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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Larry Hunsaker" data-source="post: 4613582" data-attributes="member: 62848">This is a house rule of course, but I go with the passive skill check approach and assume that you can always achieve a result equal to your passive check (basically rolling a 10). So I allow re-tries until you roll a result higher than 10, at that point, you have reached your best for that check and situation, and no re-rolls are allowed after that. If the situation changes significantly, which I define as you receive a new bonus to your check somehow (through role-play or aid other or some situational modifier you earned), then you can re-roll that previous result you got when you broke the "10" barrier. Again, you can then keep re-rolling with the new modifier until you roll higher than 10, and if you did not manage to top your previous result (for example you rolled a 15 before and now get a +2 bonus and roll only an 11, freezing the result at a value lower than your previous 15 without the +2 got you), you must keep this second try even if it is lower. This way some thrill remains but the PCs know they are always going to at least get their passive result +1 if they work at it a little, assuming that failure does not prevent repeated attempts at the check.  This also makes aid other have a twist to it. I allow up to 4 aid other attempts per check (fewer if the check does not really make sense to allow that much assistance) so if they succeed, they can then choose to pile all of them into one re-check and hope for the best, or make each one separately, giving multiple re-checks but each only at a +2. So if they need to open a lock, and the best PC has a +15 check, and rolls a 12, he gets a 27. If that is not enough, then they other 4 PCs need to decide, do we all aid this next check, which will unfreeze it as we are granting a new bonus, by piling all (assume they all make the DC 10 to aid) our +8 bonus on, or do we give 4 separate checks each with a +2? If the first case, they could achieve a +15 + 8 = +23 check and so give a range of 34 (minimum as a roll of 11 freezes that check) to 43 (on a 20). If they go with 4 checks, they will each have a +15 + 2 = +17 and range from 28-37. So if they think the DC is 40, they need to pile all 4 onto one check, but if they think it is 35, then they need to think it over. They only fail 1 time in 20 if they pile them all up (if they roll a dreaded 11) but they fail on rolls of 11-17 if they go with the 4 check method, however they get 4 attempts at it. So this adds a new dynamic to checks in some way. In this case, I think odds are best with the 4 attempts and hope you get an 18-20 before you get an 11-17, since rolls of 1-10 can always be re-rolled. Larry</blockquote>

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