Today I setup the rules for maneuvers. For the dungeon crawler I will not distingish between movement maneuvers and static maneuvers. We usually use the ALTERNATIVE STATIC MANEUVER TABLE 15.7.6. Therefore I use it as my starting point. First I create a list for all maneuver difficulties and convert the success thresholds into the d20 system.
Difficulty | RM D100 | D20 | Routine | 81 (-30) | 16 (-6) | Easy | 91 (-20) | 18 (-4) | Light | 101 (-10) | 20 (-2) | Medium | 111 ( +0) | 22 (+0) | Hard | 121 (+10) | 24 (+2) | Very Hard | 131 (+20) | 26 (+3) | Extremly Hard | 141 (+30) | 28 (+6) | Sheer Folly | 161 (+50) | 32 (+10)| Absurd | 181 (+70) | 36 (+14)|
Obviously a maneuver result below the threshold is a fail, while a result above the threshold is a success. So the question remains what to do if the result exactly hits the threshold – should it be a success or a failure? Let’s assume a player tries a medium maneuver. She rolls a 11 and adds her skill bonus of +11. Her result is 22 which is exactly the threshold. To be frank statistics show that a 22 represents a 110 on average. (According to the introduced skill conversion a +11 skill can origin from a RM2 skill with a value of 55 up to 59. A roll of 11 on a D20 represent 51 to 55 on a D100.) So this would be a failure. However 23 would be already 115 which is a definite success.
That leads to the question what is easier to understand for players: if I tell someone the difficulty is 22, would if be easier to understand that he needs to get a 22 or more, or would it be more intuitive that he needs to get a 23 at least?
I think players are more interested in „what is the lowest number I need to succeed?“ rather than in „what is the highest number to fail?“. Hence an exact hit will count as a success.
This concludes the dungeon crawler rule set. I am really excited. Testplaying may discover some points, where I need to tweak the rule set. However I am really looking forward to run a game with my Rolemaster group.
