Cosmic: Always rolls a 10 (+xx%)

[Anders]

So this is a version of No Dice Roll Required which means you always rolls a 10. On the one hand, the usual NDRR lets you eat much larger penalties (down to effective skill 3). On the other, you can get a Margin Of Success greater than 0. Since players, being sneaky, are likely to use it on abilities with few penalties I am inclined to make it more expensive than NDRR. What do you think?

[ravenfish]

Presumably, one is purchasing this ability rather than No Die Roll Required because one is purchasing a Margin-of-Success based ability where that enhancement would be forbidden. All the examples I can think of have the opponent roll a resistance roll, and compare their margin of success to your margin of success, so this ability doesn't take away the ability of your target to get lucky and resist, but merely tightens the bell curve a bit. Note that pricing it at +100% like No Die Roll Required would theoretically allow you to purchase Reliable +20 for the same price, which would amount to an awful lot of extra margin of success (EDIT: Of course, I would never in a million years permit a straight Reliable +20 on a resisted ability, but it's still a point of comparison). All in all, I wouldn't price this too highly unless there's a big loophole I'm not seeing- the more so as it would slightly speed up play, which is something to be encouraged where practical.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by ravenfish

Presumably, one is purchasing this ability rather than No Die Roll Required because one is purchasing a Margin-of-Success based ability where that enhancement would be forbidden. All the examples I can think of have the opponent roll a resistance roll, and compare their margin of success to your margin of success, so this ability doesn't take away the ability of your target to get lucky and resist, but merely tightens the bell curve a bit. Note that pricing it at +100% like No Die Roll Required would theoretically allow you to purchase Reliable +20 for the same price, which would amount to an awful lot of extra margin of success (EDIT: Of course, I would never in a million years permit a straight Reliable +20 on a resisted ability, but it's still a point of comparison). All in all, I wouldn't price this too highly unless there's a big loophole I'm not seeing- the more so as it would slightly speed up play, which is something to be encouraged where practical.

using a different attribute is +20%, which might suggest a generic cost for a theoretically equivalent contest which is still probably skewed in the different stats favor.

[AlexanderHowl]

I would value it at +300% for resisted abilities, +100% otherwise.

[ravenfish]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I would value it at +300% for resisted abilities, +100% otherwise.

+100% for unresisted abilities is clearly wrong, since essentially all of those qualify for No Die Roll required, and always roll a 3 for +100%.

[Say, it isn't that bad!]

Originally Posted by ericthered

using a different attribute is +20%, which might suggest a generic cost for a theoretically equivalent contest which is still probably skewed in the different stats favor.

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I would value it at +300% for resisted abilities, +100% otherwise.

If +20% is too low, and +100% is too high, how about +300% for resisted abilities, +50% otherwise?

[ravenfish]

Originally Posted by Say, it isn't that bad!

If +20% is too low, and +100% is too high, how about +300% for resisted abilities, +50% otherwise?

+50% sounds fair for nonresisted abilities- intuitively speaking, calling "guaranteed an average roll" half as good as "guaranteed the best roll" seems reasonable.

+300% seems high, even for resisted abilities. +300% enhancements ought to be more or less gamebreaking, which this really isn't- examples of +300% cosmic enhancements are mostly those which completely negate defenses, which this doesn't, as it merely reduces but does not eliminate the odds of the enemy getting lucky when the odds are in your favor (EDIT: and makes you less likely to get lucky when the odds favor your opponent). I might be persuaded to come out in support of +150%.

[AlexanderHowl]

Cosmic, No Roll Required, does not give you a roll of 3, it gives you success as long as you have an effective skill of 3+ (Powers, p. 101).

[Say, it isn't that bad!]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Cosmic, No Roll Required, does not give you a roll of 3, it gives you success as long as you have an effective skill of 3+ (Powers, p. 101).

This (the OP concept) gives success as long as you have an effective skill of 10 or higher, or so I understand. Which means there's probably a scalable enhancement that could be extracted.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Anders

So this is a version of No Dice Roll Required which means you always rolls a 10. On the one hand, the usual NDRR lets you eat much larger penalties (down to effective skill 3). On the other, you can get a Margin Of Success greater than 0. Since players, being sneaky, are likely to use it on abilities with few penalties I am inclined to make it more expensive than NDRR. What do you think?

So I originally priced this as +0% for a Pyramid article (my "Cursed Thou Art" article for the curious, specifically for the Jinx disadvantage), but it didn't make the cut. This assumes a roll of 11 or less, instead of using your own attribute or skill, is a feature, and decreasing it is worth about -1.5% per -1, while increasing it is +5% per +1. That did not work out. Were I pricing it today I would have it cost +50% as a form of Cosmic and have each -1 to the roll be worth -1.5% and each +1 worth +5%.