I have for some time now been using playing cards instead of D20 as the "randomizer" for my heroquest games.
Black "face cards" JQK = fumble
Black A-10 = 1-10
Red A-10 = 11-20
Red "face" JQK = critical
as well as the "highest score under target" variant for tie-breaking at same "level"
This gives a much, much more satisfactory (to me) probability curve for contest results. Complete success or failure shows up ~5% of the time instead of somehting like 0.04%.
It does take a bit of getting used to to remember which color is higer, and that "ace" is not a "face card"
I also like that you can find a poker deck just about anywhere, which is not always the case for a 20-sided die. (not a problem for most of us old-skool nerdz, but there is the occasional strange person who did not spend thier childhood collecting dice of odd shapes and color)
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