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Old 01-31-2016, 06:30 AM   #10
Maz
 
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Denmark
Default Re: Success roles: effective skill below 3

In my experience this rule is really important in two situations.

1) When the PC's can keep trying. For instance, picking "an impossible to pick"-lock might only require a few minutes of time but have a -10 penalty to attempt. repeated attempts are at -1.
WITHOUT this rule there wouldn't be much difference between someone with skill 15 or someone defaulting to skill 6. They could both keep attempting and will open the lock in a few hours. Maybe faster depending on luck.
WITH this rule the person at default couldn't even hope to try, and the other person have maybe one shot at it, and should probably take all the "spend extra time" and al sort of other situational modifiers to try to get to a place where they might actually succeed.

Of course a sensible GM might just declare "No you can't no matter how much you try". But I know several type of gamers who might start arguing if the rules say "you can always attempt and succeed on a roll of 3".



2) In combat. The only thing preventing my archer from shooting you in the eye at 500y in darkness is the -30 or so penalty.
WITHOUT this rule I might as well try (assuming I have enough arrows). Other similar situations where you are heavily penalized in combat. Then you might as well "go for the eye" as IF you then hit, it's much worse.

Of course some GM's and players might like this. I do not as it, in my experience, lead to players attempting stupid things only because the rules allow it, not because "that is what my character would do".
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