Poll: Should 6+6 Always Succeed?

David And Goliath, Themiko

I'm going to be doing some more stat work today, incorporating some of the feedback from my last post. So while get that done, it seems like a good time to ask a question of our readers. Should we have an auto-pass mechanic for To-Hit and To-Pen rolls? Or should some things just be impossible to do?


We've had some discussions back-and-forth amongst the authors on whether or not to have some sort of auto-success mechanic in the game. GW famously has auto-success on 6's (most of the time), and auto-fail on 1's (all of the time). In an effort to accomodate a larger degree of separation between stat lines and weapons, I early-on took out the traditional pass-on-six and fail-on-one mechanics and said that certain things would just be automatic or impossible if the difference in stats (BS vs Ev, or AP vs. AV) was great enough. O_N has particularly favored this "No Hand Holding" view.

But some folks weren't happy with that. Particularly CaulynDarr, who feels that nothing should be totally impossible to do. Else it's disheartening. I think he has a point. Especially given my experiences with folks who tried Flames of War and got disheartened because certain things are impossible to do as a beginner until you learn how to use tactics and unit-combos to get the result that you want.

So lately I've suggested having a 6+6 success mechanic, based on some good things that I've heard folks talk about in other games. The idea is that even if your BS says that you can't possibly hit something, you might get lucky and hit it by pure accident. So if you roll a 6, and then another 6, you'll always hit.

Like In Predator, where they managed to get lucky and hit him with a huge deluge of
fire, even though they couldn't see him.

(As an aside... If you CAN normally hit, but roll 6+6, I want to allow the attacker to assign the hit before saves are rolled. But only if you can hit normally.)

Likewise, your little automatic rifle might not look like it could it could do much to a Battle Tank. But you might get lucky and hit the commander as he's peeking out, or send a round (by pure luck) through the driver's view slit. So again... Roll two 6's in a row and you'll penetrate no matter what. Even if we say that you can only suppress the target, at least it's an effect.

Or in Airwolf, where Dr. Moffit tried to put a pistol bullet down the mid-air

refueling rod. He failed, but he had a chance at least. :)

That gives you a 1/36 (about 3%) chance to do something, even if you're outclassed by the enemy you're shooting at. So while the purist in me would like to just say some things are impossible, I think that this gives players some hope without actually making the chances of success large enough to matter much to the outcome of the game as a whole.

And when you do actually succeed? That'll be a "WOW!" moment.

But hey, let's see what you all think!

UPDATE: We had 11 votes with only one "Hell No", and 2 "No, but I could live with it" votes. So there seems to be a solid base of support for the idea. :)