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Old 07-11-2015, 12:48 AM   #12
vicky_molokh
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Default Re: [SE] Between Unrestricted Reaction Rolls and Predetermined Reactions

Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
It seems to me that between the different success levels and the different reaction modifiers, that range of outcomes is already handled by the current rules.
The range of end results is well-handled, but the difficulty of achieving them isn't.
Currently, there are three broad options of setting up difficulty of getting what one wants through a Reaction Roll:
  • Give no modifiers nor hard caps. In which case an Excellent reaction becomes trivial for a nymph or similar character.
  • Give a penalty, in which case the desired Reaction becomes harder to achieve, but so are lower reactions (i.e. at -10, the nymph will have a challenge getting an Excellent Reaction, but most people will get Disastrous ones, or whatever the worst-case cap is for a given NPC).
  • Give a hard cap of best-case result that is lower than the desired result, in which case no amount of charm will have any effect whatsoever.
There's no nice way of making Excellent results higher without making Poor-to-Good (or otherwise the neutral'ish range) results about as likely. No way to make a soft cap. The idea is to make something hard even for a powerful character, not make it result in a disaster or a flat minimum for modestly powerful characters, and not make the challenge outright impossible.
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