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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 9731279" data-attributes="member: 18">Facts not in evidence.Without a source for this claim, I don't think you can rely on it, especially many human cultures used a base-12 system for thousands and thousands of years. I don't think most people "think in base 10" to that degree at all, nor that it impacts what dice work for them even if they do.Do we though? Seems like the problem is more with "roll 1 die" itself inherently having a lot of problems, not least having a flat probability curve which is not, imho, a good probability curve. I don't think it's an accident that the vast majority of games that aren't explicitly OSR/NSR/D&D-derived use at least two diceSo I would say a good example of a "common pitfall" in RPG design is people trying use 1 die systems when what they're actually trying to achieve would work better with two or more dice, or even a dice pool.But do any games do this? Because I can't think of any. It's not really something you could sell! That's kind of how RP used to work in a lot of IRC chats and the like, back in the day (and still does on some Discords, I hear).With your Doctor Who example, that's trivial to solve, just give people some example character concepts. Those who need them will work from there, those who don't don't. The DM who didn't even offer suggestions was, frankly, not being terribly helpful! Especially as not every concept from across time and space does actually work, tonally, for that kind of game. Anyone who is both an extreme thug and really good at it is going to be a big problem, for example. You could have a Viking warrior, say, but you'd need one who was thoughtful and open to talking, not hitting with axes, or at least basically incompetent (c.f. Erik the Viking). If they just kept going berserk and decorating the interior of the TARDIS with the blood their enemies (and friends, perhaps!), that wouldn't really be cricket now would it?And clearly using more narrative/fictional-positioning-based approaches can bring huge benefits for a lot of game designs (c.f. Daggerheart, or just the fact that PtbA, BitD, Ironsworn, etc. have been insanely successful).I will say, if we're talking common pitfalls, "rules-as-simulation" used to be a common one, but it is pretty damn rare now.I think the biggest common pitfall in TTRPG remains the same as it ever has - failure to keep the goals of your system, what you're trying to achieve vibes-wise and in terms of what works and is rewarded mechanically, in mind when designing the mechanics of the system. I think quite a lot of well-meaning RPGs have smashed on these rocks, including literally every Star Trek RPG.</blockquote>

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