[Horror] Why Roll vs Corruption So Early?

[cupbearer]

Originally Posted by Klark

The system already has an answer for issues like this though: secret rolls. Perception rolls, resistance rolls vs subtle threats, and similar scenarios where the player or character wouldn't know what's being rolled is handled by the GM doing the rolling behind a screen instead of asking the players to make rolls out of the blue. This is even spelled out on p. B344. I don't understand why they would write Corruption to be the sole exception, the one subsystem that bucks this trend.

I’m not sure why it is the exception. I am actually using the system in an ongoing campaign, it works ok for us. But I enjoy symmetrical design too.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

No, because it's not pointless harassment. It's a Horror game. The players are supposed to be worried, the more so if they've been fooling around with Things Man Was Not Meant To Know. Not checking for Corruption tells the player that they're still perfectly safe, which is sort of the exact opposite of creating an atmosphere of impending dread.

You can keep an atmosphere of dread regarding disease/poison in other kinds of horror too though, not just soul-corrupting stuff. Like in After the End maybe GMs shuold make you roll like as if you were resisting radiation poisoning even if you weren't exposed?

You could have legit mundane reasons too, like maybe you make a HT roll to avoid infection every time a mosquito bites you even if it's not something serious like Malaria and it's a HT+10 roll you would automatically pass.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Klark

The system already has an answer for issues like this though: secret rolls. Perception rolls, resistance rolls vs subtle threats, and similar scenarios where the player or character wouldn't know what's being rolled is handled by the GM doing the rolling behind a screen instead of asking the players to make rolls out of the blue. This is even spelled out on p. B344. I don't understand why they would write Corruption to be the sole exception, the one subsystem that bucks this trend.

Doesn't the GM make this roll? The PC wouldn't even know the modifiers...

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Plane

Yeah it seems odd, if we're going to bother with rolling when someone has 24 or fewer corruption all I can think is converting it to decimals, ie 1 point of corruption becomes -0.04 character points.

I think Corruption is a lot easier to get rid of than a Disadvantage that you've acquired due to Corruption. So, using your suggestion, that means failing the roll when below 25 Corruption doesn't cause you to gain any new Disadvantages/Quirks (or lose Advantages/Perks), but rather "locks in" whatever Corruption you've already acquired, making it harder to get rid of. That would give the roll a purpose, at least.
(I still like my suggestion, that failure causes you to gain a Quirk, and any Corruption you later gain automatically "fills up" that Quirk until it reaches a full 25... but I'm biased)