Rules for completing tasks of varying difficulty?

[Colt47]

Has anyone created their own house rules for dealing with activities of different difficulty? No matter how many times I go through playing the Palladium system, it feels like an exercise of futility at early levels to use any skill that has a percentage chance of success below 50%, and it's something that does bother me, especially when new players ask the same exact question regarding the system. I understand the logic used for making this percentage system, in that certain skills are going to be more difficult to perform and are more complex than others, but given how the leveling system works officially (which is slow as molasses), and the skill percentages I'm on the side of the new players.

Right now I'm thinking that I'll just switch over to a point based skill system and have all the skills start at the same level. That way it makes it a bit easier to deal with different task complexity.

[flatline]

Has anyone created their own house rules for dealing with activities of different difficulty? No matter how many times I go through playing the Palladium system, it feels like an exercise of futility at early levels to use any skill that has a percentage chance of success below 50%, and it's something that does bother me, especially when new players ask the same exact question regarding the system. I understand the logic used for making this percentage system, in that certain skills are going to be more difficult to perform and are more complex than others, but given how the leveling system works officially (which is slow as molasses), and the skill percentages I'm on the side of the new players.

Right now I'm thinking that I'll just switch over to a point based skill system and have all the skills start at the same level. That way it makes it a bit easier to deal with different task complexity.

I find the FUDGE system to have the most elegant way of handling this issue.

--flatline

[Colt47]

Has anyone created their own house rules for dealing with activities of different difficulty? No matter how many times I go through playing the Palladium system, it feels like an exercise of futility at early levels to use any skill that has a percentage chance of success below 50%, and it's something that does bother me, especially when new players ask the same exact question regarding the system. I understand the logic used for making this percentage system, in that certain skills are going to be more difficult to perform and are more complex than others, but given how the leveling system works officially (which is slow as molasses), and the skill percentages I'm on the side of the new players.

Right now I'm thinking that I'll just switch over to a point based skill system and have all the skills start at the same level. That way it makes it a bit easier to deal with different task complexity.

I find the FUDGE system to have the most elegant way of handling this issue.

--flatline

Just looked up that RPG and the continuous use of the word Fudge is making me want to go raid the local downtown dessert shop.

[Killer Cyborg]

Has anyone created their own house rules for dealing with activities of different difficulty? No matter how many times I go through playing the Palladium system, it feels like an exercise of futility at early levels to use any skill that has a percentage chance of success below 50%, and it's something that does bother me, especially when new players ask the same exact question regarding the system. I understand the logic used for making this percentage system, in that certain skills are going to be more difficult to perform and are more complex than others, but given how the leveling system works officially (which is slow as molasses), and the skill percentages I'm on the side of the new players.

I just add whatever circumstance bonus/penalty seems appropriate.
One important thing to keep in mind, though, is that you only need to actually roll skill checks when something unusual or difficult is being attempted.
If you're trying to Prowl past a half-asleep guard who's facing the other way, you don't really need to roll a skill check.
If you're driving down the highway in moderate traffic, you don't really need to roll a skill check.

[Colt47]

Has anyone created their own house rules for dealing with activities of different difficulty? No matter how many times I go through playing the Palladium system, it feels like an exercise of futility at early levels to use any skill that has a percentage chance of success below 50%, and it's something that does bother me, especially when new players ask the same exact question regarding the system. I understand the logic used for making this percentage system, in that certain skills are going to be more difficult to perform and are more complex than others, but given how the leveling system works officially (which is slow as molasses), and the skill percentages I'm on the side of the new players.

I just add whatever circumstance bonus/penalty seems appropriate.
One important thing to keep in mind, though, is that you only need to actually roll skill checks when something unusual or difficult is being attempted.
If you're trying to Prowl past a half-asleep guard who's facing the other way, you don't really need to roll a skill check.
If you're driving down the highway in moderate traffic, you don't really need to roll a skill check.

Right, but what is a challenging task for a person at level 6 vs a person at level 1 and why would the person at level 6 be any better off facing his challenge compared to the level 1 facing his challenge? If we follow the rules as written, the person at level 6 will ALWAYS be better at completing his challenges than the level 1 character is at completing his own challenges, even though the said challenges could be on completely different levels.

I have this odd feeling that this has been discussed before, actually.

[Killer Cyborg]

Has anyone created their own house rules for dealing with activities of different difficulty? No matter how many times I go through playing the Palladium system, it feels like an exercise of futility at early levels to use any skill that has a percentage chance of success below 50%, and it's something that does bother me, especially when new players ask the same exact question regarding the system. I understand the logic used for making this percentage system, in that certain skills are going to be more difficult to perform and are more complex than others, but given how the leveling system works officially (which is slow as molasses), and the skill percentages I'm on the side of the new players.

I just add whatever circumstance bonus/penalty seems appropriate.
One important thing to keep in mind, though, is that you only need to actually roll skill checks when something unusual or difficult is being attempted.
If you're trying to Prowl past a half-asleep guard who's facing the other way, you don't really need to roll a skill check.
If you're driving down the highway in moderate traffic, you don't really need to roll a skill check.

Right, but what is a challenging task for a person at level 6 vs a person at level 1 and why would the person at level 6 be any better off facing his challenge compared to the level 1 facing his challenge?

The challenging tasks would be the same.
The person at level 6 would just be more likely to succeed at it.

If we follow the rules as written, the person at level 6 will ALWAYS be better at completing his challenges than the level 1 character is at completing his own challenges, even though the said challenges could be on completely different levels.

You lost me in there somewhere.

[Colt47]

What I'm basically saying is that what is challenging to a newbie is going to be completely different to what is challenging to someone with experience.

For example, a challenging task for a beginner at computer programming could be writing up a calculator program, while a challenging task for someone who is experienced is writing a simulation for a shopping center. Following the logic in the system and what you stated, the experienced person would have an easier time accomplishing his challenge than the beginner would have completing his challenge: The skill system has no way to differentiate the true difficulty level of individual tasks.

[Killer Cyborg]

What I'm basically saying is that what is challenging to a newbie is going to be completely different to what is challenging to someone with experience.

Right- but only because the more experienced person has a greater skill percentage.

For example, a challenging task for a beginner at computer programming could be writing up a calculator program, while a challenging task for someone who is experienced is writing a simulation for a shopping center. Following the logic in the system and what you stated, the experienced person would have an easier time accomplishing his challenge than the beginner would have completing his challenge: The skill system has no way to differentiate the true difficulty level of individual tasks.

Again, the only difference would be the percentage.
If for some reason you would have to make the roll, they'd both roll for both tasks.

I mean, it's not like an experienced gunman gets any kind of "this is easy for me because I'm a pro" bonuses in addition to his bonuses to strike (etc.).
Why would it be different for other skills?

[ZorValachan]

If you want both difficult/easy modifiers for % and d20 checks, as well as letting % go above 100 (with 99-00 failing), in order that your lvl 6 guy is better than your lvl 1 guy in difficult situations, check out Rifter #51 "Mundane Doesn't Mean Boring". It is focused on BTS2, but these rules work in all PB systems. I am the author, so it is a plug Simple weather modifiers too.

Also, 'newer' main books such as RUE do have a sampling of negative modifiers for difficult things before the skill descriptions.

[Colt47]

If you want both difficult/easy modifiers for % and d20 checks, as well as letting % go above 100 (with 99-00 failing), in order that your lvl 6 guy is better than your lvl 1 guy in difficult situations, check out Rifter #51 "Mundane Doesn't Mean Boring". It is focused on BTS2, but these rules work in all PB systems. I am the author, so it is a plug Simple weather modifiers too.

Also, 'newer' main books such as RUE do have a sampling of negative modifiers for difficult things before the skill descriptions.

That sounds like what I'm looking for.