Re: Rise Again

> You're such a sourpuss, Brian. I think that's why I respect > you despite the fact that we disagree in almost every way > about gaming. I'm nothing if not consistent :-) > As a point of curiousity, if you don't mind my asking: How old > are you, Brian? (If you mind me asking, just ignore the > question.) 42. Which of course is the perfect age to be, seeing how it's the answer to life, the universe and everything. > I wanted the following from the mechanics: Off hand I'd say that you reached your goals. However I have to wonder about the effectiveness of mechanics in the area of "slow moral decay of the characters" and such. Do such mechanics actually work in play for the players themselves? Or is it more a way for the GM to be certain that the players are following his higher campaign desires? > But frankly, I don't like the bell curve for FUDGE or it's > level of granularity, and like having numbers as well as words > (tho, admittedly, FUDGE is really numbers disguised as words). Most systems that claim to use words are. It seems odd that one would be concerned with a bell curve or level of granularity in a system that isn't really intended to care about character ability or action- but rather about slow moral decay. It looks to me as if any resolution method would capture that goal as long as one uses the correct stats and additional fluff. The single die requirement however does exclude most of the better know free systems. FUDGE, Window, Risus all use multiple dice and no single dice game has reach the level of visibility in that arena (at least not that I’m aware of). > Now that does bother me a bit. I'm glad you pointed that out. > Any suggestions on how that could be fixed without > signifigantly increasing the complexity of the rules? Significant is in the eye of the beholder... Some suggestions: 1) Make a crit equal a roll of X number of points under the target number. This of course makes it impossible for long shots to crit, and that may or may not cause a problem. 2) Make a crit equal X + Y > Z where X is the number of points the roll was made by, and Y is the number of points the opposing roll missed by. Z is whatever threshold number you decide upon. Same problem as 1 plus more work. 3) Give up crits. Outstanding success doesn't seem part of the design goals anyway- this game is about the slow grind not the peaks. Just be sure that combat has a lethal chance as part of it's base resolution (I assume here that random death is part of the design requirements). 4) Roll a second D20 with primary die or roll the die again on a success. Count any success as a crit if the second die hits a number(s) determined by the designer. This flys in the face of the single die requirement. Of the above, I like 3.