Quote from: jgantsActually, the average of 1d6+3 would be 6.5, which is still not quite as good as the average of 7 for 2d6.

Also, your minimum roll would be better (4 instead of 2) but your maximum would be lower (9 instead of 12).

I know it should be better, but in play we found that difference in the minimum roll was often crucial.

Quote from: jgantsActually, the average of 1d6+3 would be 6.5, which is still not quite as good as the average of 7 for 2d6.

Also, your minimum roll would be better (4 instead of 2) but your maximum would be lower (9 instead of 12).

also, it's 1d6 + 2, not 1d6+3.  Dice broke down into 3 pips, but only 2 could be spent to make a bonus, a third meant it got bumped to a full die.

Quote from: J Arcanealso, it's 1d6 + 2, not 1d6+3.  Dice broke down into 3 pips, but only 2 could be spent to make a bonus, a third meant it got bumped to a full die.

Ha, no wonder !

Quote from: J Arcanealso, it's 1d6 + 2, not 1d6+3.  Dice broke down into 3 pips, but only 2 could be spent to make a bonus, a third meant it got bumped to a full die.

OK, I thought that was how I always played it.  But it's been a while so I couldn't remember for sure.

Ars Magica: WAY too many critical successes and failures. If '0' and '1' are BOTH crits, you've only got 8 more numbers on a d10! Even worse many actions require a half dozen rolls, ergo, events unfold non-criticaly 25% of the time.

Hero System: Handcuffs! For 9 points you can have a set of perfectly normal handcuffs. But why would anyone use normal handcuffs when for only 2 extra points you can have a gun that handcuffs targets at range? Perhaps it's because of Game Ballance?

GURPS: Combat reflexes. The first of many ad hoc rules.

Call of Chthulu: Perception rolls. Everytime the group blows a perception roll... EITHER the game screaches to a halt until the clue is found OR the monster attacks without getting described. Why not just give everyone 99 perception and start the choo-choo?

Dungeons and Dragons: (1) Gnomes. (2) Grappling. They're so hopelessly convoluted, the only possible solution is to release a new edition! :keke:

Fumbles in Silhouette. It wouldn't be so bad if skill levels were higher, but the reality is that most of your skills will end up at 1, giving you a 1 in 6 chance of fumbling. That's just way too much IMHO.

The grappling rules in nWoD. Of particular irritation when playing Werewolf. Actually, I've yet to see grapple rules in any game that don't suck.

At least you get XP in a skill when you fumble it in Silhouette, so using those really crappy skills is a good way to up them.

Quote from: Illegible SmudgeFumbles in Silhouette. It wouldn't be so bad if skill levels were higher, but the reality is that most of your skills will end up at 1, giving you a 1 in 6 chance of fumbling. That's just way too much IMHO.

The grappling rules in nWoD. Of particular irritation when playing Werewolf. Actually, I've yet to see grapple rules in any game that don't suck.

Might I ask what your problem was with the nWoD grappling rules? I've seen them used a grand total of twice (having only run some Mortals stuff and played a bit of Changeling so far), but they seemed pretty straightforward and effective at the time; what pitfalls am I missing?

Quote from: LeSquideMight I ask what your problem was with the nWoD grappling rules? I've seen them used a grand total of twice (having only run some Mortals stuff and played a bit of Changeling so far), but they seemed pretty straightforward and effective at the time; what pitfalls am I missing?

Basically, my chief problem is that it favours the defender outrageously, with the result that no-one dares initiate a grapple. Because if the attacker succeeds, they get hold of their opponent, and can't do anything until the next turn, but in the meantime, the defender gets to move straight to an overpowering maneuver, requiring only one success to do so on a roll already slanted in his favour (Str + Brawl minus Enemy Strength). So a successful grapple all too often is an invitation for your opponent to get a free hit or immobilize attempt in on you before you can benefit at all. Which really blows in a Werewolf game, where you expect constant grappling and close in hand to hand fighting.

Ahhh. My experience generally had the characters who were attempting the grapple either be focused in brawling, or at least decent at it, while the people they were grappling generally weren't. An actual contested roll, rather than one with a resistance attribute, sounds like it'd make competent contests make more sense.

Quote from: Malleus ArianorumCall of Chthulu: Perception rolls. Everytime the group blows a perception roll... EITHER the game screaches to a halt until the clue is found OR the monster attacks without getting described. Why not just give everyone 99 perception and start the choo-choo?

I see folk online, particularly story gamers, say this all the time and in over 20years of gaming with a range of groups and at cons I've not once seen it happen in actual play.

A game stalling on one roll succeeding or failing isn't a game design problem, it's a shitty GM problem.

Quote from: jgantsAgreed.  I absolutely loved A Game of Thrones.  Then I read the second book and liked it, but it felt stretched out.  It wasn't too long into the third book when I realized that the story was not a trilogy (as I mistakingly believed) but in fact a Wheel of Time-esque "stretch the story to infinity" extravaganza.

Despite not overly liking the third book, I went ahead and bought the fourth one.  I shouldn't have bothered.  It didn't move the story forward one inch and didn't even bother to discuss half the characters.

It's been a couple of years now and still no word when the other "half" of the storyline for the fourth book is told.  Who knows when the full series will be finished?  At this rate, I seriously think it won't be finished before Martin dies (he's no spring chicken, after all).

I'm going back to my rule of not buying any book series until after the entire thing has been finished.

Off topic, but that was exactly my experience and also my conclusion.

Me too, except I stopped at volume 3.

For me, with Song of Ice and Fire, I almost think it would have been better if Martin had simply stopped writing after the third book. (Sarcastic people might suggest that he's done precisely that.) We've got to the point where a lot of stuff is still up in the air, it's true, but we know exactly how the Stark kids are going to turn out and most of us can make a fair guess as to how the series will resolve, and nothing Martin can produce to finish off the series could really stand up to the hype that built up around the first few books. (Also, the climax of the plotline surrounding Tyrion's relationship with his father is superb, and I doubt that Martin will ever equal it.)

I think his mistake was not going with his original plan of having years of downtime between books 3 and 4; he's fallen into the "writing up every damn thing that happens in detail" trap that Robert Jordan got into.  I don't care about learning about every significant even that happens in the entire world; just let the Stark kids grow up, come home and kick ass already.

Quote from: WarthurI think his mistake was not going with his original plan of having years of downtime between books 3 and 4; he's fallen into the "writing up every damn thing that happens in detail" trap that Robert Jordan got into.

Has he fallen into the shameless rehashing of details from previous books in the series?  That was some tedious reading.  Now there was a half hour of fun in a 4 hour session.