Talk:Open Ended D10

Problem With Method?

Although your method appears simple, it's simplicity is a problem. It is assuming only a single value (Skill) affecting the die, but in most design systems you have both a Skill and a Attribute that intertwine to produce a success value.

Because you use only a single die, the combined values would overwhelm the randomness factor in regards to the success if both attribute and skill are ranged 1-10 or even 1-5 each, unless you open end the die for the high end for failure (which is not how it works in HARP (the current incarnation of rolemaster).

I see no easy way of dealing with this problem.

joeteller (unquietsoul on gmail.com)

Re: Problem With Method?

Hi, Joe! First of all thank you for your comment, and forgive me if I don't answer it properly as I'm new to wikis and discussion.

Whereas in many systems it is done as you say, adding Attribute and Skill together (not something I personally like, you begin adding more and more things up and the system gets complicated and munchkin-friendly), in some of them Attribute has far less range than skill. In BRP Skill goes from 1 to 100 whereas Attribute only goes from 3 to 18. In Rolemaster Skill typically tops about 100 or so, whereas Attribute bonus tops at what, +35?.

So with Open Ended D10 you could have Skill from 1 to 10 and Attributes only from 0 to 2 or 0 to 3. In this case you would certainly use the Fine Grain rule for Attributes, so you can have Strength 0,7 meaning that 70% of the time you have a value of 1 and 30% you only have a value of 0. Rolling the die everytime would be very time-consuming, so just roll it for every fight/scene and keep the result until the next.

You should also check the Beyond Success section, which I admit is poorly worded (I'm not a native English speaker). Basically it further broadens the possible range of Skills by adding Mastery Ranks. If you really wish to add up Atrributes and Skills scores you could say you pay 8 points for a Mastery Rank, so that if you have Attribute 7 and Skill 5, for a total of 12, your score actually becomes 12 = 8 + 4, 4 with a Mastery Rank. That would give you a Critical Success rolling under 4, and a Normal Success rolling over 4.

I hope you might find my ideas somewhat useful. Read you! :)

Enrique Martín enrique@aerobicos.org