Nuclear Beasts

Tasks Just Too Easy?

One thing I'd have to watch out for is the supposed base difficulty of "4". That honestly probably won't work in the long run. Even in Savage Worlds, where PCs tend to roll a single die and a d6, I've seen folks complaining that unopposed tasks are just too easy.

What could I do to fix this? Let me think...

• Rename the results to Botch (1), Failure (2-3), Partial Success (4-7), Success (8-11), Critical Success (12+). That way, it's implied that you need at least a d8 to really succeed at something, but a d4 can at least give you a "partial" success. I could even keep Extraordinary successes by putting them at 16+ and changing the Rule of Twelve to grant a +4 bonus per extra 12. It's worth considering.
• Apply a lot more penalties... so that Hard (-2) and Very Hard (-4) tasks come up more often... Of course, this kind of loses the whole benefit of having a "default difficulty" if you end up dropping it as soon as the characters start to become more experienced. Is it easier to vary the target number (and subtract it from your result) or to vary the roll (and subtract it from the number rolled) but leave the target numbers the same? Mathematically, of course, it's identical.
• Bump the default difficulty up to 6 (about where it is in Ironclaw). Then the results would be Botch (1-2), Failure (3-5), Tie (6), Success (7-9), Critical Success (10-13), Extra (14+). Ugh, I don't like those numbers. That's really ugly, although it does mean that you can't score an Extra without bonuses or rolling multiple natural 12s.
• Dump the "default" and just let the GM set the target numbers appropriately. As the PCs get more experienced, the target numbers go up...
• Expand the results. 4-5: partial success, 6-7: success, 8-9: critical success, 10-11: extraordinary success, 12-13: extra², 14-15: extra³, etc.. Basically, I'd probably dump the "word" labels and say that you get 1 success for every 2 points that you beat the target by, instead of every 4. Is it worth it to have 5 success levels (0 to 4 successes) for typical rolls instead of just 3 (1 to 3 successes)?