Jump to content

Ctrl+V

Ragitsu

By Ragitsu
in Non-Gaming Discussion

 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 15.8k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Ragitsu

    9632

  • Certified

    2488

  • tkdguy

    1140

  • Clonus

    810

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Popular Posts

Certified
Certified
Ragitsu
Ragitsu
Ragitsu
Ragitsu

Posted Images

Ragitsu Grand Master

Ragitsu

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Re: Ctrl+V

 

 

For example: The have run to the end of an alley. The zombies are coming to get them! There is a door that leads into the rundown diner. It is locked--with a really, really good lock...suspiciously good for a rundown diner. The lock picker needs to get the lock open. I say, that will take an accumulated margin of 15. Each attempt is one second.

 

Turn 1:

Sneak: *roll Lockpicking* I succeed by 8!

GM: You need another 7 successes!

Soldier: *roll guns* I lay down surprising fire!

Techie: *rolls Throw* I toss a grenade at the zombies.

Face: *rolls Psychology* I want to try and figure out if the zombies have independent thought, if they are controlled by something, or if they are just going on instinct.

GM: The zombies all move with a singularity of purpose, none being distracted by anything else. In your guess, you'd say being controlled by someone....though you don't know if that control is active or they are following orders. On their turn the zombies all rush closer. They are 15 yards from you now.

Soldier: "C'mon sneak! Get that door open!"

Sneak: "I'm trying!"

Face: Hey, can I use my Psychology to aid the Sneak in the roll? To calm him down so he can better focus?

GM: Sure, that's an Aiding roll. Roll.

Face: *rolls Psychology* I succeed!

GM: Okay, Face, that's your turn for this round. Sneak, you have a +1 to the roll.

Sneak: *rolls Lockpicking* Success by 6...+1 from the Face...I made it!

GM: Calmed by the Face, you concentrate, ignore the zombies, the gunfire, and the grenades. The lock pops open in your expert hands--you know that it would have taken a lesser lock pick far longer to open this...and it might have cost you your lives!

Soldier: *rolls Guns* More suppressing fire. "Take this zombies!!!"

Tech: Controlled by someone? Then where is the signal coming from?

Face: No time to think about that right now! Into the diner!

Tech: I rush into the diner and prepare to close the door once everyone is inside!

 

etc.

 

I've done this for lockpicking in combat time.

 

I've done this for searching a room when a guard is making rounds (there are certain things in the room they each have a success by number to find. How long do you want to search? Search keep searching for too many turns and you'll be discovered!

 

I've done this in the Orbital Decay module. The bomb is going to go off in three minutes and you have to accumulate a certain number of successes to get the data off the computer before everything blows.

 

I don't do it for everything. Basically for longer actions when time is an issue. And it isn't a skill challenge like in D&D where everybody rolls some skill and adds the margin of success so everybody feels abstractly useful. Instead I make there other things that might need to be taken care of at the same time.

 

 

 

This.

 

Before getting back into GURPS late last year, I had GMed WotC's ancient Alternity system for years and years. Alternity used "complex skill checks," an idea that was imported into D&D starting with 3.5 and into 4E. In Alternity, the mechanics were a bit more complicated than D&D and actually had some bell curves going on, but the idea is the same: you needed a certain number of successes to complete a task, often with a time constrant, or you could fail completely with either a Critical Failure or three Failures.

 

Alternity used a more discrete system for margin of success (the Marginal/Ordinary/Good/Amazing system) and was roll-under, like GURPS, rather than roll-high, like D&D. Thus, a Marginal Success or Failure would get you 0 successes, and Ordinary/Good/Amazing result would get you 1/2/3 successes.

 

Translating the above lockpicking into Alternity would be a piece of cake--you need 8 successes, so that could be 8 rolls with nothing but Ordinaries, or it could be 3 rolls, with 2 Amazings and a Good! THe point was that the better the character at the task, the faster he could get it done. THis didn't always have to matter, but it often would and it made certain non-combat skill checks just as tense as a typical fight.

 

I will have to adapt this concept to GURPS like trooper6 did above. The problem is that I don't have as good a feel for how hard a given "accumulated margin" would be. Also, do you count failure against that margin? Perhaps sometimes you do, perhaps you don't, but that could really mess up your time calculations.

 

I don't suppose Action 2 uses this kind of mechanic (i.e. accumulated margin of success)?

 

Can anyone see any pitfalls of using this type of model?

 

(PS Lockpicking actually already has rules for taking less time--it takes 1 minute - (5 seconds x Margin of Success), IIRC.)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...