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Message: <blockquote data-quote="clearstream" data-source="post: 8802433" data-attributes="member: 71699">Taking into account that principles in play will lead us to different answers, I think we can look at methodologies for selecting among outcomes as tools and discuss their merits on that basis. That isn't to say one is better than the other, but we can say it is featured in certain ways.My impression of 5e is that it aims for odds of 65/35 for anything a character has proficiency with (which often covers much of what they will choose to do.) Some of the features of the d20 method are linearity and moderate granularity. The impact of modifiers can be more than expected. Consider<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If I gain +4 to a 50/50 (say through Bardic Inspiration) then where I had 10 ways out of 20 of failing I now have 6. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If I gain +4 to a 65/35, where I had 7 ways of failing I now have 3. This is a more palpable delta than the 50/50 case.</li> </ul>As you say, these impacts will be masked by randomness, but better than halving times one fails is likely noticeable over not-quite halving. Additionally, consider<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">With a d2 I can index any two outcomes (typically, but not necessarily, succeed or fail.) Many contemporary game designers feel there is additional and important expressiveness in at least three (e.g. succeed, succeed with complication, fail) or more.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Die pools have the additional feature of mapping quite well elements in fiction with elements in system, e.g. add a die for taking stress or accepting an increased cost of failure.</li> </ul>One can then consider progression in character leverage over the game world, which is commonly desired in RPG. It would certainly be possible to construct a d2 system that say slid the index along a progression curve so that one character's succeed/fail was another's succeed/succeed with complication. More design space is probably opened up by using a more nuanced method however: whether that be a die pool or some other approach. The dice methods in Blades in the Dark, Legend of Five Rings, Burning Wheel, Runequest, and 5e all offer features that are expressive beyond what I think would be very easily accomplished with a d2.</blockquote>

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