Recent content by Thomas Shey

Its not particularly bounded, but there's not really much in the way of modifiers, either; as @bsss above says, the GM sets one of a limited set of target numbers, and then you're adding a D20 roll, the Background value (which is normally going to be maybe a +6) the attribute bonus (maybe +5 at...

At which point I think people would have to be less sensitive to low rolls (since I'm assuming they can still see the totals) than any set of players I've ever seen. Its one thing to not be able to tell a +2 from a +5 in a D20 roll; its a very different thing pretty quickly to not tell it in a...

I'd argue its obvious in more games than not once you get away from the D20 and D100 systems. Unless the dominance of the D&D sphere makes the rest of those irrelevant, I don't think this is so much "crafting a scenario" as noting that its a point that makes no sense throughout much of the hobby.

As I noted, bonuses on 3D6 systems are not symmetrical throughout the range, and as such can end up playing a great degree of significance in a situation. For example, a +3 modifier on a roll-low 3D6 system like Hero or GURPS can turn an 8- roll into an 11_ roll. That may not look like a lot...

Well, I'm fortunate that I can't really run a combat in any system that cares at all about position without a map, so I never tried to do that. I just didn't use a grid.

So was I. I just couldn't remember the various things that would give me boons or apply banes to opponents. We did a whole campaign that way. It was--something.

Unfortunately, as I said, I just produced a separate cheatsheet. (I'd also suggest this can be a particular problem if you're using the 1-level-an-adventure mode that at least SotDL encourages, because you don't get time to internalize what you've gotten at one level before a new one comes...

Just a couple of short things: 1. While 13A movement is abstract, its positioning is not. It doesn't do a grid, but neither do miniature wargames and no one would describe their positioning as "abstract". It very much cares if you're next to an opponent and has the typical 3e era strong...

I'd argue most other activities in games aren't realtime, either. Even social ones.

Even non-pool systems that use, say, 3D6, things like that tend to get less lost in the noise than they do in a D20 or D100 system (and of course, as I'm reminded because I'm getting ready to run Eclipse Phase, in some games you're very aware of exactly what the dice are doing vis-a-vis the...

The latter is entirely possible; among other things I passively preselect for at least fairly gamist players (who are thus sensitive to such things) and have for--a very long time. (Note: this was assuming the players would know what kind of results they should expect; if the mechanics are...

The general gaming Discord I'm on doesn't seem to have a radically different distribution. That may be because it spun off a different RPG forum, though.

The problem is that last part can make the issue worse, not better. I found that years ago when MUSHing; there were classes of people it was actually much harder to get together to play with because the time you were working/going to school/sleeping could be the very time they were available...

I think "most" is doing some heavy lifting in this response. In my experience, the kind of people I've played with would very much notice it over time.

Does show how old this place leans, even if I'm so far the only one born in the 50's (albeit late 50's in my case).