First Impressions & Feedback - N.E.W.

[Morrus]

Now that is excellent feedback - just what I need! Thank you!

A 'Routine' check is against a target number of 13, and 4D6 averages at 12 so that would be a 50% chance. The book references climbing a rough cliff wall and landing a ship as 'Routine', not something I would want to try with only a 50% chance of success.

That feels right to me. Everybody has a 50% chance to do most things, but the odds are you'll have someone skilled in the party with a much higher chance. It gives characters chance to shine at their "thing" (the pilot gets to fly, the thief type gets to climb) without totally locking it off for those not trained.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

hmmm, not sure. I can see how this set-up can drive a tense scene where the pilot has been injured and the grunt has to grab the control stick and try and land the craft... but it would only be tense if there was a complex skill check involved. As it stands you roll the dice and either crash-land or land. Not too much tension built into that.

My 'fiddle with the rules' brain was wondering what it would look like if you cut exploding dice down to just the skill dice, or just the attribute dice, or just one 'wild die' ala WEG.

But for tonight, I will go with telling my players that the system assumes you are going to do something to increase your chances before taking the shot {or landing the craft, or whatever}. So in combat they will want to aim or get into cross-fire positions, in landing they will want to come up with some skill check to garner bonus dice for the landing check {perhaps landing on water, or circling to come in against the wind, or something..}

 

[Morrus]

Yep. Think of it like chess. The idea is opponents jockey for position. The system strongly discourages just standing there and shooting; you have to use tactics.