Originally going to be a 3d6 system?

#1

I could totally be misremembering this, but was Crown originally going to be a 3d6 system? If so, did Hank ever (publicly) say the reason for the change? My kid asked me the other day why some games use different dice than the d20 even though the highest rolled number is “almost” the same thing. I then explained about bell curves and different probabilities which was TMI lol. But the question jogged my memory to vaguely remember this.

Thanks,
Chris

#2

Correct. When we were originally playtesting Crown and Skull, it was a 3D6 roll under system. The core mechanic worked, but there were two key reasons Hank switched to a D20 based system, all of which was discovered during extensive playtesting. One, the bell curve resulted in the same rolls over and over and over, which made it a bit of a less exciting game. “Oh, look, a 9 again.” Two, the game really didn’t see any crits, which made it less exiting.

Overall, Crown and Skull is limbicly more satisfying with a D20 roll, where you can Crit or Critically Fail more often.

#3

Makes sense to me, I was more or less looking for a good example of a designer starting at one point and moving to another to my kid. It’s easier to point to a system and say “like this, and here is why”

Thanks for the response!