Re: Contest Mechanic Oddity

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_...>
Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 23:08:31 +0100 (BST)

Michael Ryan:
> Oh, I agree completely that going with a "rolling low is good" convention
> is a good thing. I just think that this effect can wind up being unfair.

It's not unfair as such, in that it always pays to have the better TN. It just doesn't pay off in constant increments: improving from 2 to 3 is really great, compared to improving from 18 to 19, because basically in the latter case you're 'only' improving a failure to a very mediocre success. But it's still an improvement. (i.e., an advantage to the person with the higher TN.)

More to the point, I don't think there's any real fix that gives 'smoother' results, at least, not without a truly hideous increase in complexity. (High is good, or how much you made your roll by is good, just flips the skew the other way around.)

Cheers,
Alex.

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