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Why do many people prefer roll-high to roll-under?
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<blockquote data-quote="Swanosaurus" data-source="post: 9277303" data-attributes="member: 7044220"><p>Why would it? It depends on whether you apply the modifier to the characteristic score or the difficulty. If you default difficulty in a roll-under system is zero (meaning you have to roll under your unmodified score), difficulty modifiers that apply to your score would be negative if something's especially difficult, positive if it's easy; or you could turn that around by applying the modifier to the roll - negative modifiers would then be for easy tasks, positive for hard tasks. You can do the same kind of switching around with roll over, whichever way you choose.</p><p></p><p>I'd agree with Rystefyn: It probably simply depends which kind of mechanism the game you started gaming with uses. I started with a roll-under game, so that feels natural to me. To add to that, I later tried D&D (the red box), and none of it made any sense to me because I was already used to something at least slightly more consistent and elegant. So I had made one good experience with a roll-low game and one bad experiences with a roll-high game early on, which probably colors my preferences. Admittedly, later cam WEG Star Wars and MERP, which I loved and which both were roll-high, but that was, well, later, and I loved them despite being roll-high (though with Star Wars, it wasn't really a problem, because I was already used to d6 as damage dice, so I already "knew" that rolling high on a d6 was a good thing, as opposed to rolling high on a d20 or a d100, which was bad).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Swanosaurus, post: 9277303, member: 7044220"] Why would it? It depends on whether you apply the modifier to the characteristic score or the difficulty. If you default difficulty in a roll-under system is zero (meaning you have to roll under your unmodified score), difficulty modifiers that apply to your score would be negative if something's especially difficult, positive if it's easy; or you could turn that around by applying the modifier to the roll - negative modifiers would then be for easy tasks, positive for hard tasks. You can do the same kind of switching around with roll over, whichever way you choose. I'd agree with Rystefyn: It probably simply depends which kind of mechanism the game you started gaming with uses. I started with a roll-under game, so that feels natural to me. To add to that, I later tried D&D (the red box), and none of it made any sense to me because I was already used to something at least slightly more consistent and elegant. So I had made one good experience with a roll-low game and one bad experiences with a roll-high game early on, which probably colors my preferences. Admittedly, later cam WEG Star Wars and MERP, which I loved and which both were roll-high, but that was, well, later, and I loved them despite being roll-high (though with Star Wars, it wasn't really a problem, because I was already used to d6 as damage dice, so I already "knew" that rolling high on a d6 was a good thing, as opposed to rolling high on a d20 or a d100, which was bad). [/QUOTE]
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Why do many people prefer roll-high to roll-under?
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