I definitely prefer roll under, but as high as possible. Mostly because I like to minimize the mechanical discussion as much as possible, and setting difficulties is a bit more rare in percentile, so I can more naturally get the players to roll their skills without breaking the flow. I also really like how transparent percentile systems are. Additionally, I like the fact that you can make crits doubles (33, 66, etc), which is great for making it so that characters who are better critically succeed more, and characters who are worse critically fail more. There are also easy degrees of success (the 10s die is how well you succeeded), and being able to flip the dice for a second result (if needed). All these aspects are very intuitive for players to grasp, and take 0 overhead so they can focus on portraying their character. One thing I love from roll over is being able to have opposed rolls where no matter what someone is taking damage in the turn. It has a better pace to it.
This is a good analysis. Funnily enough, when I first played Call of Cthulhu (d100 roll under) after years of Pathfinder and DnD, I was absolutely flashed by the simplicity of the system. In every system I played before, you had to get a feeling for the game to know how high your chances for success were. For example, in Pathfinder 1e, a +5 at first level might seem like a big bonus, but it´s really not. The DCs are more calculated around PCs specializing, which can give you a +8 (if just building normally) or a +13 if optimizing for a skill. This really irritated me at first, because I had no real way to assess whether my character was good a something besides gut feeling. Now, in CoC, you always know your chances to fail or succeed, even if it is a more difficult check. It´s simple and elegant, and yet provides much room for character growth (as a +1 to a skill in a d100 system only means a fifth of a +1 in a d20 system). Now, at the same time, your argument for roll over (bigger numbers feel like improvement and power) is a view I saw many people share. One person (forgot their name) even made a video about it, saying that Pathfinder 2e got this feeling of progression between levels far better than 5e because they added the character level to all rolls the character is proficient with. So at the beginning, you might have a +7, but you won´t be able to fell the dragon with an AC of 40. At higher level however, this bonus really climbs up, and there´ll be a point where the dragon can reasonably defeated. Enemies you fought before won´t be much of a challenge once you´ve leveled up a few times, unlike 5e, where they´ll still matter. Roll under systems don´t offer these options without making the system far more difficult, unless they´d start working with negative numbers (which would feel REALLY weird). So yeah, a beautiful analysis and a good one at that. I would disagree on the use of roll over for PCs and roll under for the world, though. At least strictly speaking. I think there´s much potential to be had in roll under, because it takes away much of the maths in the game. You´ll have to calculate your skill values before playing, yes, but once in-game, it gets easy and smooth. At the same time, you still see your numbers go up, as your stats will (or should) increase quite a bit over time. If you start with a skill of 40 and end the game with a skill of 90, that´s a big improvement and should feel like one, too. Although this is just theoretically speaking, because I´ve never seen or played a d100 roll under high fantasy system as of yet.
Fantastic share; thank you! And yeah, I normally wouldn't advocate for a game system to mix over/under together. But I play solo (hence the channel title), so I play pretty loose with my approaches. Additionally, based on your way of talking about bonuses & modifiers, I think you might enjoy this other video of mine: ruclips.net/video/4wPIxmCmNQc/видео.html
I'm surprised that you didn't get into how these approaches are effected by wether the system does "modifier math" to the result of the dice roll or to the target number.
Also, players have adds to their throw. A 2nd Level Fighter might add 4 or 5 to his throw. What are the "chances" of rolling over AC12? No way to intuitively tell. Roll under is a simple percentage system. I don't in the least understand why you hate roll low. You're trying to be Number 1!
I definitely prefer roll under, but as high as possible. Mostly because I like to minimize the mechanical discussion as much as possible, and setting difficulties is a bit more rare in percentile, so I can more naturally get the players to roll their skills without breaking the flow. I also really like how transparent percentile systems are. Additionally, I like the fact that you can make crits doubles (33, 66, etc), which is great for making it so that characters who are better critically succeed more, and characters who are worse critically fail more. There are also easy degrees of success (the 10s die is how well you succeeded), and being able to flip the dice for a second result (if needed). All these aspects are very intuitive for players to grasp, and take 0 overhead so they can focus on portraying their character.
One thing I love from roll over is being able to have opposed rolls where no matter what someone is taking damage in the turn. It has a better pace to it.
I've warmed up to d100 roll under as high as possible (which I call "Price Is Right Rolling") since making this.
@@StagRPG Enjoying the videos you've been posting, I look forward to seeing more. We are definitely aligned on a lot of rpg theory.
🙏 Thank you!
This is a good analysis. Funnily enough, when I first played Call of Cthulhu (d100 roll under) after years of Pathfinder and DnD, I was absolutely flashed by the simplicity of the system. In every system I played before, you had to get a feeling for the game to know how high your chances for success were. For example, in Pathfinder 1e, a +5 at first level might seem like a big bonus, but it´s really not. The DCs are more calculated around PCs specializing, which can give you a +8 (if just building normally) or a +13 if optimizing for a skill. This really irritated me at first, because I had no real way to assess whether my character was good a something besides gut feeling. Now, in CoC, you always know your chances to fail or succeed, even if it is a more difficult check. It´s simple and elegant, and yet provides much room for character growth (as a +1 to a skill in a d100 system only means a fifth of a +1 in a d20 system).
Now, at the same time, your argument for roll over (bigger numbers feel like improvement and power) is a view I saw many people share. One person (forgot their name) even made a video about it, saying that Pathfinder 2e got this feeling of progression between levels far better than 5e because they added the character level to all rolls the character is proficient with. So at the beginning, you might have a +7, but you won´t be able to fell the dragon with an AC of 40. At higher level however, this bonus really climbs up, and there´ll be a point where the dragon can reasonably defeated. Enemies you fought before won´t be much of a challenge once you´ve leveled up a few times, unlike 5e, where they´ll still matter. Roll under systems don´t offer these options without making the system far more difficult, unless they´d start working with negative numbers (which would feel REALLY weird).
So yeah, a beautiful analysis and a good one at that. I would disagree on the use of roll over for PCs and roll under for the world, though. At least strictly speaking. I think there´s much potential to be had in roll under, because it takes away much of the maths in the game. You´ll have to calculate your skill values before playing, yes, but once in-game, it gets easy and smooth. At the same time, you still see your numbers go up, as your stats will (or should) increase quite a bit over time. If you start with a skill of 40 and end the game with a skill of 90, that´s a big improvement and should feel like one, too. Although this is just theoretically speaking, because I´ve never seen or played a d100 roll under high fantasy system as of yet.
Fantastic share; thank you! And yeah, I normally wouldn't advocate for a game system to mix over/under together. But I play solo (hence the channel title), so I play pretty loose with my approaches. Additionally, based on your way of talking about bonuses & modifiers, I think you might enjoy this other video of mine: ruclips.net/video/4wPIxmCmNQc/видео.html
@@StagRPG I watched it and you were absolutely right, I enjoyed it very much. Thank you!
🙏
I'm surprised that you didn't get into how these approaches are effected by wether the system does "modifier math" to the result of the dice roll or to the target number.
Because I had a whole separate rant about modifiers. 😂 ruclips.net/video/4wPIxmCmNQc/видео.html
Also, players have adds to their throw. A 2nd Level Fighter might add 4 or 5 to his throw. What are the "chances" of rolling over AC12? No way to intuitively tell. Roll under is a simple percentage system. I don't in the least understand why you hate roll low. You're trying to be Number 1!
I hate modifiers but somehow stay trapped in the roll higher worldview! ruclips.net/video/4wPIxmCmNQc/видео.html