Common & Uncommon Actions Characters Attempt

[captaincrumbcake]

There is a discussion over at DF ( www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3180&p=1823516#p1823516 ) discussing the chances of non-thief characters doing things like, climbing, hiding, etc. I was attracted to the thread because I recently was contemplating something along the same lines. But in a simple, ODD way.

First, are the "actions" a character may wish to attempt. Regardless of class, things like trying to scale a wall, climb a tree, jump a stream, walk a rope bridge, reach a set of keys on the ground or on a wall peg, using another object (stick, stave, etc.) from behind bars, swing on a rope across a pit a la Indiana Jones, and so on, are likely to come up from time to time. Whatever the action is, it is best IMO to keep the determination factor simple. That is the job of the GM/DM/Referee. 

Further dickering around with this idea led me to the 2 principle factors the ref should consider--1. Degree of Difficulty, and 2. How to determine this randomly in a dungeon. The former is intended for the ref to have a clear picture of what is being attempted, and all circumstances  that might affect the outcome. The latter, is a simple way to randomly determine such difficulty in a dungeon setting, according to the actual dungeon level.

I DEGREE OF ACTION DIFFICULTY

Action                  Chance to Succeed
Very Easy................  1-8/d 12
Easy/Simple............  1-6/d 12
Some effort............   1-5/d 12
Difficult/challenge....   1-3/d 12
Very difficult/complex  1-2/d 12
Nearly impossible.... . 1/d 12

II DIFFICULTY BY DUNGEON LEVEL (use d 12)*

Very Easy..................L1/1-3
Easy/Simple..............L1/4-6
Some effort.............. L1/7-8
Difficult/challenge..... L1/9-10
Very Difficult............ L1/11
Nearly Impossible..... L1/12

* One could use any die (10/20) and design the range you felt best represents the difficulty factor. The above is just an example.

I'm not sure how others bitd determined how to deal with such things, but I find the above to have a simple, workable approach.
Let me know if any of you have something similar, or otherwise, and how it works for you.

[Mighty Darci]

I like this captaincrumbcake, as a house rule it looks like it work well. I would tweak it as follows:

I DEGREE OF ACTION DIFFICULTY



Action Chance to Succeed

Very Easy................ 1-11/d 12

Easy/Simple............ 1-9/d 12

Some effort............ 1-7/d 12

Difficult/challenge.... 1-4/d 12

Very difficult/complex 1-2/d 12

Nearly impossible.... . 1/d 12



On the second chart I am not sure how you are intending it to be used.

[captaincrumbcake]

Mar 4, 2017 16:51:26 GMT -5 Mighty Darci said:

I like this captaincrumbcake , as a house rule it looks like it work well. I would tweak it as follows:

I DEGREE OF ACTION DIFFICULTY



Action Chance to Succeed

Very Easy................ 1-11/d 12

Easy/Simple............ 1-9/d 12

Some effort............ 1-7/d 12

Difficult/challenge.... 1-4/d 12

Very difficult/complex 1-2/d 12

Nearly impossible.... . 1/d 12



On the second chart I am not sure how you are intending it to be used.

The 2nd chart shows range spreads of difficulty as randomly encountered upon a dungeon level. In the example, it shows the Ref that on a d 12 roll of 9-10, the difficulty of attempting the action on the 1st level of a dungeon to be Difficult/challenge... In other words, it is a random way to determine such difficulty degrees for actions attempted as characters roam a dungeon. On level 2, the odds of the action being a certain difficulty would be adjusted in ranges to lean less toward easy and more toward challenging types.

Though a skilled Ref would likely need only use the first table; already knowing in totality all the circumstances surrounding the action.

[tetramorph]

I like what I learned from waysoftheearth for these kinds of things.

He bases it upon the core d6 exploration mechanics already assumed in the game.

Easy 2-6
Likely 3-6
Unlikely 5-6
Hard 6

BTW, for whatever it's worth, I gave up thieves in my campaign. All 3 core classes can be thieves! It is a matter of role play not mechanics.

[captaincrumbcake]

Mar 5, 2017 10:34:20 GMT -5 tetramorph said:

I like what I learned from waysoftheearth for these kinds of things.

He bases it upon the core d6 exploration mechanics already assumed in the game.

Easy 2-6
Likely 3-6
Unlikely 5-6
Hard 6

BTW, for whatever it's worth, I gave up thieves in my campaign. All 3 core classes can be thieves! It is a matter of role play not mechanics.

D 6 is fine. Whatever one prefers, and all that.

Also, I would prefer a "Thief" free campaign, myself. I believe there is room for a 4th, 5th, etc., class; just not a thief. I'm leaning toward a Scrounger. Perhaps able to do a little combat, some low level spell reading from scrolls (only), ability to create make-do weapons from bits and scraps for extreme situations. A very generally (but low) skilled type. Still kicking it around.

[captaincrumbcake]

My support of the D12 over the D6 in this mechanic.

While the D6 "core" Tetramorph refers to (suggested by Waysoftheearth) is easily useable, I prefer the D12 for this reason:



D6: Hard = 6 on a  D6 is actually a 16.6% chance of success.


The Nearly Impossible on a D12: = an 8.3% chance of success.


When I think of something being very hard to do, or nearly impossible, I personally equate such to a 10% or less chance of success.


So, it's just my own sense of determining degrees of difficulty, according to my own personal preference. 

Everyone's will likely be different, while some might share similar "goal lines."

So, it's really left to the Ref, as it should be.

Just wanted to make clear why I chose the D12; beside the fact that it gets such little use/attention! 

[Deleted]

I like the difficulty range bands. The table is very intuitive and reminds me a lot of WEG's Star Wars. I'm not sure how I feel about having scaling tables based on dungeon level to randomly determine how difficult the action is. Part of me likes to keep monsters scaled to dungeon levels, but nothing else—I like it when high-level characters still have to put effort and caution into exploring the upper levels, even though the enemies themselves are pushovers. I'd be inclined to try something like this:

Randomly determined difficulty (d6)
The action is typically simple to perform:
1-3 Easy
4-5 Moderate
6 Difficult

The action is typically of moderate challenge:
1 Easy
2-4 Moderate
5 Difficult
6 Very difficult

The action is typically difficult to perform:
1 Easy
2 Moderate
3-4 Difficult
5 Very difficult
6 Nearly impossible

The action is typically very difficult:
1 Moderate
2 Difficult
3-5 Very difficult
6 Nearly impossible

The action deserves to be written down in song:
1 Difficult
2 Very difficult
3-6 Nearly impossible


As an aside, I've become a big fan of the single 'roll a normal 6-sided die' mechanic as well, but I do occasionally alter it in the moment to a D10, D12, D20 or D100 if I feel that the extra granularity helps. D12s are great because they're basically D6s with half-pips, and they get used so rarely they might as well still be considered 'unusual'.

[mao]

I think the best way of handling this would be to make saving throws based on ability scores

[mao]

Mar 5, 2017 10:34:20 GMT -5 tetramorph said:

I like what I learned from waysoftheearth for these kinds of things.

He bases it upon the core d6 exploration mechanics already assumed in the game.

Easy 2-6
Likely 3-6
Unlikely 5-6
Hard 6

BTW, for whatever it's worth, I gave up thieves in my campaign. All 3 core classes can be thieves! It is a matter of role play not mechanics.

Doesnt matter what char class you play, everyone is also a thief

[hengest]

Jan 11, 2018 18:32:52 GMT -5 mao said:

Mar 5, 2017 10:34:20 GMT -5 tetramorph said:

I like what I learned from waysoftheearth for these kinds of things.

He bases it upon the core d6 exploration mechanics already assumed in the game.

Easy 2-6
Likely 3-6
Unlikely 5-6
Hard 6

BTW, for whatever it's worth, I gave up thieves in my campaign. All 3 core classes can be thieves! It is a matter of role play not mechanics.

Doesnt matter what char class you play, everyone is also a thief

Is this kind of a la Conan the Barbarian?