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*Dungeons & Dragons
5th Edition is Right About Lower Bonuses
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<blockquote data-quote="B.T." data-source="post: 5931490" data-attributes="member: 84465"><p>Not to sperg out on you, but this is not what the "RNG" means. The RNG is the randon number generator, which is what is used to determine success or failure. In D&D, the RNG is the d20. In Dark Heresy, it's a d100. In various White Wolf games, you use a dice pool of d10s. When gambling, you use a roulette wheel or playing cards.</p><p> </p><p>Now when talking about game design, you are either "on" the RNG or "off" the RNG. What this means is that you have a reasonable chance of success or failure at a given level. In 3e, characters will frequently end up with bonuses so high (or so low) that they will automatically succeed (or fail) at a given task. This was problematic with saving throws in particular, as the rules were such that characters would either be unable to fail unless they rolled a natural one or unable to succeed unless they rolled a natural twenty. In game terms, this translated to the most hardy warriors having a 5% chance of insta-losing to a low-level wizard while John Q. Commoner had a 5% chance of ignoring the most powerful spells in the game.</p><p> </p><p>Now, to be on the RNG does not mean "that a fun game will consist of 50% pure chance and 50% pure bonus experience/skill/powers and feats." That would translate to a 50% chance of success/failure on every skill check, which is something that I'm not really interested in. (A wizard and a fighter with an equal chance of hitting? Don't make no sense.) What being "on" the RNG means is that you have a <em>reasonable</em> chance of success and failure for level-appropriate challenges.</p><p> </p><p>You could theoretically have a character with a +100 attack bonus who is still "on" the RNG--as long as the opponents he is facing have 110 AC. Now, the purpose of reducing the bonuses and penalties to saving throws and attack rolls ("flattening the math") is to keep lower-level threats on the RNG for longer. Whether this is good or bad is up to the individual person.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="B.T., post: 5931490, member: 84465"] Not to sperg out on you, but this is not what the "RNG" means. The RNG is the randon number generator, which is what is used to determine success or failure. In D&D, the RNG is the d20. In Dark Heresy, it's a d100. In various White Wolf games, you use a dice pool of d10s. When gambling, you use a roulette wheel or playing cards. Now when talking about game design, you are either "on" the RNG or "off" the RNG. What this means is that you have a reasonable chance of success or failure at a given level. In 3e, characters will frequently end up with bonuses so high (or so low) that they will automatically succeed (or fail) at a given task. This was problematic with saving throws in particular, as the rules were such that characters would either be unable to fail unless they rolled a natural one or unable to succeed unless they rolled a natural twenty. In game terms, this translated to the most hardy warriors having a 5% chance of insta-losing to a low-level wizard while John Q. Commoner had a 5% chance of ignoring the most powerful spells in the game. Now, to be on the RNG does not mean "that a fun game will consist of 50% pure chance and 50% pure bonus experience/skill/powers and feats." That would translate to a 50% chance of success/failure on every skill check, which is something that I'm not really interested in. (A wizard and a fighter with an equal chance of hitting? Don't make no sense.) What being "on" the RNG means is that you have a [i]reasonable[/i] chance of success and failure for level-appropriate challenges. You could theoretically have a character with a +100 attack bonus who is still "on" the RNG--as long as the opponents he is facing have 110 AC. Now, the purpose of reducing the bonuses and penalties to saving throws and attack rolls ("flattening the math") is to keep lower-level threats on the RNG for longer. Whether this is good or bad is up to the individual person. [/QUOTE]
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