Recent content by Thomas Shey

Yeah, its essentially the same problem a lot of people have with not-easily replaced consumeables.

I don't think you're wrong per se, but I do think the degree to which its true varies heavily based on both the end user and the specific system elements. I know some people think generic systems never really bring the juice, but I've seen plenty of cases where the Hero System or Savage Worlds...

I'm assuming you know this, but that kind of rule, especially with that specific short a time frame, is tantamount to "Don't play in this game" for some people. They won't learn to do it that fast just because its necessary, they'll just fail out until they get disgusted and stop coming.

Oh, that can happen all of the time. I could probably list a dozen games that I like the overall game, but one or more of the mechanics in it bothers me to one degree or another. In a few cases they're dealbreakers that kill otherwise good systems from my POV (if I'm lucky they're easily...

Both of the two D100 roll-low blackjack systems I mentioned are often opposed. There's also a middle case where target numbers are set by properties of opponents (and not always just combat ones like AC).

Green Ronin's AGE system does this by checking for doubles on its 3D6 roll and seeing how many points the "stunt die" gives you.

Usually that sort of thing is a question of potency, not skill, and you can bake it in outside the skill system. You also, of course, can simply compress the functional scale being handled so that even the superhuman lands within it.

I've seen this referred to as a "blackjack" system in more than one place. Both Mythras and Eclipse Phase use D100 versions of it.

I kind of lean into dice pool systems because its usually easier to get somewhat consistent results once you know how many dice are going to be involved. I'm not a fanatic about it (I'm almost done running a d20 based game and am about to do a D100 based one). Second is probably D100-roll-low...

I suspect that's inevitable in the exception based design space the D20 sphere fills. It was even true in D&D 4e from what I saw of it, and they bent over backwards to minimize it. When you don't really have things built to a standard metric, there's only going to be so much you can do to keep...

I'm assuming given the amount of space the feat spaces are intended to summarize the feat and not just name them?

Though i still say most of those tend to be segregated out into skill feats and class feats respectively. I've rarely seen a class feat that actually looked weak just some that only worked well with certain specific build support, I'm not going to say there's none but I hadn't hit many of them...

I'd also argue there's a huge difference between the semi-reflexive decisions of people who are at least trained, and probably practiced combatants, and the people who doing this as a hobby once a week. I also can understand the desire to avoid dithering and overanalysis, but I don't think five...

You can also have a case where the GM wants to keep copies of sheets and it just is easier if their sheet and the player's is essentially the same format.

Ah, yes, another case of using a wrench as a hammer.