detailed, set difficulties for tasks - was d20 the first system to have this?

jhkim · May 10, 2008, 03:58:01 PM

Quote from: Age of FableI had a quick look at the old version, it seemed like it kind of did...as an example, how would a character forge a document (assuming that that's the kind of thing that characters are meant to be doing)?

Forgery doesn't per se have a fixed difficulties, since it is based on the complexity of the document. However, it does have an involved system. From 1st edition Vampire:

QuoteThis system is designed to allow characters to forge documents. Two rolls are required, one to know what type of forms and signatures are necessary, and the other to actually sit down and forge the papers. You are only able to roll as many dice on the second roll as you achieved successes on the first roll. It is very difficult to successfully forge documents. You may wish to roll the second roll yourself, so that the player does not know exactly how good the forgery is.

The first roll is made using Intelligence + Bureaucracy (in some cases Linguistics is necessary). The difficulty is based on the complexity of the document being forged (average is 6). A failure indicates that not enough is known about the nature of these papers and that some research must be performed. Another roll can be made after a period of hours or days. A botch indicates that the character has no clue what they are doing, and cannot try to make the roll again unless some new information is found.

The second roll is a Dexterity + Bureaucracy. The difficulty varies but is normally a 6. Each success indicates a higher grade of forgery is accomplished -- see the chart below for a general idea of the relative worth. A failure indicates that the paperwork isn't passable at all -- it was too difficult for you and you cannot try again. A botch indicates that some fatal flaw was made, which will be readily seen by any official to whom the papers are shown.

Successes - Results
One Success - Passable only to a casual glance
Two Successes - Could trick those who have never seen the real thing
Three Successes - Would fool most, but not those familiar with the actual thing
Four Successes - It would take an expert to detect it
Five Successes - Perfect forgery, no one could tell it was a fake

In general, I think the earliest examples of fixed difficulties would be Thieves Guild (1983) and to some degree Rolemaster (1980).

To take your original example of weather, Thieves Guild has prediction rules of "Base chance of predicting events are equal to (TAL - 10) x 3%; training bonuses are added to this roll. If a prediction is successfully made, roll D100 to determine the outcome of the divination. Weather: 0-60 clear; 61-85 cloudy/overcast; 86-00 stormy. ... The basic tenor of an accurate prediction must be followed." The only training bonus to this is higher levels of the farming background skill, incidentally.

Age of Fable · May 10, 2008, 04:09:29 PM

Thanks jhkim - that was the kind of thing I was after.

KrakaJak · May 10, 2008, 08:49:10 PM

Quote from: Age of FableI had a quick look at the old version, it seemed like it kind of did...as an example, how would a character forge a document (assuming that that's the kind of thing that characters are meant to be doing)?

Forging a document worked like this:

You'd roll Intelligence+Subterfuge (Dicepool). If you were in good conditions (had a top of the line computer and a good scanner, or lots of documents of the person who's handwritng you're imitating) that would lower your target number. Target numbers averaged 7, but ranged between 2 and 10 on a die. If any dice in your pool meet/beat the TN you gain a sucess. 1 Success was squeeking by (might pass a quick inspectiion), 2 successes average all the way up to 5+ successes being an absoutely perfect forgery (the person who you are forging would believe they wrote it themselves).

Edit: This is the system from revised.

detailed, set difficulties for tasks - was d20 the first system to have this?

jhkim

Age of Fable

KrakaJak