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Degrees of Success


nerdvana

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In GURPS (which is where I am trying to port a mechanic from) NPC reactions are judged in grades: Excellent, Very Good, Good, Neutral, Poor, Bad and Very Bad. Is there a built in mechanic like that in Legend (or other d100 games) that I'm missing seeing or am I going to need to find another way to generate 7 different degrees of success rather than the standard 4 in d100 (Critical Success, Success, Failure and Fumble)

(EDIT: Woot! my posts count has finally surpassed my downloads count!)

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I don't think so (note: I don't own all the Legend books so I'm very likely wrong). Here's what I'd do:

Come up with a table for your basic NPC reactions. Example:

01-05 - Excellent

06-20 - Very Good

21-40 - Good

41-60 - Neutral

61-80 - Poor

81-95 - Bad

96-00 - Very Bad

Roll for the reaction when the encounter takes place. Now the party spokesperson makes an appropriate skill roll. Modify the reaction based on the level of success. Example:

Critical Succsess: Move up 2 levels, minimum reaction is Neutral

Success: Move up 1 level, minimum reaction is Bad

Failure: No change, maximum reaction is Very Good

Fumble: Move down 2 levels, maximum reaction is Neutral

Maybe some nasty creatures like Broo or orcs have a maximum reaction level no matter flattering the characters are?

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In GURPS (which is where I am trying to port a mechanic from) NPC reactions are judged in grades: Excellent, Very Good, Good, Neutral, Poor, Bad and Very Bad. Is there a built in mechanic like that in Legend (or other d100 games) that I'm missing seeing or am I going to need to find another way to generate 7 different degrees of success rather than the standard 4 in d100 (Critical Success, Success, Failure and Fumble)

What you COULD do (never tried it meself) is port the PenDragon style idea of the so-called Blackjack system. i.e. the higher you roll the better as long as it is not over the skill to be tested

Take the tens digit as the 'reaction roll'

With lower being worserer

And higher being betterer

10s Very Bad

20s Bad

30s Poor

40s Neutral

50s Good

60s Very Good

70s Excellent (dude)

But that does throw up some artefacts ('our best Diplomat has got Fast Talk/Influence/Persuade 50% we ain't never gonna do better than neutral reaction' and it being a different system to all the task resolutions in d100 games; although from memory I think that GURPS' Reaction Roll uses a totally different system to normal GURPS task resolution anyway so that may not concern you. Possibly a Critical always gives an Excellent (bro) result? Or reverse it to keep lower is better?)

Simplest (to my mind) Is that there is a sort of default reaction that you as GM expect from an NPC to the PCs and they can move that up 2 stages better or 1 stage worse by the roll.

(EDIT: Woot! my posts count has finally surpassed my downloads count!)

Hoorah

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The thing is... do you really need 7 different degrees of reaction? how can you meassure the difference between a good or very good result?

I would make the NPC roll the PCs CHAx5%. A failure means a negative attitude, a success a positive reaction. And, making it a little more interesting, I'd vary the result taking into account the NPCs own attitude towards a stranger. Perhaps the NPC is a closed suspicious guy, or a friendly open buddy. So...

CHAx5% Roll

NPC is suspicious:

Critical: Good reaction.

Success: neutral initial reaction.

Failure: bad initial reaction

Fumble: bad, unchangeable reaction.

NPC is neutral or friendly:

Critical: Good, unchangeable reaction.

Succes: Good, initial reaction

Failure: neutral initial reaction.

Fumble: bad initial reaction.

The NPCs attitude could change with further Fast Talk, Oratory or other social skills, increasing or decreasing his reaction between Good, Neutral and Bad.

Edited by el_octogono

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The thing is... do you really need 7 different degrees of reaction? how can you meassure the difference between a good or very good result?

The difference lies in the degree of help you get. If you ask a merchant for a place to stay, a fair result would get you the directions to the nearest inn, a good result would get you directions to the nearest GOOD inn, and an excellent result would get you a personal introduction to the innkeeper or (depending on culture) an invite to stay with the merchant and his family.

Frank

"Welcome to the hottest and fastest-growing hobby of, er, 1977." -- The Laundry RPG
 
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The thing is... do you really need 7 different degrees of reaction? how can you meassure the difference between a good or very good result?

In this case, yes. Because I'm not actually using NPC reactions (I should probably have made that clearer). I'm working on converting over GURPS Powers: Divine Favor and the seven degrees of reaction dictate how the miracles you are praying for will be expressed (as shown below for praying for a non-specific miracle)

Excellent: the god's full power is expressed (parting seas, cracking the ground open to encompass your enemy, raising the dead, etc) which has a life-changing effect for those who witness the event

Very Good: an undeniable miracle occurs

Good: a subtle miracle occurs

Neutral: no miracle, but the priest or target of the prayer would receive a minor blessing

Poor: Nothing happens

Bad: You've upset your god, this is expressed in a non-harmful way and miracles are denied you for a time afterwards

Very Bad: You upset your god in such a way that they smite you (not instant death but that could happen)

So, I thought of using two rolls to do this and have the dual rolls be consulted on the following matrix...

oHLNRkBQce

I know that two rolls for one action might go against the d100 principles but it gives me the spread I'd like to see. What do y'all think of this?

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I think that basically, if you want to port GURPS into d100, you have to change and adapt GURPS rules to the d100, and not the contrary. It is anyway practically almost impossible to keep everything from a system when you port it to another one: you have to make choices and to discard some rules. Especially very simulationist systems cannot be ported without accepting less granularity. This is neither bad nor good, just different.

I don't know GURP, but you may reduce the number of levels, "melting" them together like "Good or "neutral" = success, "Bad" and "Very Bad" = fumble and keeping "Exellent" = critical, "Very Good" = special and "Poor" = failure

If the results are quantified, you may either take the average (e.g. from Excellent and Very Good), or decide according to the requirements of the play, or the quality of the role playing.

Just a suggestion.

Wind on the Steppes, role playing among the steppe Nomads. The  running campaign and the blog

 

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Could the Divine Favour be represented with the Pact skill in Legend? It sounds like it could be portraying the same thing

" Sure it's fun, but it is also well known that a D20 roll and an AC is no match against a hefty swing of a D100% and a D20 Hit Location Table!"

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