Topic: "Take the 50"

[Thot]

There's a thing I like to do in my games: Offer players options to de-randomize situations. For RM, I call this "take the 50". This just means: Don't roll the dice, just take 50 as a result - for instance, on your attack roll. This generally works excellently, especially for unimportant NPC's, but I haven't tried it with critical hits yet (where it would mean to have one fixed mediocre but guaranteed effect from a critical hit if the attacker so desires), but I believe it would actually work fine for some situations (and as the GM, I can always have NPC's not use it when things get sluggish).

This works better in RM than in many other games, actually, because RM's beautiful roll-over mechanic is a lot less binary than most "you made it" systems.

[terefang]

D20 has a similar mechanic "take 10", and "take 20" under certain circumstances.

Your reasoning is perfectly valid, and the speedup for greater number of npcs is significant.

you might want to consider a "take 25" and/or "take 75" mechanic with certain implications.

eg. combat roll "Take 75" and critical is "Take 25" variation (or vis versa).

[jdale]

Personally, I would follow d20's rule and not allow it during high tension circumstances like combat. But a take 50 rule seems reasonable for lower stress circumstances and routine skill use. Rolling everything takes up time and can create critical failures more than expected.

[Hurin]

Yes, it might be especially useful for low level characters (in non combat situations) to use their skills, given how partial successes can often give a partial success on just a 76. That would mean you just need to get to +26 skill in order to be competent (if slow) in a skill outside of combat situations.

[Ginger McMurray]

I tend to be in the "only call for a roll if it matters" camp. That alleviates the need for take 10 and take 50 most of the time.

I'd definitely never allow either in the midst of combat or some other stressful situation.

[tbigness]

I like the randomness of the rolls as they enhance the events especially on the extreme of critical success and critical failures. IT has put my campaign  in different light. a routine fording across the river became get the cleric out of the water before he drowns.... Much fun there....

[Thot]

Interesting. While "take the 50" eliminates the risk of fumbles, it also eliminates the chance for open-ended rolls, which in my view balances out. Still, many of you seem to prefer to limit "take the 50" to non-combat situations.

I decidedly think that this rule is just as fine for combat with a roll-over system, especially RM, where I can, as an attacker and defender, react to roll results that derive from this and thus keep things exciting.