When working on 5e, we decided to tilt accuracy in favor of characters but increase monster hit points a bit to make combat last a few rounds. People liked the feel of hitting more often, even if their damage as a percentage of monster HP was a little lower. (1/?)
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
The feeling of progress helped make combat feel like it was moving along toward a conclusion. Even though flat damage is easier and faster, people like rolling. A game designer would say rolling to hit and damage is bad, because two random events are creating one outcome.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
Boiling it down to one roll might seem more efficient, but that forgets that TRPGs are descriptive rules sets. They reflect the vagaries of how humans process and enjoy narrative events in a game setting. They don’t dictate how we enjoy them.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
And believe me, this makes many, many TRPG designers frustrated. A game’s design accounts for maybe 25% of your enjoyment of an RPG. But that’s another thread – we’re talking here about why you roll to hit and then roll for damage. Why do people like that?
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
I suspect it’s because the roll to hit is very dramatic, but giving someone one beat on their turn is a little too compact. Did we succeed? Yes, great! How well did we do? It’s a little, two act play that lingers just long enough to keep our attention.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
Complex damage math likely means a big damage result, which is fun and dramatic enough to earn its time on stage. The huge damage rolls dished out by @JoeManganiello in our F&M game did not seem to bore the table – if anything, the players were excited to see the damage pile up.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
What’s interesting is that we don’t extend this to skill checks, and I wonder if that is a mistake. So, here is a house rule to try:
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
Scale your DCs down by 5, but if a player succeeds have them roll a d10. The result * 10 is the percent of progress the player makes toward success. For complex checks that require multiple successes or teamwork, roll d4 * 10 instead.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
For opposed checks, the winner rolls d10, first to 10 wins. This is like almost off the top of my head (started really zeroing in on this concept an hour ago, while washing dishes). I’m curious to see if this two step approach makes checks more fun.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
If you try it, let me know how it works out.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
Also, the next time someone asks you to wash the dishes instead of grumping about it instead think of it as a chance to zone out and think of the next half-baked TRPG design idea you’re going to throw up on Twitter.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
That would make it seem that basically 90% of skill challenges wont result in the completion of the task, unless I am missing something? That is the intent! However, if that proves bogus one fix is to add the relevant stat mod to the d10 roll, then multiply by 10. The nice thing about that is you might get extra benefits for busting over 100% completion.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
Would we then extend critical successes and failures into skill checks, as they factor into the "did we succeed" and "how well" considerations during combat?
— rob (@magreggins) August 5, 2018
I’d definitely consider it, with crit failures meaning we need to make more progress (or lose progress). That’s nice, because saying in combat a monster heals on a nat 1 is pretty dumb but 100% sensible from a game design POV. https://t.co/XEzzrm5LjW
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
I’m curious how this would work for stealth checks or other on-the-fly tasks
— Sexual Colossus (@Mbtgkt) August 5, 2018
Off the top of my head: the environment inately provides some % of success toward being hidden. Sensing – 50% they can hear you, know you are present, 100% locate you and pull you out of stealth. https://t.co/uzT9JPZnLu
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018
First to 10 including modifier? maybe, if testing shows it drags adding mod is a sensible next step
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) August 5, 2018