Quick Quiz

[bluegargantua]

Hi,

For those of you who game (even a little bit, even board game):

When you roll dice against some target number does it feel more "correct" to try and roll higher than the target number (like d20) or to try and roll lower than the target number (like Call of Cthulhu)?

If you're reading a game and they do it differently than the way you feel comfortable with, are you less likely to try the game out?

later
Tom

Comments

[lionmerlin.livejournal.com]

Seems hardly necessary, but higher. As some others have noted, it;s an intrinsically easier mechanic to learn...in the US at least. GURPS uses a roll-under system, which works well but requires extra work to learn. Another interesting mechanic: GURPS uses 3 6-sided dice, generally, so most skill rolls are 3-18. 3 and 4 are always critical successes, while 17 and 18 are always critical failures, and everything inbetween is skill-based. Just to keep ;ife interesting.

It's also possible that the crit failures can be mitigated by very high skill levels, but that might also be more GM choice than an actual mechanic.

Anyway, that's all my burbling. And a system that's different from what I prefer might have some small sway in whether I was interested in playing it, but only if the concept was already kind of borderline anyway: if I'm only mildly interested and it's a little harder to learn, I might not.

Okay, that's really it now. Happy designing, and Joyful Yulmastice/Chanukwanzaa to you and yours. :)