I appreciate and agree with much of what you've written, but:
Quote:
Originally Posted by larsdangly
1) Perhaps the most awkward element of the original game concerns modifiers to die rolls: Perhaps 2/3 to 3/4 of all such instances call for a reduction or bonus to the controlling attribute, and the remainder call for an increase or decrease in the number of dice rolled. Thus, there are two different mechanics in play, and a very large number of modifiers to keep track of. A better design would condense these into a smaller number of more coarsely 'chunky' modifiers. My advice would be to use a modification to the number of dice rolled for any modifier larger than 2, keep the attribute modifiers only for circumstances that lead to small modifiers (1 or 2), with the only exception being the armor and shield DX penalties (because the power balance in the game depends significantly on the trade off between protection and DX penalty). A very large number of modifying factors (lack of a talent; attacking from the rear; attacking in HTH; casting spells in HTH; etc.) would be reduced to a much simpler rule: add or subtract a die from the pool you roll. I would also recommend doing the same thing with ranges of thrown and missile weapons, making coarse range 'bands' where you roll 3d, 4d, 5d, etc. All of this will simplify learning, the volume of rules on the page, and speed play.
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The number of die-roll modifiers is on your list of the top quibbles you have with TFT?
That sounds like a change to a non-problem that creates some new questions, reduces the grain of the system, and actually seems more complicated to me than the existing modifiers.
For example, what about auto success/failure, double and triple damage, or the chance to drop or break a weapon? Particularly for 2-die rolls, which would become common (attacking rear and downed foes) - triple on 2 and double on 3 would make those more juicy, but are we going to do 10 auto-miss, 11 drop, 12 break too? Is this "simplicity" worth it to either lose or increase those possibilities? The new players you hope to help will now more frequently need to know the six crit result ranges for each of at least 2d, 3d, and 4d rolls. That seems to me certainly harder to memorize than the existing DRMs, the most common of which are listed in Melee and don't seem that numerous to me.