Alt Resistance Table

[Harshax]

Criticals and Specials on the Resistance Table? I've never played such a way.

But thank you. I now don't feel so dirty, just wrong.

[Trifletraxor]

Originally Posted by RosenMcStern

Bad idea. Using a d20 for an opposed roll does not allow for criticals/specials based on your actual skill. No success roll in a true BRP game should be rolled on anything other than a d100.

d20 for a characteristic based resistance rolls works good. No need for a table at all, just a simple formula:
Success = 10+active stat-defending stat or below on a d20.

So for a POW vs. POW roll, with pow 15 and pow 18, where pow 15 would be the active one you'd get a success on 10+15-18=7 or below on the d20. Simpler than the old resistance table.

SGL.

[RosenMcStern]

Not quite, Trif. Some spells work differently if the roll to overcome the target resistance is a special of critical success (Fear, Madness, etc.). Other resistance rolls have additional effects if the roll is a special success, for example the intentional knockback is (or used to be) STR+SIZ vs. SIZ+DEX, and it allows specials or critical successes like all other attack rolls. If you use a d20, you have no simple way to find out what is a critical and what is a special success.

As for skipping the table, you can do it with d100, too. I have never used the table in twenty years: 50+(Active-Passive)x5%.

[Tywyll]

Originally Posted by RosenMcStern

Not quite, Trif. Some spells work differently if the roll to overcome the target resistance is a special of critical success (Fear, Madness, etc.). Other resistance rolls have additional effects if the roll is a special success, for example the intentional knockback is (or used to be) STR+SIZ vs. SIZ+DEX, and it allows specials or critical successes like all other attack rolls. If you use a d20, you have no simple way to find out what is a critical and what is a special success.

As for skipping the table, you can do it with d100, too. I have never used the table in twenty years: 50+(Active-Passive)x5%.

1=Critical
Special is just 20% of your score, rounded up or down or mathematically for taste.
2-4 usually.

[Rurik]

Well, on the subject of criticals and d20's, there is a game out there that represents a 5% critical with a d20. It is a roll high system, so on a roll of 20 you roll against your skill again to see if it is a critical. The name of the system escapes me...

In a roll low system you could roll against your skill again on a 1 for a 5% critical. A 20% special could be represented by rolling against your skill again on a 2-4 to check for a special.

I am not in favor of converting BRP to use a d20, but if one wanted to you can still represent criticals at thresholds such as 5%, 10%, and 20%.

[RosenMcStern]

Originally Posted by Tywyll

1=Critical
Special is just 20% of your score, rounded up or down or mathematically for taste.
2-4 usually.

Lemme see, I use my STR 11 vs a resistance of 20, yielding a result of 1. This means that I can either fail, or critical. And in any case criticals are 5% of all rolls, not 5% of successful rolls, i.e. the characteristic you are using has no effect whatsoever on criticals.

You may like it but this will never happen in my games. Isn't it multiplying by 5 easier than fumbling with numbers to adapt to d20 what was developed for d100?

[Harshax]

Originally Posted by RosenMcStern

Lemme see, I use my STR 11 vs a resistance of 20, yielding a result of 1. This means that I can either fail, or critical. And in any case criticals are 5% of all rolls, not 5% of successful rolls, i.e. the characteristic you are using has no effect whatsoever on criticals.

You may like it but this will never happen in my games. Isn't it multiplying by 5 easier than fumbling with numbers to adapt to d20 what was developed for d100?

I don't know. Using the score that is written on your character sheet isn't really fumbling, is it?

For skills, I wouldn't use a d20, because you lose the granularity of experience checks and increases, but for Characteristic tests, I think a d20 is faster than multiplying by five. I wouldn't add anything to the scores, as others have suggesting. Just roll low, but higher than your opponent. If you roll exactly your score, that's a critical. If it is within 1 or 2, it's a special. Or something like that.

[RosenMcStern]

Originally Posted by Harshax

I don't know. Using the score that is written on your character sheet isn't really fumbling, is it?

No. But calculating 20% of 17 and rounding to the next integer is. Multiplying 17x5 is easier (special score is equal to your characteristic in this case).

Just roll low, but higher than your opponent. If you roll exactly your score, that's a critical. If it is within 1 or 2, it's a special. Or something like that.

Simple, but awfully unrealistic. STR 19 has the same chance of criticalling as STR 1. Like Rurik said, it is the same realism as That Other Game. I prefer a bit more math but critical chances going up as your characteristic score goes up.

[Trifletraxor]

Specials and criticals come up in some resistance rolls, but those are few, and mostly for Gloranthan specific spells. Excepting those, d20 stat resistance rolls work well.

SGL.

[frogspawner]

Originally Posted by RosenMcStern

Multiplying 17x5 is easier (special score is equal to your characteristic in this case).

STATx5 also lets us side-step the old "roll low but high" opposed-roll problem, because it has 5 'Degrees of Success' built-in.
GM:"Make your STRx5" Player:"Made it... STRx3 in fact" GM: "Ha! The Winds made STRx2! You are blown to your DOOM!"