Beast Slayer Dice Mechanics

3D8 + 1D4 aka the Date System

As any good tabletop rpg player knows, dice is the backbone of most systems. And every game has its own dice mechanics. When I made Beast Slayer, I wanted to create my own original system. Granted, some of the ideas behind it aren’t so original. D8s and D4s are common enough in other systems, such as Dungeons and Dragons D20 Dice System. However, the Date System is unique in its dice pool consisting of 3D8 and 1D4.

The dice pool is a sliding scale, given the base states the highest dice pool without Abilities is 3D8 and the lowest is 1D4. Given this, if a player was rolling 1D4 it is technically possible to beat a 3D8, but the odds are very low. For this to occur the player would have to roll a 4 on the 1D4 which is a 25% chance or 1 in 4, and the Game Master to roll a 3 on 3D8 which is about a 0.19% or 1 in 512 chance. That is for each roll separately, together the odds are about 0.049% or about 1 in 2048. This is extremely low, but not impossible.

Give the rare occurrence of a 3 on 3D8 and a 4 on 1D4 to occur concurrently in Beast Slayer, have I ever encountered this? Actually yes, yes I have. I was running a demo a couple months ago and this very situation happened, except it was I as the Game Master rolling a 4 on the 1D4 and the player rolling a 3 on the 3D8. By all means the player should have rolled better, but luck was not on their side. We all had a good laugh about it in the end.

The reason for the dice pool system in my opinion is the sliding scale adds to the drama and fun! Given the previous scenario for the dice mechanics it was a dramatic moment in the game. I go off the simple idea that rolling more dice is more fun than rolling less dice in general, but if you must roll less dice vs someone rolling more dice and you come out on top, the thrill of victory is real.

I choose the D8s and the D4 because they don’t seem to get their day in the sun as often as the D20, D6, or D10. Each of those three options have games to go off of. The D20 most famously with Dungeons and Dragons, the D10 with Vampire the Masquerade, and the D6 is too numerous to count with the number of games which utilize it. In my opinion, it was about time the D8 and D4 got their spot in the sun!