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<blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 3681724" data-attributes="member: 172">Yeah, that. The designers stated that they did it that way because most of their players max out scores anyways. That's fine for D&amp;D I think, but in more skill based play, I don't think it's suitable.Anyways, I've been thinking more about the guard/notice thing.I'm still not too concerned about opposed rolls. It's still just a random chance, and a center weighted one at that. (i.e. a D20 vs. D20 roll has the same probability distribution as 2d20 + modifiers.)What makes that situation sticky is that it only takes the sneaker 1 failure, and the gig is typically up.Typically.Y'see, you have the stereotypical situation where the guard hears something, comes over to investigate, and the protagonist either comes up with a sneaky solution to throw the guard off, or they take out the guard before they can get the alarm off.But a worst case would be if they sounded the alarm immediately. That, I though, might be the telling difference of a &quot;high alert&quot; situation.Of course, this pulls away from your theory because it's courting more rolls, but not less. But for me, roll-offs like these are gold. When running a game, I put a big premium on building tension in the game. Fear of failure is a great way to do that. Letting that hang over their heads when they think the fecal matter is about to hit the rotary impeller is a great opportunity for that.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Psion, post: 3681724, member: 172"] Yeah, that. The designers stated that they did it that way because most of their players max out scores anyways. That's fine for D&D I think, but in more skill based play, I don't think it's suitable. Anyways, I've been thinking more about the guard/notice thing. I'm still not too concerned about opposed rolls. It's still just a random chance, and a center weighted one at that. (i.e. a D20 vs. D20 roll has the same probability distribution as 2d20 + modifiers.) What makes that situation sticky is that it only takes the sneaker 1 failure, and the gig is typically up. Typically. Y'see, you have the stereotypical situation where the guard hears something, comes over to investigate, and the protagonist either comes up with a sneaky solution to throw the guard off, or they take out the guard before they can get the alarm off. But a worst case would be if they sounded the alarm immediately. That, I though, might be the telling difference of a "high alert" situation. Of course, this pulls away from your theory because it's courting more rolls, but not less. But for me, roll-offs like these are gold. When running a game, I put a big premium on building tension in the game. Fear of failure is a great way to do that. Letting that hang over their heads when they think the fecal matter is about to hit the rotary impeller is a great opportunity for that. [/QUOTE]

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