So I’ve been thinking a lot about skill checks in Ziggurat. I was going to make a video about it, but after working on a few drafts, I realized that I wouldn’t have a whole lot to say that hasn’t already been covered.
I’m a little concerned about the high randomness of skill checks in Ziggurat. The only factor that you can use in advance to determine whether you will succeed in a skill check is your modifier, which is either +0, +1, or +2. Not a lot of variety there. As I pointed out in another thread with my spreadsheet, unless you have a +2 modifier, there is a high probability of failure.
I like the Grit rules, and that helps a little bit, you have to miss a lot of checks before your grit is high enough to be useful. And I know you can burn equipment, but that decision needs to be made in advance, so you still don’t know whether it will help, and equipment is pretty rare already.
So what I’m trying to say is that it doesn’t feel like you have a lot of control over your skill checks. They just feel too difficult.
Contrast that with Dungeons and Dragons for example. In D&D, the game master or designer chooses a fixed target value for the Action score (they call it the Difficulty Class, or DC). Usually the player has a clue what the DC for any given check is, so he has a good idea whether he’ll succeed or not. In addition, a lot of D&D scenarios offer multiple paths, so the player can choose which skill is tested. Plus, D&D games typically feature multiple players, so if a given skill check seems unlikely for one character, maybe another character can try instead. Plus, D&D has you roll a d20, which gives you a lot more range to work with.
I’m not saying that Ziggurat should adopt D&D rules. I think the skill checks in Ziggurat are innovative. It’s neat that in a Tally skill check, you use the actual Fate dice value(s) toward the tally. Thematically, if your chance of success is high (e.g. your modifier is +2), then range of values on your Fate dice that contribute to the tally is also higher. D&D requires you to roll separate and unrelated dice to determine the tally value.
The other thing is that even with a weak hit, you still might be punished. For example, in the Temple Ruins (J1) reveal, a weak hit has you take D4 damage. That seems harsh.
So anyway, I came up with a method to address this. I haven’t play tested this, so maybe it’s a terrible idea. Instead of of always using D6/2D8 for skill checks, maybe offer an “easy mode” where the player rolls D8/2D10 instead. There’s still a chance of outright failure if your roll low on the D8, but it’s a more reasonable chance IMHO.
The only drawback to this plan is that if you roll an 8 on the D8 and your modifier is +2, then you could roll as high as a 9 on the D10s, which is a huge tally amount. So another idea would be to still cap the Action score at 8. You’re just slightly decreasing the chance of really bad roll.
So to summarize the “easy mode” options:
- D8/2D10 with no cap
- D8/2D10 with cap of 8 on the Action Score (Edit: I think this one is actually harder)
- D8/2D8 with cap of 8 on the Action Score
