Degrees of Success / Failure

[Relique du Madde]

I know the concept of Degrees of success/failure* appears in Mutants and Masterminds (explicitly in M&M 3e), but does anyone know where it originated from?

I ask since I'm creating a dice roller app and I was thinking about including functionality that displays a roll's degree of success/failure and I figure that I might need to include the source of this mechanic as part of a ogl statement.

* For those who are not sure what the concept of degrees of failure/success is, its the notion that for 5 you roll above a DC, your success count for more (ie, you gain additional bonuses to a roll's outcome), and conversely, your failure is magnified for every points you roll under the dc.

 

[ValhallaGH]

It's been around since the begining of D&D 3.0, though it wasn't explicitly called anything. It showed up for a couple of different skill and ability checks.

It's probably an older concept, but I've only been in the hobby for about 10 years, so I never messed with AD&D or its contemporaries.

 

[ExploderWizard]

I believe that specific presentation was new for 3E but the concept has been around quite a while. The AD&D pick pockets ability used the concept. A marginal failure meant nothing is gained but the thief remains unnoticed and may try again. A bad failure indicates the thief is caught red handed.

It would be interesting to find out what the earliest rpg implementation of the concept was.

 

[Umbran]

Classic Deadlands has an analogous mechanic, and even has a specific name for it - every five you get over your target number, you get a "raise".

The original (faserip) Marvel Superheroes had this in spades: percentile rolls were made on a universal chart, and you could get white, green, yellow, and red rolls, with rising efficacy. And that was published back in 1984. So, the concept is pretty old.

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

Well

It was certainly around as far back as RuneQuest, which had the concept of fumbles, successes, special successes, and critical sucesses on pretty much all rolls.

Ken