Quote from: Batjon on July 14, 2022, 08:58:15 PM

Quote from: Chris24601 on July 14, 2022, 10:20:10 AM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on July 13, 2022, 05:08:52 PM
The ST system, in any iteration, uses dice pools and in convoluted fashion. There are several "difficulty sliders": The amount of dice in a pool, the pips/face you need to roll for a die to produce a pass, the number of passes that need to be rolled to determine whether an action is successful, and whether dice "explode" or not upon rolling a 10

What you call convoluted, I call a relatively simple system for generating complex outcomes in a minimum number of rolls.

The problem with linear distributions (i.e. 1dX+Y vs. TN Z) is that it can really only do pass/fail well, not magnitude. This is why D&D has always used a separate damage roll for magnitude and why the d20's skill system has always been wonky as it tried to turn extremes of that linear distribution into magnitude and had to add "take 10" mechanics to account for obscene failure rates that would result if you used the checks outside of combat situations.

Success-based dice pools give you an actual bell curve distribution which largely eliminates the need for separate take-10/mundane use mechanics. The variable target number allows you to increase or decrease odds of success without actually bumping the absolute magnitude of success (someone with 2 dice is never going to pull off more than a marginal success regardless of difficulty)... which is NOT something a flat distribution where "succeed by X" determines magnitude (because reducing the TN also reduces the number you need for the increased magnitude).

Similarly, number of successes (and failure/botch results) allow for more ways for a GM to interpret results than just pass/fail. Did you barely pick the lock, perhaps leaving telltale marks of your effort in the process? Do it compently? Do it so masterfully that someone might think the door had always been unlocked or merely slightly stuck? Did you instead fail so badly you jammed the lock?

Not only does counting successes allow those results, the dice pool caps the outcome... 2 dice will never produce the three successes needed for complete success. Four dice will never produce the 5 successes needed for a critical success. Thus a difference of just a few dots in a skill can denote much greater expertise than small gradations on a d10 roll where the only way to prevent the ametuer from a critical success is to push the TN and the bonuses for the expert so high that failure becomes the ametuer's only outcome.

Is the system used by old White Wolf clunky in places? Sure. But the benefits of the resolution system are many and the system's broad popularity (at one point it was about as close to a D&D killer as you're going to find) means there are plenty of house rules out there to streamline anything you do find clunky (The Dark Age Companion even does this themselves with optional rules for streamlining combat).

It's useful enough that I chose to use a variant as the core of my own urban fantasy game engine (the key fix for mine was how to handle difficulties below 4 or above .

What is your game?

Quote from: Rhymer88 on July 18, 2022, 03:27:53 AM
Although it's a series rather than a movie, have any of you watched Terminal List? I've just started to watch it, but don't know if I should bother to look at the whole thing.

Quote from: Batjon on July 18, 2022, 07:39:20 PM

Quote from: Rhymer88 on July 18, 2022, 03:27:53 AM
Although it's a series rather than a movie, have any of you watched Terminal List? I've just started to watch it, but don't know if I should bother to look at the whole thing.

My fiancé and I watched the entire series and loved it.  I left a glowing review on Rotten Tomatoes to strike against the woke idiots.