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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5735127" data-attributes="member: 42582">You seem to be assuming - with your high jump example, for instance - that the function of a skill bonus is to model the limits and parameters of some fictional capacity. That may be true for Runequest, Rolemaster, d20, GURPS, HeroQuest, etc. But it is not true for HeroWars/Quest or Maelstrom Storytelling. And it is only partially true for Burning Wheel or (in my view) 4e.As to the question of what is the point of having higher numbers, if the scaling ensures that the situations in game remain as challenging as ever? At least one answer to that question is the one that I think applies in 4e - it makes a difference to the story. Assuming that a 4e GM uses the monsters that the system provides for him/her (in the MM, MV etc), and follows the encounter building guidelines in the DMG/DM Kit, then low level PCs will fight kobolds, orcs etc while high level ones will fight pit fiends, Orcus etc. Thus the growing numbers produce a significant change in the fiction - and produce a campaign whose backdrop, very roughly, is &quot;the story of D&amp;D&quot; - start with humanoids, end with demon princes.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 5735127, member: 42582"] You seem to be assuming - with your high jump example, for instance - that the function of a skill bonus is to model the limits and parameters of some fictional capacity. That may be true for Runequest, Rolemaster, d20, GURPS, HeroQuest, etc. But it is not true for HeroWars/Quest or Maelstrom Storytelling. And it is only partially true for Burning Wheel or (in my view) 4e. As to the question of what is the point of having higher numbers, if the scaling ensures that the situations in game remain as challenging as ever? At least one answer to that question is the one that I think applies in 4e - it makes a difference to the story. Assuming that a 4e GM uses the monsters that the system provides for him/her (in the MM, MV etc), and follows the encounter building guidelines in the DMG/DM Kit, then low level PCs will fight kobolds, orcs etc while high level ones will fight pit fiends, Orcus etc. Thus the growing numbers produce a significant change in the fiction - and produce a campaign whose backdrop, very roughly, is "the story of D&D" - start with humanoids, end with demon princes. [/QUOTE]

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