Day 47 - with a throw of the dice

 

Day 47

 

How much randomness is acceptable in an RPG? That's the question I've been thinking about recently, after my friend complained that in DnD the core 20-sided die holds more power than skills of the player character. On the other hand another system I know and like - Savage Worlds is getting frequent slag for being too easy. Rolling a 4 or higher on either of two dice, one of which is always a classic d6, is not hard. In fact even if the other die is the smallest (d4) it still gives players a 62% chance of success on a skill they are the worst in. 

So where is the middle ground? Well, certainly in D&D it's randomness is also a part of design philosophy. When deciding on Challenge Rating for a monster you are advised that players should be hitting the monster at least 60% of the time and vice versa. Because it's boring to roll the dice and hear "you miss" too often. And because of HP system it's tedious in D&D to have battles with many monsters. Players will never feel that their skills improved if their enemies improve with them (kinda like in Skyrim). You can't feel improvement of +5 to hit if all your enemies got +5 to defense at the same time. 

Philosophy in Savage Worlds is completely different. Important characters get to roll two dice and pick the higher results because story is about them doing stuff, not failing to do stuff. So you are expected to succeed at about everything as a hero, but your nemesis is supposed to do the same. Only minions, servants, mooks and goons don't get the second die. They fail and die easily, because story is not about them. When you put a tough monster in front of the party, all it takes is one wound to kill them. Sometimes though this boss monster poses a question - how to do that one wound? Savage Worlds doesn't care about balance, enemy might as well double the power of your biggest fighter. However non-combatants in Savage Worlds can help the warrior in many ways, giving them a chance to do that one decisive attack. And skewed towards success system means that this chance they all worked for will most likely succeed.

Still the question stands - should dice of character sheet determine success more? Should players feel stronger with levels, or should they always meet challenges equal to their strengths? I think it would be fun to have system, perhaps a simple one, that allows for both.