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<blockquote data-quote="Heap Thaumaturgist" data-source="post: 194739" data-attributes="member: 4516">I think it's an ease of use.&nbsp; Any game &quot;system&quot; is just a system for determining the success or failure of an action based on an adjusted &quot;random-number&quot; generated by dice.&nbsp; D20 isn't ground breaking by any means, but the makers realized the fundamental truth at the base of the game system and tried their best to make all resolution within the game work on the same principle.&nbsp; It makes D20 very easy to learn and makes D20 very easy to &quot;convert&quot; things to.&nbsp; And, very importantly, it doesn't confuse anybody, be they long term RPGers or new people.&nbsp; I was able to teach 3E D&amp;D to a brand new Joe Off The Street guy in under twenty minutes.&nbsp; By the time I worked through his character sheet, showing him what I was doing, he had the mechanic down cold and could logically extrapolate out from that mechanic what would be required, dice-wise, for any other action taken in-game.I think it has something to do with having approached D20 from the POV of programmers and professional project managers.&nbsp; Business people, on the whole.&nbsp; Makes for a more elegant system.&nbsp; Especially when they then say:&nbsp; &quot;These rules, use them, make new things with them.&nbsp; And, when you're done, SELL those things.&quot;&nbsp; It encourages people to play with it, even if they never intend to sell it.&nbsp; They have no fear of lawyers and the like breathing down their necks.So you get a very simple, usable system that alot of people are familiar with, and WANT to be familiar with, and if they're not you can teach them the system in twenty minutes.&nbsp; Then you're given open season to play with conversions and new rules untill your heart's content.&nbsp; So people do.&nbsp; And then if you say:&nbsp; &quot;Hey, anybody interested in playing giant robots?&quot; and they say yea, you don't have to haul out a new &quot;system&quot; of dice for what is fundamentally the same exact action as the last &quot;system&quot; you just say how things are going to work with the same mechanic and keep rolling right along.&nbsp; --HT</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Heap Thaumaturgist, post: 194739, member: 4516"] I think it's an ease of use. Any game "system" is just a system for determining the success or failure of an action based on an adjusted "random-number" generated by dice. D20 isn't ground breaking by any means, but the makers realized the fundamental truth at the base of the game system and tried their best to make all resolution within the game work on the same principle. It makes D20 very easy to learn and makes D20 very easy to "convert" things to. And, very importantly, it doesn't confuse anybody, be they long term RPGers or new people. I was able to teach 3E D&D to a brand new Joe Off The Street guy in under twenty minutes. By the time I worked through his character sheet, showing him what I was doing, he had the mechanic down cold and could logically extrapolate out from that mechanic what would be required, dice-wise, for any other action taken in-game. I think it has something to do with having approached D20 from the POV of programmers and professional project managers. Business people, on the whole. Makes for a more elegant system. Especially when they then say: "These rules, use them, make new things with them. And, when you're done, SELL those things." It encourages people to play with it, even if they never intend to sell it. They have no fear of lawyers and the like breathing down their necks. So you get a very simple, usable system that alot of people are familiar with, and WANT to be familiar with, and if they're not you can teach them the system in twenty minutes. Then you're given open season to play with conversions and new rules untill your heart's content. So people do. And then if you say: "Hey, anybody interested in playing giant robots?" and they say yea, you don't have to haul out a new "system" of dice for what is fundamentally the same exact action as the last "system" you just say how things are going to work with the same mechanic and keep rolling right along. --HT [/QUOTE]

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