[soltakss]

Originally Posted by frogspawner

Yep. Harder than not doing so anyway. And it's unnecessary. Why must there always be a winner, immediately? Ties happen.

Sure. If you don't mind ties then just say that the same level of success has a tie.

What that means in practice, however, is open to interpretation. The classic "Hide vs Spot Hidden/Scan" means the Hider has successfully hidden and the Spotter has successfully made a Scan. Does this mean he is seen or not? With Opposed Rolls, you work out how well he has hidden and how well he has been seen and compare the result.

Originally Posted by frogspawner

Same here. It's all about the feel. I think it's the way it'd spoil the immediacy of a 'Dramatic Moment' (slightly).

Depends on the game. Sometimes a few seconds working out if someone has succeeds increases the dramatic tension.

Originally Posted by frogspawner

But a 90% attack will get past a 30% parry about (90x70=) 63% of the time. So the same numbers will give very different probabilities if you use opposed rolls. How can that be right?

Very easily.

First of all, Opposed Rolls are not the same as Attack/Parry rolls, so don't get the two confused.

A 90% skill has a better chance of scoring a critical or special than a 30% chance. So, it has a higher chance of winning an Opposed Contest using Levels of Success. Also, in the case of a tie, a 90% skill has more chance of making the roll by a higher margin than a 30% skill. The highest margin a 30% skill has of making a roll is 23% (a roll of 7) but a 90% skill has a highest margin of 71 (a roll of 19). In fact, any roll between 19 and 66 will beat the 30% skill on a normal success.

Originally Posted by frogspawner

That's great - 'spot on'! All that's needed is a good interpretation of the tied situation, like this! Call it a draw?

The trouble is you can't always draw. Sometimes a draw makes no sense whatsoever. I suppose you could reroll on a draw but that might spoil the dramatic moment again.