Improvement rolls

[Keampe]

Some game systems have improvement rolls for their skill, and they're kind of nice as a break on characters getting extraordinarily high skills that really should be the purview of just a few in the world. It's OK if a character is that expert for one or a small number of related skill, but the way CP's work RAW mean that in any long running campaign the characters will be up there with many disparate skills. This is fine for a cinematic or supers type game but more down to earth games have a limit before they might as well be cinematic. Reducing CP's per session lengthens that limit and stops players from feeling any source of improvement - which is a major source of satisfaction for many players.

OTOH, improvement rolls can often be frustrating when trying to improve a high skill or when luck just isn't with you on low skills. It's annoying when you only have to roll over 30 on percentile and you get a 29.

I was thinking about these things in relation to GURPS and had an idea:

3d6 trying to get higher than or equal to a target number
- For Skills: 10 + CP's in skill
- For Attributes: the current score
- For Advantages: 10 + (CP's in Advantage)/5
- For Disadvantages: 10 + (Absolute value of CP's in Disadvantage)/5

A successful roll adds 1 CP to that particular Skill, Attribute, Advantage or Disadvantage. An unsuccessful roll adds Roll/5 to the next roll for that particular thing and this stacks until you succeed.

So, even a failed roll give you something and if you keep plugging at it you will eventually raise what you're working on.

Thoughts?

- Shane