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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Blue" data-source="post: 7540689" data-attributes="member: 20564">Bell curves are MUCH more swingy than a straight d20 in actual play unless you make your math so tight that there's no variation between characters.Let's look at d20 and 3d6.  D&D players are familiar with both, and they both have a 10.5 average.From an RPG design perspective, the most congregated point is in the middle, so let's look there.Say you need an 11 or higher to hit.  But your buddy, who's a bit more of an optimized than you, only needs a 10 or higher to hit.With a d20, there's a 5% difference in your chances to hit.  With 3d6 there's a 12.5% difference in a chance to hit.  A simple +1 has two and a half times the variation.  That's a huge swing in the chance to hit for a simple +1.  If they had a +2 over you it would be over 24% difference in what they need.Basically, at the most common points of play the differences between success and failure have a huge swing with just minor variation.  This is counter-intuitive if you only think that a bell curve congregates around  specific numbers, but that's a false way of looking at it.  Your  ultimate concern is not the number, it's the Boolean success or failure.  And the lack of granularity around the center of the bell curve numbers means is that even the most minor of character variation (+/-1) gives a huge swing in the chance for success.</blockquote>