How do you simulate luck?, Where is the luck attribute? Options

[Mardegun]

As a GM in other systems, I have always like throwing some random luck into things. Of course I am thinking beyond the regular rolling of skills. I am looking for something like a luck attribute. In other words how would I simulate completely random chance without actually having to think about the odds? Has someone already made guide lines for this in Shadowrun?

Here are some ideas, in no particular order ... and they are not completely thought out either.

- Player rolls their karma pool in a open test. The higher the number the better, all ones is bad. So the more karma/experince a character has the luckier they are .... or at least bad thigns don'e happen as often.
- Since the above is flawed when character have a lot of karma, what if the GM rolled as well? The GM could roll luck using the average of all the players karma pool, round up.

Any other ideas?

[Chance359]

Break out a D20 and ask the player in question, "High or low?" Depending on their answer and the die results determine luck.

[Mardegun]

Nice idea, simple to the point, but how about something that resembles the Shadowrun system already? I am not suggesting that luck has to be overly complicated, but it would be nice to have something that wasn't so generic.

[Ancient History]

Karma. Karma is your fucking luck. Jesus.

[Apathy]

Little testy today, AH?

[Austere Emancipa...]

Edge:
Lucky SoB (8 points)
A variant of the Common Sense Edge where you don't realize beforehand that what you're doing is stupid, but you might still get away with it, as with an extremely mild version of Hand of God. Only when the GM feels like it.

Otherwise, you've got Karma Pool. And Karma. And the actual skill rolls. And since no such thing as luck exists anyway, I don't see much need for a rules mechanic to deal with just that.

[Ancient History]

A tad. :vegm:

[Jpwoo]

Luck in our group is an elaborate ritual involving rolling three sixers and there is some swerve in the interpretation of the rolls. I have it written up somewhere.

[Lilt]

I use luck rolls (d6 with declared high or low) in my games. The players can reroll such rolls, even some random chance rolls made by me, by spending a point of karma pool.

[Cray74]

[Connor]

As a few others have said, the Shadowrun mechanic for luck is the Karma Pool.

[Mordrid Soud]

in my games, your luck is determined by how much cold hard cash you have. if you are broke, you better roll good. in my games though 10 bucks buys alot of luck :D

[Zazen]

IMO karma represents experience, not luck.


Luck comes into play in my game by having everybody use dice. Simulates luck pretty darn well!

[Dashifen]

I do an odds/evens roll a lot. Often when the player comes up with a question I didn't ponder in my preperation. Then, if their call matches the d6's roll, it answers their question. For example:

Player: Is the guard awakened?
GM: Shit! I didn't even think of that. It would be really nice if she were but I don't want to be an ass, so .... Odds or evens?
Player: Uhm .... odds.
GM: [die roll came up 4] The guard is awakened.
...... or .......
GM: [die roll comes up 3] The guard is mundane.

The trick is to have an odds/evens call every once in a while for no apparent reason, even when you've already decided upon the outcome. That way, the players still don't know when you're using the Rectal Extraction Method ™ and when you've actually thoght about all of this stuff before hand.

[Cray74]

[shadd4d]

Hmmm. Luck. Some Luck are the rerolls, a la L5R. I wouldn't really count WoD willpower or Void (L5R), Karma, or even Bennies/Chips (DL/Savage Worlds) as luck.

I'd like to hear what you mean more exactly by luck. Some luck, as I've said, is player control over "random" shit, but positive random shit? Got me on that one.

Don

[Kagetenshi]

Or you could screw over the Sammies/Riggers and go with an Essence test.

I'm not at my books right now, but I'm pretty sure that it's clearly stated that one of the things Karma is meant to represent is luck, as previously stated.

~J

[Glav]

Wait a sec...

I thought getting good rolls on dice was already luck? ;)

[Connor]

Well, you could just have the GM handle character's Karma Pools or use their Karma Pool rating as a "luck" attribute.

Personally, having Karma Pool represent the character's good fortune has always worked well for me and my players. And just because you have a huge Karma Pool doesn't mean it can always help you out either...heh.

I think Mardegun could give us a concrete example and it might make more sense, but the Karma Pool Open Test seems reasonable to me. And if he takes into account normal Karma Pool usage it won't always be a huge pool. Characters should have to spend some of those points permanently every now and again.

[Austere Emancipa...]

[Thistledown]

Whenever my friends or I need to do a random luck check (I think the first time was to see if an airline lost anybody's luggage), we go with the karma pool check. The more high numbers, the better. The amount of dice doesn't matter, as long as a certain amount are above a target number (for the luggage, I just wanted to see 2's)

[Smiley]

[A Clockwork Lime]

If you're just looking for a mechanic to simulate a windfall or other random occurance, set a target number (such as 4 for 50-50 odds, then higher up from there for the really weird stuff; TN 12 for a small lottery win, for example). Then have the player roll their character's Karma Pool as an attribute. The number of successes indicate how "lucky" they were. You probably shouldn't allow a character to use Karma Pool for this test (since, duh, they already are), but you might allow the choice to permanent burn a few points to guarantee extra successes should they succeed in the newly-modified Karma Pool test.

For example, if a player has a character with 5 Karma Pool, he could choose to burn two of those to augment his "luck" roll, which would then leave him with a Karma Pool of 3 for the test. If the test fails, you might be nice and let him not have wasted the dice, but it's dependant on how hardcore you wanna be, I guess.

This kind of mechanic should not be used in combat, though -- that's the domain of Karma Pool as written. Experience is found in Skills and similiar characteristics, but Karma Pool is without doubt the "luck" factor of a character. If you're just looking for an excuse to pull some random stuff out of your ass, just do it if you think it'll make the story more interesting. If you think it'll be too much, chances are it is.

[L.D]

I use somthing simlar to Dashifen. I use a D2 and ask my players: One or two. If I roll what they answered then what they wanted happens. And this can easily be adjusted if you don't like the 50/50 chance. Just change to a D3 or D6.

[Kakkaraun]