[Forge-main] Mechanics

[Sisyphus D]

Greetings!  Duncan (a.k.a. "Sisyphus") here; I've been
thinking a bit about prospective die mechanics for
FORGE, and decided that it's finally time to post.  I
hope that my points make sense; we'll see.  Let me ask
in advance for your forgiveness regarding one specific
matter: I'm not particularly experienced in the realm
of d20 or the Storyteller system, so I might not get
the gist of just what we're trying to accomplish.


THE GOAL
--------

Unless I am indeed misunderstanding our goal -- a
distinct possibility, so let me know -- we'd like to
create a versatile, fast-moving system based upon
(ability + trait = roll modifier) => roll modifier +
die roll vs. target difficulty.


WHAT WE'VE GOT SO FAR
---------------------

So far, it seems that we have abilities with values
ranging from 0 to 5, skills with values ranging from 0
to 5, a chart delineating roll modifiers ranging from
-4 to +8 (FORGE 0.0, Table 1.3), a die (d10), and a
loose system of establishing target difficulty, which,
as a general rule, will fall between 3 and 9.


POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
------------------

First, it may be inconvenient for a fast moving system
to involve charts -- unless, for instance, said charts
were printed on the character sheet, of the modifiers
were calculated beforehand.  It may be better to adopt
a straightforward equation of ability + skill + die
roll vs. target difficulty.  Of course, if one did
this, one would have to rewrite the charts and
everything else.  In addition, it might not result in
the general "feel" that we're looking for -- I'm not
sure.

Next, the d10.  Personally, I'm in favor of a good d10
system; I believe that the modern mind readily adheres
to decimal results.  On the other hand, the results of
a d10 are flatly distributed -- that is to say, a roll
is just as likely to result in a 9 as it is to result
in a 1.  And when it comes to rather low targets (3 to
9, as mentioned above), even a relatively ordinary
individual of [Ability]:3 and [Skill]:2 will obtain a
9 10% of the time -- i.e., he'll successfully
accomplish a "near-impossible task" 10% of the time. 
Meanwhile, a character with [Ability]:4 and [Skill]:3
-- certainly good, but hardly perfect -- will be
getting "near godlike" results relatively frequently.*


What are the options, therefore?  Well, assuming that
I haven't misconstrued our aims, we have a few:

-- lose the d10, and adopt a weaker die, such as d6;

-- change the potential values of abilities and skills
to a sleek 0 through 10 system (e.g., Agility will
range from 0 to 10, as will Intelligence, etc.), which
also fits in nicely with the "decimal" idea;

-- trade an "(ability + trait = roll modifier) => roll
modifier + die roll vs. target difficulty" concept for
an "ability + trait + die roll vs. target difficulty"
one.


I'll leave it at that for now.  If I've made any
mistakes or improper assumptions, let me know!  I'm
confident that we can do this!

-- Duncan


* Another quick note about why d6's might be easier:
If we want to make a truly generic and universal
system, we should consider the players, and we might
take into account that potentially large numbers of
them will find d10's more difficult to get hold of
than d6's.  When I was living in Romania, for example,
I had to play with d6's, and d6's alone -- I simply
couldn't find any others.  Not that there were none to
be found, and not that I necessarily minded; I'm
simply making the point that while d6's can be found
from here to Bangkok, other polyhedral dice are less common.

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