Hi everyone,
Through the decades RM has struggled with a problem to my eyes:
What to do about normal activities that everyman should know, but involve a bit of risk and you don’t have that skill.
Lets imagine a magician with Ag 90 (for the sweet direct spell bonus, what an agile guy, 90th percentile dude, elite soldier stat) and he has climb a tree with some lower branches to escape some Wargs.
He did not put any ranks in climbing (he has other priorities) so he gets a -25 on the roll, his 90 gives him +10 (RM2), +15(SS/FRP), +24(RMU). If we suggest the the maneuver is of the rutine kind, he gets +30 on the roll in RMU, has to reach 41 or better in SS and RM2 (since the Movement Maneuver table is in use in both).
RM2: 70%
SS/FRP: 75%
RMU: 29%
This person is on top of their game physically but can't climb a tree with any security, especially not in RMU, which ditched the Movement Maneuver table.
I feel the three lowest tiers in the MM table were designed to make untrained attempts easier, since there is a severe cut off for medium difficulty (40 points).
Another example would be with Joe Average the Fighter with Ag 50.
RM2: 60%
SS/FRP: 60%
RMU: 5% 😛
This does not feel right at all!!! So what is my solution?
### Rudimentary Rolls (RRs)
I think it would be desirable to have a 85-90%% chance of success for the elite guy. Is there anything in the system for that? Yes, RRs in practice are stat check’s for Co, In, Em, Sd and Pr. So I use the RR table/procedure (success threshold 50 instead of 110 (RM2/SS) or 100 (RMU) for Stat-based Maneuvers and increase the difficulty by two steps (light/+10 in this case) and remove the -25 penalty (for everyman skills, as I call them history aware:), so I get:
Elite guy:
RM2: 70%
RMSS: 75%
RMU: 85% (yes!!!!!)
Regular guy:
RM2: 60%
SS/FRP: 60%
RMU: 60%
I think this is acceptable as far as the chances are concerned. So why develop a skill, one might ask. To get really good and to get the +20 (two degrees of difficulty better) advantage.
So you might argue that the player should have put a rank in Climbing. Yes he could but a system should not permit the player to create an impossible character. Just imagine my player forgot to buy ranks in Jumping but is quite ok at climbing, suddenly he can’t jump a 5’ chasm (like Pippin could in Moria). Lets say the is a easy maneuver. That is nonsensical and we should have a procedure for these situations, especially in RM2 where there is no category bonus that helps us out a bit and even more especially in RMU where there is not even an adjusted MM table on top of it.
Weight-lifting, Climbing, Running, Jumping, Acrobatics and so on come to mind imidiatly. It could also be used for recalling stuff (Me), checking logic (Re) and such. Also some cultures could have a set of skills that you can RR-check, if you have no skills, since these things permiate your society (like me and soccer, I sure don’t have that on my Character Sheet even though I’m sure a bit better than people from a non-soccer playing culture)
That was a long one. Hope someone made it to the end.