Using the Effect of Skill Rolls for the Duration of the Task

allanimal

Mongoose
This sprouted up in another thread:

allanimal said:
CosmicGamer said:
GuernseyMan said:
The one surprise for me is that effect is not used for the timing of skills.
Agreed. From early on I thought such.

I always either forget to do timing rolls or decide based on what would be the most fun at the time.
I like the idea of the timing based on the effect. Fair and only a single die roll.
Maybe 6-effect of the skill roll replaces the timing roll?

GuernseyMan said:
We already use 7-effect.

This means that if you succeed by 0 then it takes you longer than normal. An effect of 6 will take you down to one unit as opposed to no time at all if 6-effect is used.

I find this to be an excellent idea. I always liked that tasks could take a variable amount of time, but thought the two roll method was a clunky concept that I generally forgot to do.

By using GuernseyMan's method, the effect directly influences the duration of a task, which is pretty elegant. Making it one roll is a huge plus to me. Making all tasks have a very obvious use of effect is also nice. I like it.

What do you think? Where are the ugly bits I am missing?
 
The 7- concept is one I was developing too but stalled because of the "ugly bits". One of the ugly bits to consider is how do you handle negative effect? Maybe max time? Maybe longer the worse the effect; but after the typical max time, wouldn't that be considered trying again; or is retrying not allowed?

When I got to Exceptional Failure I started thinking of things like working on something and BAM! An obvious failure. Task from book for Explosives: Disarming a Bomb Equipped with Anti-Tamper Trembler Detonators: Formidable (14+) Explosives check (1D minutes, DEX)..

Roll is an Exceptional Failure. It's possible that in seconds, less than one unit of time, the device blows up in your face because you blundered.

Working on electronics and there is a puff of smoke before you are even half way finished, working on something mechanical and something snaps...
 
Sometimes, a failure is only a failure because of the time constraints; for instance, the algorithm the player rolling computer skill wanted to try would take too long to work in the required time. Their approach can be a failure, but they can still have other approaches to try. With the right GM ruling, a 0 or a -1 might be such an "inadequate success", and might have the players try to buy time or draw out the encounter rather than finding another solution, because there are other fish to fry too.

Rules for "dimensions of success or failure" based on how much each die contributed most to the success or failure of a roll could lend a lot of verisimilitude to roll results.
 
Depends on what you mean by don't have the time. Can vary quite a bit depending on the situation.

A situation such as a timer is ticking on a bomb? If characters are skilled in a task they should have a good idea how long it would take. The referee may need to provide timing feedback if the situation warrants. "John is skilled in demolition. He has practiced on bombs like this and knows there is little chance of disarming the bomb before it goes off."

A situation where the GM has a set plot timing and something is going to happen at time X and the players know nothing about the timing of future events? At time X if the PCs run out of time, they deal with the consequences.
 
Something like a doctor needs to create an antidote before a virus totally takes over one of the characters. The time needed to do it might not be known.
 
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