Smoothing the hiccup between 20 and 1w (and 20wn and 1wn+1...)

From: viktor_at_...
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 14:35:37 -0000

Here's something I thought of a couple days ago to help smooth the hiccups between Abilities of 20 and 1w, and by extension the hiccup that occurs at each mastery break point.

Right now the rules say that if you have an ability of 20, you can't fumble, only fail -- i.e. a roll of 20 is a failure, not a fumble). This is, in effect, a free bump.

To make a better difference between 20 and 1w, try this:

If you have an ability rating of 20, then you still have a possibility of failure (or whatever result rolling a 20 would normally produce in your mastery level minus one): if you roll a 20 on your test, roll the die again immediately. If the result is <=10, then you avoid the fumble (or whatever the poorer result is); if the result is 11+, then you fumble (or whatever the poorer result is.

The 50-50 split seemed fair to me, but I suppose that can be tweaked (i.e. you could say, second roll <=5 is safe, 6+ is a fumble, or something).

Quick, elegant, and nicely hole-patching!

Has someone else already suggested this?

Viktor