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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8675518" data-attributes="member: 42582">Right. Characters in Marvel Heroic RP have ratings in their Climb (Leap, Fly, etc) ability. And I can set the rating of the Miles-High Cliffs Scene Distinction at anything from d6 to d12, to reflect exactly how hard those cliffs are to scale. (Resolution process: to be at the top of the cliff, you have to reduce the size of the Scene Distinction to d4, by applying your effect die as a "degrader" of the Distinction: an effect die of smaller size than the Distinction steps it back one die size, while an effect die of equal or larger size steps it down to d4 all at once.)Personally I think the use of the word "measure" is not very apt in this context. The number that expresses a character's prowess isn't really a measure of anything. It's not like we can say that a PC with +6 to their climbing roll has twice the prowess of one who has +3 to the roll. The best it can do is locate them in a ranking, from the least to the most prowess-ful. And even that is contentious: suppose that we play a one-shot, and my PC has +6 to climb while your has +3, but I fail all my climbing rolls while you make all yours, is it really true in the fiction that your PC has less prowess at climbing than mine?As per my example just above, your criterion makes MHRP simulationist. It also has that result for most 4e D&D play. And Maelstrom Storytelling. And HeroWars/Quest.It's trivial to introduce degrees of difficulty in Apocalypse World, too - Vincent Baker expressly sets this out in the rulebook. So now all I have to do to make AW a simulation is to use the optional rule that Baker flags but advises against.Really?EDIT:In addition to what you say, there's the point I make above: in a finite number of rolls, the player with the smaller bonus can get luckier than the player with the bigger bonus. So I don't think it's even given that Athletics skill establishes a ranking of athletic prowess.All it does, as you say, is signal how a particular character is most likely going to tackle a typical range of problems: the physical one as opposed to the bookish one, for instance.</blockquote>

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