[Design] Why random rolls?

[Lev Lafayette]

What function does the random roll have in skill
resolution? What range should that roll be?

Some games, like Amber (obvious example) are
'diceless' which means that unless a character uses
some director's stance technique (amusingly described
as "bullying the GM") a character of skill 19 will
*always* lose to a character of skill 20.

Clearly this should not always be the case. But by the
same token (and this is based on witnessing
yesterday's game) I don't know whether it is necessary
for a character to make a language skill roll on each
piece of text that they read.

Think also in terms of scale of the random effect.
Take for example the Cyberpunk system where skill
rolls are STAT (normal range 1-10) + SKILL (normal
range 1-10) + RANDOM (1d10). Compare this to d20
systems where the nominal range is 1-20 (stat plus
skill) plus 1-20 for the skills roll. (i.e., 1/3 to
1/2 effective input of the random roll).

How much effect should 'randomness' has then
resolution of skills?


Lev


		
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