible d10s. It's "insurance" against rolling a 1 as well as needing the die for your total.

-EF

[Riklurt]

There's also that, since Opportunities can't be used in your die total, if you're only rolling three dice a single Opportunity can reduce you to d4 effect and you can't do anything about it. If all you're rolling is Affiliation + Distinction + Specialty, in other words, you might want to split the Specialty into two dice.

[Alex_UNLIMITED]

Anytime you have an SFX that lets you step up the effect die. That 1d10 has a chance of being a d12, but both of your d8s are now possible d10s. It's "insurance" against rolling a 1 as well as needing the die for your total.

-EF

But...

Dice that result from Versatile are each considered separate power trait dice for the purposes of other SFX that step up or step back the power.

[Cam]

He's not contradicting himself.

Let's say you have one d10 in your pool and an SFX that steps up the effect die. You have a chance of that die becoming a d12, but if you made it 2d8 for your pool you get a better chance of having a d10 effect. No, the two dice that result from using Versatile are not both stepped up by the SFX (especially since only one of them would get chosen as an effect die by default.)

Cheers,
Cam

[Supplanter]

Absent plot points, the average total (and variance) from Sum Largest 2 Dice of a typical MHRP dice pool (4-7 dice, say) hardly changes whether you swap in 2D8 for a D10 or vice verse. The difference ranges from 0.02 - 0.20 or so. It astonished me how immaterial the substitution was. Beyond the basic case, my limitations as a scripter and the limitations of the various dice-roll scripting languages themselves leave me with only impressionistic notions.

But one of those is that players win conflicts when we have enough plot points to jump on a good roll and buy it up to the point where the villain suffers multiple levels of overwhelming success (against), or the Watcher empties the doom pool to keep that from happening. In that light, consider that an extra die that rolls 5+ is worth a level of overwhelming success all other things being equal*, and a die that rolls 10+ is worth two levels aotbe*.

D10 produces . . .

0.50 - 50% chance of one level of overwhelming success (on 5-9)
0.20 - 10% chance of two levels of overwhelming success (on 10)
--------------
0.70 - overwhelming success payoff

2D8 produces . . .
--------------
0.75 - 75% chance of one level of overwhelmning success (5-8 on either die)

Slight edge to 2D8 if you have a spare plot point.

Ah, but what if you have two spare plot points! I think it's a slam-dunk case in favor of splitting your dice.

D10 produces . . .
--------------
0.70 - doesn't change, because you can only buy in that die one time

2D8 produces . . .

0.50 - 50% chance of 5-8 on just one die
0.50 - 25% chance of 5-8 on each die simultaneously
--------------
1.00 - overwhelming success payoff

This looks like a clear win for splitting your D10, though a couple of imponderables, esp. "how much smaller will my base effect die be if I buy extra dice into my total" could screw up that conclusion.

I haven't run all the numbers on splitting D10 into 3D6, but it looks like the 1-PP OS payout is around 0.44 and the 2-PP OS payout about 0.89. That's worse than the 2-PP payout for 2D8, though better than the payoff for 1D10.

The good news is that MHRP has what makes for a nice combination of . . .

1. The odds of the various dice tricks are pretty opaque
2. But you probably can't go very far wrong no matter which choice you make

So you can play it however seems fun to you in the moment without too much anxiety or expectation. The real strategic key is: 1. earn plot points; 2. spend 'em.


Jim

[Arcane Springboard]

Another reason as watcher to split your dice is that it makes it cheaper through Doom Pool expenditure to include them in your results or as extra effect dice.

[Supplanter]

Another reason as watcher to split your dice is that it makes it cheaper through Doom Pool expenditure to include them in your results or as extra effect dice.

Sure, but nobody cares about Watchers . . .




JIm