Mercurial Magic "Roll Again Twice"? - Completely Baffled

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modemaus
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Mercurial Magic "Roll Again Twice"? - Completely Baffled

Post by modemaus »

Hello everyone,

I am hoping someone might be able to explain the meaning of the 99- and 00- d100 roll for the Mercurial table? "Roll Again Twice" - does this mean that this spell will have 2 mercurial effects? If so, what does it mean if you roll the same number twice?

I am additionally confused about the usage of percentages in the Mercurial Magic passage and the 00 result, in regards to the luck modifier. The wording, to me, is unclear - if the player has a +2 luck bonus, they get +20% on "the check." I'm just curious how you apply a percent value to a die roll?

Thanks!
TheNobleDrake
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Re: Mercurial Magic "Roll Again Twice"? - Completely Baffled

Post by TheNobleDrake »

The table should read "01 or less" at one end, and "00 or more" at the other because you roll 1d100 +/- 10% for each point of luck modifier.

As for the "roll again twice" result, yes that means that a spell would have two effects attached to it... for rolling the same result again, I'd say double up where possible (1d4 cold damage becomes 2d4 cold damage, etc.) and re-roll where not... that's how I do it when I Judge.
modemaus
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Re: Mercurial Magic "Roll Again Twice"? - Completely Baffled

Post by modemaus »

Thanks for the reply! For the roll again twice aspect, I can grok that and I like your idea of doubling where applicable ("every time you use this spell, TWO people you love die!"). The wizard class for DCC is pretty interesting - it's almost like it's there for entertainment value to the rest of the party.

I'm still having a bit of trouble with this percentage thing though - do I have this right? For example, if I roll a d100 with a result of 40 and I have a Luck modifier of -1, I get -10%, so does that mean my result becomes a 30?
TheNobleDrake
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Re: Mercurial Magic "Roll Again Twice"? - Completely Baffled

Post by TheNobleDrake »

That is exactly how it works.
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dark cauliflower
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Re: Mercurial Magic "Roll Again Twice"? - Completely Baffled

Post by dark cauliflower »

modemaus wrote:Thanks for the reply! For the roll again twice aspect, I can grok that and I like your idea of doubling where applicable ("every time you use this spell, TWO people you love die!"). The wizard class for DCC is pretty interesting - it's almost like it's there for entertainment value to the rest of the party.

I'm still having a bit of trouble with this percentage thing though - do I have this right? For example, if I roll a d100 with a result of 40 and I have a Luck modifier of -1, I get -10%, so does that mean my result becomes a 30?
I think it means it becomes a 36. 10% of 40 is 4 right. 40 - 4 = 36.
Dark Cauliflower

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modemaus
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Re: Mercurial Magic "Roll Again Twice"? - Completely Baffled

Post by modemaus »

dark cauliflower wrote:
modemaus wrote:I'm still having a bit of trouble with this percentage thing though - do I have this right? For example, if I roll a d100 with a result of 40 and I have a Luck modifier of -1, I get -10%, so does that mean my result becomes a 30?
I think it means it becomes a 36. 10% of 40 is 4 right. 40 - 4 = 36.
Interesting - this depends on where the 10% is applied, which is some additional confusion :) my prior assumption was that the 10% from my -1 penalty is accounted for as 10% of the entire roll, which on a d100 would equate to 1d100-10. This comes down to whether the +/-n% is applied to the value of the roll or the total 100 possibilities. Due to the phraseology with the %, it leads me to believe the latter, since % applies easily to 100 (20% of my 40 is all well and good in terms of math, but I surely don't want to do a 20% of 47 calculation - will be whipping out the calculator). I feel like much of the confusion could be left out by removing the language of percentages from the passages (instead: "the percentile roll is adjusted by his Luck modifier x 10; i.e. a +2 Luck modifier counts as +20 on the check") - I mean it's really the same thing, but percentage on dice just seems odd to me.
TheNobleDrake
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Re: Mercurial Magic "Roll Again Twice"? - Completely Baffled

Post by TheNobleDrake »

Yes, the confusion lies in the text saying that you roll 1d% and add or subtract percentages from that d-percentile roll - it should just say you roll 1d100 and add or subtract 10 times your Luck modifier rather than just the luck modifier.

But no, there most certainly is not meant to be math more complex than addition or subtract at work for mercurial magic.
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