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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=catodon@whale-mail.com href="mailto:catodon@whale-mail.com">Carl Brown</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=kyle3054@iprimus.com.au
href="mailto:kyle3054@iprimus.com.au">kyle3054@iprimus.com.au</A> ; <A
title=design@mimesisrpg.com
href="mailto:design@mimesisrpg.com">design@mimesisrpg.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, October 17, 2005 1:29
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Fw: [Design] Why random rolls?
d4-d4</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>of coarse with words your scale has fixed end
points and if something is off the scale (eg a chimp)...<BR><BR>***</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Certainly! But the game assumes that in general,
characters will be interacting with characters of a similar level of ability.
This is "league", if you like. Another human is in my "league," but a tank or a
gnat isn't. A tank doesn't have to make a roll to crush me - if it hits me, it
crushes me automatically. I don't have to roll to crush a gnat, if I hit it, I
crush it automatically. And a gnat is beneath the notice of a tank. To the gnat,
the tank isn't a tank, it's a mountain. The gnat doesn't distinguish between a
mountain and a tank anymore than we non-astronomers distinguish between a star
10 light years away, and one 1,000 light years away; both are simply beyond our
reach. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> So "Ordinary" Strength lets me,
as a normal human character, pick up another human, but it doesn't let me pick
up a tank. On the other hand I can crush a gnat with ease, if I can hit him. So,
something in one "league" can deal with impunity with something in a lower
league, and is helpless before something of a higher league.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> A super, it doesn't matter
exactly how much stronger than a regular person they are. Is Superman 1,201
times stronger than Kyle Schuant, or 1,232 times stronger? It doesn't matter to
Superman, he flings Kyle aside with ease in any case. What matters is whether
Superman is stronger than General Zod or not! So, Superman would have Strength
Ordinary, and the question is whether Zod has Poor or Excellent or whatever
Strength compared to Superman. Both Superman and Zod can toss Kyle aside with
ease, I'm the lower league, and neither can move the planet Earth out of its
orbit, Earth's in the higher league. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> But of course, they're not in
higher leagues in Education, or Confidence, or Piano Playing, or Macrame. Just
Strength. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> So, as I said, what matters is
not a character's abilities on some absolute scale, but their abilities compared
to the characters they're likely to interact with. So we don't need rules for
exactly how much damage a tank does to a person when it runs them over, it'll
just squash them automatically and messily. This is because they're in different
leagues in terms of strength. But we DO need rules for the tank's driver to be
able to aim it to hit or miss the person, because they're in the same league in
terms of agility, that is, ability to change direction to hit or miss something.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> This supposes, of course, that
you want to deal with things in terms of a realistic flavour for a game. You
might want the PCs to always have a chance of success, however small.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> GM: "Night falls."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Player: "I try to dodge
it!"</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> GM: "Okay, if you roll a triple
high open-ended, 350 plus, you can dodge nightfall."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Player rolls... 97, 96, 00, 76:
"Woohoo!"</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> GM: "Cool. So from now on, Bob
the Super-Agile Thief has a little pool of sunlight around him wherever he goes.
It's always light two feet around him, which will kind of hinder his sneaking
about at night."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Player: "Woops."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> If you want that kind of effect,
that's cool:) I've had lots of fun with that!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Cheers,<BR>Kyle<BR>Better Mousetrap Games<BR>home
of d4-d4 and other stuff<BR><A
href="http://www.rpgnow.com/default.php?manufacturers_id=339">http://www.rpgnow.com/default.php?manufacturers_id=339</A></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>