I feel like I've heard a lot about ttrpgs that only require simple arithmetic. can you recommend any games that require more complex math?
This gets at one of my common beefs with people in TTRPG spaces seeing the simplest math and flipping their lids because it's not just addition/subtraction/multiplying or dividing by 2 even though it's literally the simplest shit.
Classic Traveller (available for free by the way) is one such game. It has a reputation for being an evil nightmare math game because it requires vectors. Which is, like, literally the simplest way to do it.
Admittedly, Traveller also does have this:
But that's not exactly complex is it? I think roots and exponentiation might still fall into arithmetic? Anyway, here's where y'all can get Classic Traveller for free:
Funny thing is, looking at most discussions of "math heavy" RPGs on Reddit it's like. Rolemaster is supposedly math heavy? Like, literally not? It's at most triple digit addition or subtraction and table lookup? What the fuck are you people talking about?
So like, the answer is: the most complex math you will probably end up doing in a TTRPG is multiplication with scary numbers that are not 2 and addition and subtraction with triple digit numbers and people will then hyperbolically claim that those games require advanced mathematics. Anyway, games that seem to scare such people include, besides the aforementioned Traveller and Rolemaster, HERO System (some power costs are expressed in fractions and you will need to multiply power costs with said fractions! Oooooooh scary!) and GURPS. Even when people specifically ask for games that actually require higher orders of math most TTRPG players can't help but go "I heard Rolemaster requires addition beyond one-hundred and the tables are scary so basically it's a nightmare math game and makes my peepee scared."
But yeah, even I don't really know about these mythical games that require math more complex than arithmetic because it gets impossible to actually find games that require higher orders of math when vectors and the metric system are enough for people to go "I am American I don't understand this."