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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7448565" data-attributes="member: 82106">I dunno. I played 1e and 2e for their entire runs, pretty extensively. While we did USE NWPs they only really played any significant role in one OA based campaign, which was a system where they were first introduced and intended to fill a significant role in a game that was supposed to be more social and political and focused more on the character's relationship with society.Even then the mechanics were poor. The success rate for using them was terrible. Even if you simply ignored the idea of making a check in most situations, the dangerous situations where they might be somewhat defining, were exactly where you'd only use an NWP in uttermost desperation, since the chance of success was rarely 40% and usually much worse! I never understood what was the concept behind this. It was literally as if the design was intended to make you NOT want to use them!Which is why I don't understand the whole fascination with checks. They should have simply been things you DID, or knew, not things you had to make a roll for. As I said, I have a LOT of experience with 2e, and 1e as well. My experience was that the skill systems in these games were marginal at best, and designed to be so deliberately. I think a lot of the problem was that, even in 1989, there wasn't a very coherent idea of what RPGs really SHOULD be doing. I guess by then we thought we knew a lot, but by today's standards it was actually very little.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 7448565, member: 82106"] I dunno. I played 1e and 2e for their entire runs, pretty extensively. While we did USE NWPs they only really played any significant role in one OA based campaign, which was a system where they were first introduced and intended to fill a significant role in a game that was supposed to be more social and political and focused more on the character's relationship with society. Even then the mechanics were poor. The success rate for using them was terrible. Even if you simply ignored the idea of making a check in most situations, the dangerous situations where they might be somewhat defining, were exactly where you'd only use an NWP in uttermost desperation, since the chance of success was rarely 40% and usually much worse! I never understood what was the concept behind this. It was literally as if the design was intended to make you NOT want to use them! Which is why I don't understand the whole fascination with checks. They should have simply been things you DID, or knew, not things you had to make a roll for. As I said, I have a LOT of experience with 2e, and 1e as well. My experience was that the skill systems in these games were marginal at best, and designed to be so deliberately. I think a lot of the problem was that, even in 1989, there wasn't a very coherent idea of what RPGs really SHOULD be doing. I guess by then we thought we knew a lot, but by today's standards it was actually very little. [/QUOTE]

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