Roll Low Instead Of High?

As we continue to work on streamlining the current rules, Eriochrome and I have started discussing how to make our dice rolling more consistent. Right now we roll low for Ld and Toughness tests. But we roll high for to-hit tests and armor saves. Rolling low to kill a model with a toughness test has confused all the testers to one extent or another. So I was considering making it a roll-high test instead. But Eriochrome had another idea. Which is interesting enough that we should consider it.


Here's Eriochrome's Take:

"On the dice tests lets try for some more overall consistency.  

For Stats we have essentially a system where high stats are better for everything which is good.  Our most important dice test is leadership which is a low roll is good so we should make low rolls good for everything. 

The comparison table should be flipped from a N+ table to an N- table.  This might seem strange but the always roll low makes everything easier to move along.

Then we can make the firepower test a survival test like leadership where you just need to pass 1. 

Switch the attack roll and armor penetration to the attacker and then the defender takes a survival test using his survivability dice with a target number either based on a toughness vs firepower comparison. 

We could also make the Leadership test a comparison with Nerve vs Nerve markers.

Every test is then a comparison test and the only difference is some you get to roll more than 1 die to try to succeed."

SandWyrm's Take:

I think that the 40K player-base is used to rolling low for Ld tests, and high for everything else. So if our rolls seem similar to that (even though the actual mathematics are quite different), then that's one less obstacle for new players. There's enough unusual stuff in our game as it is. Especially if the new Visibility rules test well and get incorporated into the game.

But... rolling low would be different in an interesting way. It might also attract some folks like Farmpunk, who can't roll high to save their lives. There's also the fairly well known issue of Chessex dice (or any dice with rounded corners) rolling about twice as many ones as sixes. So it might seem weird, yet actually result in more rolls succeeding than there otherwise would be.

Thoughts?