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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7237830" data-attributes="member: 42582">I think your exchange with [MENTION=6775031]Saelorn[/MENTION] mostly covers it.I don't know Exalted (except by reputation) but I'm familiar with it from Burning Wheel.A character who rolls 2 dice against an obstacle of 1 has three possible results: 0 (fail), 1 (success), 2 (success with an extra success if degrees of success matter).A character who rolls 5 dice against the same obstacle is very like to succeed, and most likely will get extra degrees of success, but still has a chance to fail, or to get a bare success.It's hard to replicate this in a system based on a single die (be that d20 or 3d6 or whatever) plus adds, even if you set a rule like 1 (or 3 or whatever) equals auto-fail.Rolemaster-style open-ended systems come closer, but the BW system gives a more graduated range of prospects for failure or higher success, compared to the narrow triggering bands for open-ended rolls (eg 0-5 and 96-100 in RM).I hope that makes some sense!(Also: it's not a reason for dice pools being better; it's just an interesting way in which they're different, and my play of BW has let me feel the difference.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7237830, member: 42582"] I think your exchange with [MENTION=6775031]Saelorn[/MENTION] mostly covers it. I don't know Exalted (except by reputation) but I'm familiar with it from Burning Wheel. A character who rolls 2 dice against an obstacle of 1 has three possible results: 0 (fail), 1 (success), 2 (success with an extra success if degrees of success matter). A character who rolls 5 dice against the same obstacle is very like to succeed, and most likely will get extra degrees of success, but still has a chance to fail, or to get a bare success. It's hard to replicate this in a system based on a single die (be that d20 or 3d6 or whatever) plus adds, even if you set a rule like 1 (or 3 or whatever) equals auto-fail. Rolemaster-style open-ended systems come closer, but the BW system gives a more graduated range of prospects for failure or higher success, compared to the narrow triggering bands for open-ended rolls (eg 0-5 and 96-100 in RM). I hope that makes some sense! (Also: it's not a reason for dice pools being [I]better[/I]; it's just an interesting way in which they're different, and my play of BW has let me feel the difference.) [/QUOTE]

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