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RPGs and doubling scales
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<blockquote data-quote="Fanaelialae" data-source="post: 7968314" data-attributes="member: 53980"><p>The tortoise beat the hare through perseverance but mostly because the hare was foolish and decided to take a nap during the race.</p><p></p><p>I would go the Amber Diceless route of resolution and have the higher value win unless the lower number comes up with a way to address the imbalance. Hulk isn't going to win a race against Flash unless he knocks Flash out as the race starts (or something). As long as Flash takes the race seriously and Hulk doesn't cheat (and no outside forces intercede) there's simply no way for Hulk to win.</p><p></p><p>That said, the area I feel this system of doubling fails at is with similar characters. Cyclops may not have super human strength, but he's trained significantly and should arguably be stronger than an average adult. If Joe Average challenges him to a benching competition at the local gym, it shouldn't be 50/50.</p><p></p><p>What if there were an advancement system of increments that also granted an edge in competitions against similar individuals? The number of increments could be equivalent to the difference in multiplier between this rank and the next. Perhaps someone who's past the 50% point can even challenge someone of the next rank, albeit at some type of disadvantage?</p><p></p><p>So in this case Joe Average might have a Strength of 5.0 whereas Cyclops has 5.6 (he's not quite halfway to 6 Strength). If he has a lifting contest with Joe, Cyclops gets a +6 to his roll (or something). But if he goes up against someone with 6 Strength, he'll automatically lose assuming all else is equal. However, if he trains hard and gets his strength up to 5.8, the disparity is lessened and he can actually make the attempt, though this time the strong guy gets a +8. And if either of them try to challenge Hulk, who is probably Strength 20 or higher, they'd both lose because it's no contest.</p><p></p><p>Additionally, if Cyclops trains at the gym like a beast and gets his Strength up to 5.16, his strength is now 6 (because 32 - 16 is 16).</p><p></p><p>This is all just spitballing. If you prefer a less fiddly resolution mechanism you could use some kind of advantage/disadvantage mechanism in lieu of the bonus.</p><p></p><p>As I see it, the biggest strength of this doubling approach is that it makes resolution between different power scales very easy. Hawkeye arm wrestling Superman is no different from Superman arm wrestling a toddler (Superman wins unless he lets the other guy win or something like Kryptonite is involved).</p><p></p><p>Its biggest weakness is that it loses nuance between characters who are roughly equivalent (answering the question of, if Cyclops and Nightcrawler arm wrestle, who wins). A coin flip is admittedly a simple resolution mechanism, but not necessarily a satisfying one if the player of Cyclops has been having him hit the gym of late.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Fanaelialae, post: 7968314, member: 53980"] The tortoise beat the hare through perseverance but mostly because the hare was foolish and decided to take a nap during the race. I would go the Amber Diceless route of resolution and have the higher value win unless the lower number comes up with a way to address the imbalance. Hulk isn't going to win a race against Flash unless he knocks Flash out as the race starts (or something). As long as Flash takes the race seriously and Hulk doesn't cheat (and no outside forces intercede) there's simply no way for Hulk to win. That said, the area I feel this system of doubling fails at is with similar characters. Cyclops may not have super human strength, but he's trained significantly and should arguably be stronger than an average adult. If Joe Average challenges him to a benching competition at the local gym, it shouldn't be 50/50. What if there were an advancement system of increments that also granted an edge in competitions against similar individuals? The number of increments could be equivalent to the difference in multiplier between this rank and the next. Perhaps someone who's past the 50% point can even challenge someone of the next rank, albeit at some type of disadvantage? So in this case Joe Average might have a Strength of 5.0 whereas Cyclops has 5.6 (he's not quite halfway to 6 Strength). If he has a lifting contest with Joe, Cyclops gets a +6 to his roll (or something). But if he goes up against someone with 6 Strength, he'll automatically lose assuming all else is equal. However, if he trains hard and gets his strength up to 5.8, the disparity is lessened and he can actually make the attempt, though this time the strong guy gets a +8. And if either of them try to challenge Hulk, who is probably Strength 20 or higher, they'd both lose because it's no contest. Additionally, if Cyclops trains at the gym like a beast and gets his Strength up to 5.16, his strength is now 6 (because 32 - 16 is 16). This is all just spitballing. If you prefer a less fiddly resolution mechanism you could use some kind of advantage/disadvantage mechanism in lieu of the bonus. As I see it, the biggest strength of this doubling approach is that it makes resolution between different power scales very easy. Hawkeye arm wrestling Superman is no different from Superman arm wrestling a toddler (Superman wins unless he lets the other guy win or something like Kryptonite is involved). Its biggest weakness is that it loses nuance between characters who are roughly equivalent (answering the question of, if Cyclops and Nightcrawler arm wrestle, who wins). A coin flip is admittedly a simple resolution mechanism, but not necessarily a satisfying one if the player of Cyclops has been having him hit the gym of late. [/QUOTE]
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