A Better Way to Handle Timing and Effect?

[Supplement Four]

I just posted in another thread a raw idea that I think might solve a few issues people are having with Mongoose Traveller. Namely, the T/E mechanic and the stat bloat issue.

Here's a direct quote from my post in the other thread. This is a raw idea. It needs work. But, it could be viable.

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(Quote from other thread)

If it were my system, I'd ditch the T/E mechanic and find some way to use a character's stat to influence Timing and Effect.

That way, the character's stat will effect the outcome of the roll without stat bloat and overpowering the effect of the character's skill.

Plus, the controversial T/E Mechanic would go away, it's problems with it, but the function the T/E Mechanic serves will still be there.

When I talk about professional game designers turning out work that is superior and not just "good enough", this is the type of thing I'm talking about. Using a character's stat this way solves a lot of problems.

How to do it? Well, I'm not going to figure it out because I know it will be ignored. But, yeah, I bet if someone cared, this idea of mine could be turned into something useful for MGT.

Heck, if they fixed things like that, I might just reverse my opinion on the game, and then shell out the buckaroos to buy the thing when it comes out.

I won't hold my breath, though.



EDIT: BTW, one thought on how to do this.... You'd have to change the T/E numbers a bit, but they'd still mean the same thing. Once the roll is made, the player could choose between the sum of the natural 2D roll (no modifiers) and his stat as either the timing or effect.

So, if a character has a Stat-7 governing a task for which he rolls a total of 5 on 2D (do not count modifiers, only the dice), then he can pick either the 7 or the 5 as his timing or his effect.

What would need to be done is to re-scale the T/E Mechanic. Different values but some idea and implementation. Maybe base it on 15 instead of 6.

(Off Quote from other thread.)
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Like I said, it's raw, and it needs work. The kinks need to be worked out. But, you see the main idea, yes?

It seems logical to me that a character's stat would be used for timing and effect on task rolls anyway instead of a blanket DM.

I'd remove the Stat DMs and use stats in some fashion as displayed above.

This way:

1. Stats (natural ability) will not overpower trained experience (skills). No more having your stat DM the largest DM you use on a task.

2. The T/E Mechanic is still used but arrived at in a different way (Stat vs. 2D throw rather than die vs. die).



Any thoughts on this? You think its crap? You think it could be worked on to become a better mechanic for MGT?

Comments?

 

[Klaus Kipling]

It's still going to have the statistical problem that where hard tasks that are successful it will have a greater 'effect' than easy tasks.

If, say, 11 was considered to be a 'great success', someone with an 11+ stat could garrantee a 'great success' every time they succeeded.

And with a Timing routinely higher than 6 then there's even more bookkeeping to do. That's Snapshot Action Point territory.

 

[Sturn]

Since the T/E is going to be kept in MGT, I would be reluctant to use any system where timing goes beyond 1-6. Why? I want to use tiny D6s to sit by minis or players to indicate their initiative. I don't have a ton of tiny D20's

It sounds like the 3.2 T/E has already been altered to include an open-ended effect at least. I don't imagine with only a few days left it is going to change again.

I still think I will be house-ruling a reverse T/E - lower is better for T and E which solves the stats, and reducing abject/exceptional to 6 and 1.

 

[Supplement Four]

Stat bloat isn't addressed, though, so MGT will still have the stat bloat.

Using stats for T/E could be easily used as a higher-is-better, or a lower-is-better.

And, if smaller numbers (1-6) are required, something like 2D roll minus stat could be used as T/E.



Oh well, I'm not going to work on this idea. I'm sure it could be used to cure stat bloat and replace the T/E mechanic (if worked on and thought about properly), but I believe the effort would be wasted.

 

[Sturn]

Stat bloat isn't addressed, though, so MGT will still have the stat bloat.

Currently my house rule list has what I think I grabbed from one of your old posts to cure stat bloat - Get rid of the attribute DM table. Compare the natural roll to the attribute, if equal to or lower then it, apply an additional +1DM to the task roll. I think that works wonderful. It even cures the fact that currently attributes 6-8 are all equal (stuff like that leads to players attempting to min/max).

 

[Supplement Four]

Currently my house rule list has what I think I grabbed from one of your old posts to cure stat bloat - Get rid of the attribute DM table. Compare the natural roll to the attribute, if equal to or lower then it, apply an additional +1DM to the task roll. I think that works wonderful. It even cures the fact that currently attributes 6-8 are all equal (stuff like that leads to players attempting to min/max).

Yep. That's not quite from one of my old posts, though. It's from the task system I wrote for use with Classic Traveller almost two years ago.

It's called the Universal Game Mechanic. Basically, the MGT task system is a clone of the UGM, except that it handles stats differently. So, as you've said, it's easy to trash the MGT stat table and use the UGM mechanic instead.

There are more things about the UGM that you might be interested in. Things like...

1.  It can be used inter-changeably with MT material (provides like results to MT tasks)
2.  Critical Success is hard to achieve the harder the task.
3.  Critical Success is easier to achieve the more skilled the character.
4.  Critical Failure is easier to avoid the easier the task.
5.  Critical Failure is easier to avoid the more skilled the character.
6.  As you say, each level of stat is addressed (not stat groupings like MGT)

There are other things about it, but you get the idea. The UGM should work well grafted to MGT since, basically, they're the same mechanic except for how stats are addressed (and things like Critical Success/Failure).

If you want more info on the UGM, see this CotI forum page.