D20 Swinginess and Combat – Episode 198

Role Playing Public Radio

Many RPGs use d20s for resolving combat, like D&D, 13th Age, and Lancer. Caleb and I have been playing a lot of d20 games recently and we wanted to talk about the nature of d20 combat. It’s a very swingy system, where every combatant can miss in a single round, resulting in nothing happening. Can this problem be fixed?

News: I am exporting all of RPPR’s back catalogue to Youtube! Listen to older episodes and share them with friends. Subscribe now to help us get more notice on the site.

Caleb is running a Red Markets 2E playtest campaign. Go to Hebanon Games to listen and access the beta draft rules. Caleb’s also running a bunch of Delta Green on Dead Channels.

Shout Outs

• Deadly Dowagers: A fun board game about marrying rich men and murdering them for their estates.
• Monk and Robot: A novel series about a traveling robot and monk.
• Shiny Happy People: a documentary series about the evils of the Duggar family.
• How to Blow Up a Pipeline: a film based on the book of the same name.
• Worst of the Worst: A Youtube video essay series about the bottom level of combat sports.
• Starship Troopers: Extermination – a co-op shooter about blowing up alien bugs and building bases.