The first popular role playing games had a medieval theme. Characters were armed with weapons such as swords, spears and bows.
As the genre diversified, so too did armaments, with some becoming far more powerful. For some systems, determining damage became an exercise in rolling and adding multiple dice of every hit.
GURPS is not the worst system in this respect, but there is room for improvement.
Flicking through a few rulebooks, most damage requires rolling no more that twelve dice. Adding up twelve dice is more than enough, however, especially if there are multiple shots.
How to streamline the dice rolling phase without drastically changing the effects of a weapon?
The suggested system is shown in the table below:
| 4d | 2 x 2d | 8d | 4 x 2d | 12d | 4 x 3d |
| 5d | 2 x 2d + 1d | 9d | 3 x 3d | 13d | 4 x 3d + 1d |
| 6d | 2 x 3d | 10d | 3 x 3d + 1d | 14d | 5 x 3d - 1d |
| 7d | 2 x 3d + 1d | 11d | 4 x 3d - 1d | 15d | 5 x 3d |
As can be seen, this maintains the same minimum and maximal possible values for damage. The distribution of rolled values remains the same.
For most of the numbers of dice you simply role two or three dice and multiply by the modifier. Instead of six dice (6d), you roll three and double the result.
For the prime numbers, a little bit more was needed. For 5d, you roll 2d, double the score then add the value of a third 1d. For 7d, roll 3d, double and add the score of a fourth 1d. Ten is not a prime, but I prefer 3 x 3d +1d to 5 x 2d.
I suggest you reserve a distinctive dice for rolling the additions so that it is clear which dice scores you are multiplying.
11d and 14d is calculated a little differently. Calculate 4 x 3d or 5 x 3d then subtract the value of the additionally rolled 1d.
How to handle numbers of dice greater than 15d should be clear. Break into multiples of 2d or 3d and add or subtract an additional 1d score if needed.
For example, a 60mm warhead in THS Changing Times does:
Damage: 6d x 8 (10) cr + linked 8d cr ex [3d]
This converts to:
Damage: 3d x 16 (10) cr + linked 4 x 2d cr ex [3d]
In the above example, the multipliers of x8 and x2 may be combined. If the number of dice is a prime number (5, 7, 11) or ten, add or subtract the value of the additional dice before applying any other multipliers. 7d x 12 is therefore ((2 x 3d)+1d) x 12, not 3d x 24 +1d nor 4d x 24.
Learn to wrestle with numbers. Multiplying by 16 is simply doubling a number four times.
A nice bonus of this system is that you only need four dice or fewer for most rolls. This is also handy if you roll sets of dice of different colours to determine multiple results simultaneously.
You may need extra dice for some Amount Rolls or rolls on tables, since not every value can be generated by multiplying the score of just two or three dice. For general game-play, four dice per test will be enough.
For most GURPS rolling I have a glass dome with a red, white and blue dice inside. For the additions and subtractions I will use a larger green dice I have.
I am tempted to replace that green dice with one of the dodecadice that have two sides each labelled between 1 to 6.
Modifiers on a Number Line
Another thing that slows down game-play is dealing with all the modifiers that apply to skills such as shooting some ranged weapons.
Firstly, make yourself a “cheat sheet” with the modifiers in categories in a logical order that makes sense to you personally. Add cross references so you can find them in the rule-books should you be unsure if a modifier applies.
Secondly, learn to use a “number line”:
Start with a counter at the value corresponding to your current shooting or relevant skill.
For positive modifiers, move the counter up the line. For negative, move it down again. Modifiers may take the final value below 3 or above 18. Critical successes and failures rolled still apply in such a case.
When you have applied all the relevant modifiers, the counter should be at the value you need to roll to hit the target.