Lurking Grue
Cosmic Mongoose
When MgT 2e came out, I was initially quite disappointed by the Boon and Bane Dice mechanic. I saw it as yet another rule system jumping on the D&D 5e bandwagon with the advantage/disadvantage mechanic, dispensing with dice modifiers and having a simple roll with advantage or with disadvantage mechanic instead. Being an old school grognard (Did someone say curmudgeon? I heard you! 
), I liked my dice modifiers and didn't see a reason to give them up as handling them was never a burden that slowed the game down for me. To be fair, MgT 2e was not completely abandoning dice modifiers, just the situational ones, but still that was something I didn't like and so I kept using the dice modifiers as before (and sticking with MgT 1e mostly).
However, a few months ago I started to use the Boon and Bane mechanic in some select situations and moreover as a Fortune Dice mechanic (stolen repurposed from FFG's Star Wars RPG). Each character had 1-3 Fortune Points per session which could be used to buy a Boon to one's roll or force a Bane on an opponent's roll. With this I started warming to this Boon and Bane dice mechanic a bit more. What it had over dice modifiers was that it kept the natural 2-12 roll range, not straying off it like high modifiers would. It also added some extra fun to the table when the players got to roll more dice (which for some reason never gets old) and have those highs and lows of e.g. succeeding even with Bane Dice gunning for you (which for some reason feels more personal than going against hefty dice modifier penalties). So, I started tinkering with the Boon/Bane dice a bit more, because I wanted to have more granularity to the system.
MULTIPLE BOONS & BANES
What if you have poor tools, are hanging upside down from a spacecraft and there's a storm blowing? Shouldn't all of these factors matter? Suppose you could in fact have multiple Boons and Banes stack and not be capped at one extra die in the end. What if there could be more dice? Would it break the system? After a bit of testing and probability calculations (thanks to anydice.com), I noticed that Double Boons and Banes could work, Triple Boons and Banes were stretching it somewhat, but then that was it. Adding even more dice didn't enhance the dice mechanic any more and wasn't really necessary. I couldn't imagine a situation where three cases of situational advantage or disadvantage wouldn't be enough. So far (in my limited playtesting) it has worked quite well, but do note that I have not completely abandoned dice modifiers either.
To clarify, what I mean by Double Boon/Bane is to roll 4D6 and keep either 2 highest or lowest dice depending; and Triple Boon/Bane is to roll 5D6 and keep either 2 highest or lowest depending. (Single Boon/Bane is as per rules, roll 3D6 and keep 2 highest/lowest.)
Has anyone else tried something similar with Boons and Banes? Or are you content with a single Boon or Bane no matter what the situation is?
-- Scary Math Zone Beyond This Point --
Probability of Success with Boons
Probability of Success with Banes
), I liked my dice modifiers and didn't see a reason to give them up as handling them was never a burden that slowed the game down for me. To be fair, MgT 2e was not completely abandoning dice modifiers, just the situational ones, but still that was something I didn't like and so I kept using the dice modifiers as before (and sticking with MgT 1e mostly).However, a few months ago I started to use the Boon and Bane mechanic in some select situations and moreover as a Fortune Dice mechanic (
MULTIPLE BOONS & BANES
What if you have poor tools, are hanging upside down from a spacecraft and there's a storm blowing? Shouldn't all of these factors matter? Suppose you could in fact have multiple Boons and Banes stack and not be capped at one extra die in the end. What if there could be more dice? Would it break the system? After a bit of testing and probability calculations (thanks to anydice.com), I noticed that Double Boons and Banes could work, Triple Boons and Banes were stretching it somewhat, but then that was it. Adding even more dice didn't enhance the dice mechanic any more and wasn't really necessary. I couldn't imagine a situation where three cases of situational advantage or disadvantage wouldn't be enough. So far (in my limited playtesting) it has worked quite well, but do note that I have not completely abandoned dice modifiers either.
To clarify, what I mean by Double Boon/Bane is to roll 4D6 and keep either 2 highest or lowest dice depending; and Triple Boon/Bane is to roll 5D6 and keep either 2 highest or lowest depending. (Single Boon/Bane is as per rules, roll 3D6 and keep 2 highest/lowest.)
Has anyone else tried something similar with Boons and Banes? Or are you content with a single Boon or Bane no matter what the situation is?
-- Scary Math Zone Beyond This Point --
Probability of Success with Boons
| Difficulty | No Boon | Single Boon | Double Boon | Triple Boon |
| Easy 4+ | 91.67% | 98.15% | 99.61% | 99.92% |
| Routine 6+ | 72.22% | 89.35% | 95.99% | 98.50% |
| Average 8+ | 41.67% | 68.06% | 82.64% | 90.57% |
| Difficult 10+ | 16.67% | 35.65% | 52.16% | 65.16% |
| Very Difficult 12+ | 2.78% | 7.41% | 13.19% | 19.62% |
Probability of Success with Banes
| Difficulty | No Bane | Single Bane | Double Bane | Triple Bane |
| Easy 4+ | 91.67% | 80.09% | 67.98% | 56.65% |
| Routine 6+ | 72.22% | 47.69% | 30.56% | 19.41% |
| Average 8+ | 41.67% | 19.44% | 9.03% | 4.22% |
| Difficult 10+ | 16.67% | 5.09% | 1.54% | 0.48% |
| Very Difficult 12+ | 2.78% | 0.46% | 0.08% | 0.01% |
