Sure, I just figure no system needs to be completely universal and if someone finds that what I described works for them regardless of numbers of players then all good.
It’s like, people seem to feel obligated to rag on the way other people use systems when it’s something they don’t need to deal with, ever.
I don’t get that, I guess.
the few times I have “DMed”, I have used a system of; 75-100 being a crit (and thus, normally has the mob focus its attacks on the person who crit it), 25-74 just being a hit and anything below 25 is a miss.
I then also used to use a hit point and “bleed” system where when you lost a set amount of HP, you started bleeding which would get worse and worse with the more damage you took (bleed would do an amount of damage every turn).
Wow hardcore!!!
So, to start with. Outside of WoW I am running by now three different weekly DnD campaigns, though they are using homebrew rules that bring 5E closer to feel and flavour of World of Warcraft as that is setting for the campaigns I run. I quiet a lot see people bring systems very clearly inspired by 5E and DnD in general without much thought put into the numbers.
Let’s take a fairly well made rogue in DnD on rather low level - 5th. Such character will have something along the lines of +9 or +10 to his Stealth rolls. And it is not a massive investment from them though it should also be stated that rouges are the skill monkeys so perhaps for comparison, any other class is likely to have +6 or +7 to their attacks and skills that they are good at. From my experience very few guilds give bonuses which are that high. And we are still talking about using D20, numbers can be scaled up or down depending on dice size.
Why does it matter? Low level enemies will have armour rarely reaching into 16s and passive perception rarely above 15. It means that most of the time Heroes have around 70% chance (give or take 10-15%) chance to succeed on whatever they are doing. At least from my experience most WoW DM-ing is closer to 50%.
Another aspect that is often overlooked is how magic is handled in DnD, and I am not talking here about things that are specific to the settings of DnD - but let’s just say that 5E in it’s base form is by no means setting neutral system. Most mages I know are fairly happy to crack up a portal just like that, and even not mage focused guilds quiet often though not always of course, take portals for granted. Something easy to make. In DnD most basic portal is 5th level spell which means you need character of at least 9th (out of 20) level. And it can be reasonable in the eyes of role players to have character of such high level and highier. But in DnD terms a party of 9th level characters can eat an adult dragon for breakfast. Martial characters at that point slowly start to resemble player characters from WoW (PvE aspect of things) in terms of things they can pull off. And I’d argue most people don’t play martial characters like that. So if you copy DnD you are basically looking to provide a game that makes characters of wildly different levels feel relevant. And that is just not what DnD is made to handle.
If someone is looking to implement a system more complex… but at the same time more understandable than roll a number that DM chose in arbitrary fashion based on how he sees your character - I am not saying DnD is bad idea. It can definitely be a great source of inspiration. However you should have understanding of not just the rules but also of why rules are the way they are.
For people looking for more free flow Role Play… Perhaps FATE might be good place to start their search.
Side Note:
I am curious how RP would look like in something I would call… Hybrid Model. Where some events are had in game for certain aspects
of in game RP while events that are more closed off and relay on exploration and combat would be taken to place like Roll20 to use handcrafted maps and use a full on RPG system like DnD. Obviously it would require very specific kinds of characters and players but I am simply curious if that could interest anybody.
Storytelling > ability-systems.
Using NPCs, rolls for CERTAIN things (like D20 for perception), toys etc to create a great story molded by your guildies is much more important than implementing some complex system half of the attendees won’t understand.
In short, no, I don’t use it. I’m quite opposed to it. I’m there to have fun, not religiously study some google document that’s 30 pages long.
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