Skills

[enyggma514]

Ok GMs how do you handle skill rolls. Do you roll or do you have the player roll?
I'm used to playing D20 games so I am trying to wrap my head around how to make the skill sytem work. For example do you penalize the roll for situations that are more difficult than normal?

[drewkitty ~..~]

Simple: over the char's skill % fails, tie & under is a success.

more complex:(non-canon) the higher the failed roll the worse the fail with 00 always being a crit fail., the lower the success roll the better the quality of the product.

around a table: the player in the middle of the table
on-line: the player with the dice roller

[Stone Gargoyle]

I use the Critical Failure rule as well.

[Reagren Wright]

I actually give you three chances. If you fail the first time, I'll give you a second
chance with a -5% penalty. If you fail again, I'll give you a third chance with a -10% penalty.
However, only certain skills get a chance at this, if you fail at climbing or say demolitions
(sorry ).

[Veknironth]

Well, I usually let the player roll. There's more a sense of control of your destiny when you have the dice in your hands. However, I don't always go with you having to roll under the number. Sometimes I'll reverse it. For example, if you have a 54% to succeed, you normally have to roll 54 or lower. However, when you reverse it, you have to roll 46 or higher. That way, the player has the chance to roll but doesn't know if he or she succeded. For some skills success will be obvious (picking a lock, swimming, etc.). For others, it might not (language skills, prowl, etc) and you don't want the PC to know with just the dice.

-Vek
"Keep them guessing."

[Stone Gargoyle]

Physical skills I will let them know if they succeed, but some things they might know if they did or not. Imagine doing a forgery roll and coming just over the roll needed and thinking you succeeded.

[Dustin Fireblade]

Ok GMs how do you handle skill rolls. Do you roll or do you have the player roll?
I'm used to playing D20 games so I am trying to wrap my head around how to make the skill sytem work. For example do you penalize the roll for situations that are more difficult than normal?

Usually the player rolls, and yes there can be penalties or bonuses. If you happen to have Rifts Ultimate Edition, there is a very good list in the skills section for various situations.

[enyggma514]

I do have the Rifts UE I'll check it out. Thanks for the help.

[The Dark Elf]

I let the players roll for themselves always.

If the roll is really important (ie one chance only to save the day) whether its combat or skill then I will still let them roll but behind a screen so only I can see the result and reveal it at the most opportune moment for dramatic effect.

It's supposed to be a game of chance so the rolls stand but I will always use GM discresion to "tweak" stats and such ever since we used lvl 1 paralysis bolt on Ceratus Dominus and anti-climaxed(?) the whole adventure.

[Northern Ranger]

Hee hee. How did I handle it? I re-wrote all the skills. And I do mean ALL the skills. I do also use crit failures, and the lower you succeed by, the better the product. I also do versus checks, meaning if the thief is trying to prowl past a guard, he has to beat the guards roll by a wider percentage than the guard succeeded. Does that make sense? I'm a little punch drunk.

[DarkwingDuk]

Like many others I use the critical failure on a rock bottom roll. My players make almost all of the rolls. The only ones I make are the one's that are most commonly metagamed. I make the trap detection rolls, and tell the player how well thier character thinks he did in finding or disarming the trap. Same with perception rolls. It stops the whole I look for traps, shoot I failed the roll, I look again cause I "really" suspect something! Also adds to the suspense when the players think they are walking into an ambush.

[Library Ogre]

As others have mentioned, the system is explicitly roll under. I tend to use what I call the "Price is Right" method, where higher is better, but over is bad... so rolling a 32 is better than rolling a 16, so long as you have at least 32% in the skill. That's not explicit, however, and some people like "The lower your roll, the better you succeeded." I have several reasons why I think this is less intuitive and not as easy to work with.

You are supposed to penalize for bad situations, and add bonuses for good... trying to sneak in a white ninja suit is going to give you penalties, as will trying to pass unnoticed in a black ninja suit with molded lips in the streets of Paris.

[Cybermancer]

As others have mentioned, the system is explicitly roll under. I tend to use what I call the "Price is Right" method, where higher is better, but over is bad... so rolling a 32 is better than rolling a 16, so long as you have at least 32% in the skill. That's not explicit, however, and some people like "The lower your roll, the better you succeeded." I have several reasons why I think this is less intuitive and not as easy to work with.

You are supposed to penalize for bad situations, and add bonuses for good... trying to sneak in a white ninja suit is going to give you penalties, as will trying to pass unnoticed in a black ninja suit with molded lips in the streets of Paris.

I go opposite to the "Price is Right" method. The lower the result, the better the outcome. I don't use critical failures as such but I do use the roll of the dice as a guide in determining my narration of the outcome. So if someone rolls really low I might tell them, "Not only was the task easier than you expected but you finished way ahead of schedule." I've never codified this to any extent but my sense of fairness and my inner rules lawyer thinks I should.

I never tell the players what the modifiers (positive or negative) are going to be so they never really know if they'll be successful. I do tell the players that an action or condition will incur a penalty so that they'll know if it's going to be easier or harder than normal. Usually along the lines of, "Yes, you can attempt to sneak around in your white ninja outfit but it won't be as easy as it was in your black ninja outfit."

[Library Ogre]

I prefer "The Price as Right" because it makes it simpler to adjudicate relative success. If I have a 60%, and you have a 30%, and I roll a 31%, I win. You simply cannot roll that high and succeed. However, if I have a 67%, and you have a 38%, and I roll 58% and you roll 26%, you can figure it out because I am closer... but it takes you a moment, whereas mine is done at a glance.

[Cybermancer]

Don't get me wrong, I get the logic of the "Price is Right" method. I just prefer the opposite way.

[Library Ogre]

Don't roll all the dice for the player... just the ones they aren't going to know the truth of. Tell them "No, I got this one. What's your percentage?"

One thing I've found useful is a program from RPTools. Their dice tool can be used to quickly generate a couple percentages, silently. Ask him "One or two"? He picks which of the two you just rolled he uses, giving him some control... but he doesn't know which.

[Mallak's Place]

generaly In our game the player rolls the die for his skills and he is expeted to react acordingly. if he rolls a 100 for a find traps we expect him to play his caracter as if he checked and didn't find any, if he plays it right that's where he gets the 25xp for skill use

[J. Lionheart]

I give it the best 2 out of 3 on skills. And as far as physical go's, you roll one time (like a back flip). I figure if you have to use say wilderness survival then in such a situation you would have time to slow down and figure it out. But if you are in a situation ware you have to have it done NOW!!!! then you roll one time and sink or swim.

For a person with a skill at less than 50%, needing to roll 2 out of 3 will hurt them, rather than help them. A person with 40% at a skill is significantly more likely to succeed on a single roll than they are on a 2 out of 3 roll.

[Library Ogre]

how manny times should i let them reroll on a skill? I'm pretty sure it depens on the skill, but is there a written rule i didnt read or is it a gm call. And how much time passes between the rolls?

It's all down to GM's call. Sometimes, you might allow an immediate reroll... if they're trying to fix a wagon, and fail, they can try to fix the wagon again. Sometimes, you might not allow a reroll until they have more resources... if they can't read the ancient language the first time, they're not going to learn how to do it in the next 30 seconds... they need things like translation keys or dictionaries. Sometimes, circumstances might need to change... if you fail a prowl roll, you can't check again until you're not being observed (though, I'll hasten to point out, a failed prowl roll does not mean that you're automatically seen).

As for how much time... again, GMs call. It might take six hours to make a wagon-fixing check, a couple hours to translate an ancient document, or less than an action to make a prowl check.