What kind of stuff do you really dislike having to roll dice to see if you can do in a game? Obviously, you should be talking about stuff that at least one game out there somewhere requires rolling for.

RPGPundit

Anything.

The key part of your question that warrants that answer is the "have to" portion. I don't mind rolling dice, and I certainly like having that option.

But it should be a choice, not a requirement.

Drive down a road on a routine trip.

We had a CoC GM that didn't get probability and made us roll 5 times for a routine trip, and didn't get why even characters with 60-80% drive skill were routinely wrecking their car.

Typically anything just too mundane to worry about (stubbing your toe when you get out of bed, making coffee, buying a paper, etc), or things so involved they involve an endless series of rolls and charts.

Anything my character is extremely competent to do.
Anything where failure is boring.

Language skills. I'm not saying it's impossible to implement them in a way that would make it reasonable to roll dice to have a conversation in a foreign language, but the ones I've seen haven't exactly thrilled me.

Quote from: Elliot Wilen;372248Language skills. I'm not saying it's impossible to implement them in a way that would make it reasonable to roll dice to have a conversation in a foreign language, but the ones I've seen haven't exactly thrilled me.

Top Secret has a nifty system for this: you add together the language values of the two speakers and the total must exceed a certain threshold for effective communication to take place. Simple but playable.

Yup, Runequest had the same rule; I think if the total was under 100% you were supposed to roll.

It just doesn't seem very interesting or workable, and it's not too realistic either. I mean, I know English very well, but that just isn't going to compensate for someone else having a rudimentary knowledge of the language.

In fact it was the exact rule that I was thinking of when I posted. I do think there are circumstances when you could/should roll for language ability--I just think that rule doesn't work very well at all, and I haven't seen any that work better other than the old "you know the language or you don't" approach.

I just hate rolling for anything twice.

Like, lets say I want my character to jump on a table, then jump off to kick someone. I don't want to have to roll an acrobatics check to do the stunt unless success means I get to do double damage.

Rolling for routine driving is a good one.

I also hate games where the percentage chance of success is slim no matter what you are doing.

I was playing dark heresy the other day (my favorite game). I was at the top of a ladder. There was a guy climbing it behind me, who didn't know I had stopped and was waiting for him. So there I am, with my highly experienced character, 10' from a ledge with a guy quickly trying to climb over it. I've got my high gun skill, bonuses for auto, surprise, and range, and I still miss. I think I still had a 20% - 25% chance to fail.

Compare that situation to Pathfinder, where I'd be performing a range touch attack against a flat footed opponent without deflection bonuses. I think I'd need like a six. Virtually every first level fighter or rogue I've rolled up can hit that on a 1. (95%)

Interaction with NPCs. Look, dude, I've just laid out for this NPC precisely what's going on. I've presented him with three different forms of proof. We've checked and made sure he's got no personal reasons not to believe us - in fact, we went to him because it suits his purposes to believe our story, so he'd be an easy sell. The last time I checked my Talking To Guys attribute wasn't in single figures. And you want to make me roll on my Persuade Dude skill? With no modifiers? Fuck you, man.

QuoteIt just doesn't seem very interesting or workable, and it's not too realistic either. I mean, I know English very well, but that just isn't going to compensate for someone else having a rudimentary knowledge of the language.

"Oh, its a scythe..."

(For anyone who doesn't get that - sorry! One of my favourite lines in Blackadder the 2nd)

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;372278"Oh, its a scythe..."

Yes, that's a great moment.

Felt guilty that my last post had no information content, so in answer to the initial question, things I don't like rolling for include:

*Personality traits (e.g. Pendragon, Forge games). I prefer to have some say in the matter. If the players can't actually roleplay having feelings/character goals/etc. without needing a Randiness attribute, they'll probably have more fun just killing things anyway.

*seeing if your skill goes up a notch (a la Runequest: got badly burned in Ringworld aways back).

*soak rolls. I prefer characters just have variable HP. I'm not sure now  if it was Warhammer 1e that first gave me this criteria (Naked Dwarf!) or if Shadowrun got there first.

At the very basic level I don't want my character to have to roll for anything that I personally could do without issue under similar circumstance.  To go up a notch I wouldn't want my character to ever have to roll for things that other NPC's or my character before adventuring would do as a normal part of his life.

Stupid things like climbing trees, or dropping 10' or walking across a ledge etc.... I'm not even talking about doing those things while I'm being shot at or whatever.  Just routine mundane things.

Searching and noticing. If I explain how my character is searching and where he is looking, I should find stuff.

This doesn't apply to "awareness" skills like spotting a potential ambush - rolling for that sort of thing is fine.