7th Sea, 2nd Edition. Grouped successes of 10+

In 7th Sea, 2nd Edition you roll d10 dice and "buy raises" which cost either 10 or 15 from dice sums. Raises are just another way of saying successes, but in this case success is not a target number for each die, but rather a target number for groups of dice to sum up to. Is there a way to have the game figure out the number of raises you are able to buy, and just list the number of successes? I would love to be able to input the number of dice rolled, such as "8d10" and have it show me the value of the 8 dice, and then say "3 successes" or "4 successes." It also happens that sometimes dice explode on a 10 if the character is in certain situations, but I'm hoping to be able to add the "!" into the macro if the character gains exploding dice. Thanks for the help! Example of "cost 10 raises" Roll 8d10 2,4,4,5,7,8,9,10 Raise 1: 2+8=10 (10 is >=10) Raise 2: 4+9=13 (13 is >=10) Raise 3: 4+7=11 (11 is >=10) Raise 4: 10 (The die that rolled 10 is a raise by itself, being of sufficient value >=10) 5 is the remaining die, and is a "hanging die" because it is not being used Number of raises costing 10 = 4 Example of "cost 15 raises" Roll 8d10 2,4,4,5,7,8,9,10 Raise 1: 5+10=15 (15 is >=15) Raise 2: 2+4+9=15 (15 is >=15) Raise 3: 7+8=15 (15 is >=15) 4 is the remaining die, and is a "hanging die" because it is not being used Number of raises costing 15 = 3

You can definitely do it with the API, but the code will be a bit tricky. I'll have a stab at it later if no one else provides a solution. By the way, can you mix different kinds of raises in the same total? For instance, your above example could have two 15 raises and two 10 raises. But you can approximate it without using the API. If you add up the total and divide by 10 or 15, rounding down, this will tell you the maximum possible number of raises. You can then quickly check manually if that is accurate - by sorting the output, and pairing high dice with low dice mentally. it will always be the calculated number or 1 less, I think, and the more dice you roll, the more likely it will be accurate. Both of your above examples work out accurately by this method, for example.

G G said: it will always be the calculated number or 1 less, I think, and the more dice you roll, the more likely it will be accurate. Both of your above examples work out accurately by this method, for example. I'm sitting here shaking my head and smiling. : )  You are SO right.   I'm new to the system, but that is a great way of getting a rough idea.  It can't be more than the sum/cost of raise (10 or 15).  And it will probably be close to that number, rounded down.  That realization also helps me a lot as a GM.   When they tell me how many dice they're rolling I take the total possible sum divide that by 50% (probable sum) and round down to find the average number of successes their likely to get pre-roll.  This then helps me to decide how many raises to succeed to keep things interesting.  Sorry, that was a tangent. Thank you for the offer to help with the api, barring someone else chiming in. To answer your question, yes the 10 and 15 can be mixed.  I had to go back and read the rules, and I was originally mistaken.  When players reach a certain level of proficiency in a skill they can buy 2 raises for 15, or can buy 1 raise for 10.  In this way you buy 15s until you can't because that's better value, and then a 10 if you have that much remaining.

FWIW I've been playing 7th Sea 2nd Edition for months in-person and we pretty much always start by sorting the dice then pairing high dice with low dice that add up to exactly the target number, then trying to arrange the remainder into sets slightly above the target number, or sets of 3 dice at or above the target. And yes, it usually works out to a number of raises equal to half the dice when making 10s or 2/3 the dice when making 2 raises out of 15s, but it could be higher or lower based on good or bad rolls. (and of course that's after resolving into other abilities that make 10s explode or increase all dice values by 1 or let you reroll one die, etc). Also, some villains and monsters have an ability to make all raises cost 15 (which we also decided meant 2-for-15 became 2-for-20, although we weren't 100% that was RAW).

I've been looking into how to build this in the API, and it's a really complicated problem. i havent figured out a way to do it that is accurate in all cases, and at the moment, I can't figure out a way to solve that problem. If raises were always exactly 15 and 10, it would be solvable, but the fact that can be any number above that, and made of variable numbers of dice, makes it too tricky (for me, at least). Those extra abilities you mention would make it even trickier! 

To be honest G G, I really appreciate your efforts thus far. Now that we've started our campaign I have realized two things. 1) You are still SO right. The number of raises my players get are almost always # of dice rolled, divided by 2, rounded down.  Unless they get an exceptionally good or bad roll.  This actually helps me plan well how difficult to make their tasks (# of raises for opportunities and consequences.) 2) I'm not sure I want an api to do this anymore.  The time it takes for the players to try to group dice themselves, and try to avoid leaving "hanging dice" is great time for me to work on what the number of successes mean.  It only takes them 10 seconds or so, and those are 10 seconds that I can use to keep the flow feeling very smooth. I greatly appreciate your efforts thus far, and someone else on the forums may enjoy having that api, but for me, we're actually really good now, having your realization about the "divide by 2 and round down" rule. : ) Thanks!

That's good to know! Thanks :)