Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Which gaming system has the best mechanics and why?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 6671860" data-attributes="member: 85870"><p>To a point you're right, in that the math isn't all that hard to reverse around. I think it's mostly due to the general mental conception/paradigm of action resolution ---- that the difficulty of resolving a problem has no bearing on the outcome, only the skill level of the person performing the task. It's just......backwards to me. </p><p></p><p>So one person has a 12 in metalworking, and another has a 15. For any given metalworking problem, if they both roll an 11, they've both succeeded, yet if they both roll a 13, one of them has succeeded and the other one hasn't........regardless of how "difficult" the task at hand actually was. </p><p></p><p>As a GURPS player, it makes it hard to "eyeball" a situation and know if it's something your character is capable of, should be considering doing in the fiction, etc. It's just a constant metagame irritant about the entire system, trying to rationalize why a given roll is good enough, or not good enough to succeed, when a "roll over a target number" system makes it exceedingly clear. Oh sure, a GM could say, "Well, technically you 'failed' your roll, but what really happened is you succeeded, but it just took 4 times longer than you would have hoped."</p><p></p><p>But why set up a system like that in the first place, where "degree of success" is entirely GM fiat? Savage Worlds is much, much better in this regard, where the idea of degree of success ("getting a raise") is hard baked into the mechanics. </p><p></p><p>Of course the obvious answer is, "Well that's your GM's job to convey difficulty of a task through the fiction and the narrative." And to a point, setting "difficulty" ratings is arbitrary no matter whether it's roll over or roll under. There's just something wrong in my head about the way GURPS does it by default.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="innerdude, post: 6671860, member: 85870"] To a point you're right, in that the math isn't all that hard to reverse around. I think it's mostly due to the general mental conception/paradigm of action resolution ---- that the difficulty of resolving a problem has no bearing on the outcome, only the skill level of the person performing the task. It's just......backwards to me. So one person has a 12 in metalworking, and another has a 15. For any given metalworking problem, if they both roll an 11, they've both succeeded, yet if they both roll a 13, one of them has succeeded and the other one hasn't........regardless of how "difficult" the task at hand actually was. As a GURPS player, it makes it hard to "eyeball" a situation and know if it's something your character is capable of, should be considering doing in the fiction, etc. It's just a constant metagame irritant about the entire system, trying to rationalize why a given roll is good enough, or not good enough to succeed, when a "roll over a target number" system makes it exceedingly clear. Oh sure, a GM could say, "Well, technically you 'failed' your roll, but what really happened is you succeeded, but it just took 4 times longer than you would have hoped." But why set up a system like that in the first place, where "degree of success" is entirely GM fiat? Savage Worlds is much, much better in this regard, where the idea of degree of success ("getting a raise") is hard baked into the mechanics. Of course the obvious answer is, "Well that's your GM's job to convey difficulty of a task through the fiction and the narrative." And to a point, setting "difficulty" ratings is arbitrary no matter whether it's roll over or roll under. There's just something wrong in my head about the way GURPS does it by default. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Which gaming system has the best mechanics and why?
Top