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The Topic: Do you like graduated success?
In a d20 game (where the goal is to roll above a certain number), if you roll against a dc12, should a 16 do even more than simple success? Should your impact from the action be stronger depending on how high you roll above the DC? In 5e D&D, for instance, if you need to roll a 12 or higher, there’s no special increase to the effect if you roll 11 or higher, except if you roll a “natural” 20.
Some Cool Responses
IDK if I like graduated success as much as I find it just works a lot of the time. A failing roll that’s only off by a bit but is counted as a partial success can prevent a scenario getting stuck while the PCs come up with a Plan B. And I’ve found that players are never upset about hitting into extended crit range, etc.
Aloof
We usually give it narrative flavor. The 12 is “you manage to do the thing”, 16 might be “ you do the thing with flair” and higher might be “you do the thing so well that it gives you this knock-on effect” if there’s a cool way to do that.
Mama Strange
I like the idea of a graduated system that allows for near misses that might allow a teammate to assist and push it into a success. I think it can really allow for creative thinking and out of the box solutions to problems.
Chernabog42
I like graduated success in some instances. It works really well in things like research tasks where they PCs have multiple things they can learn depending on how thorough they are, but they are not so useful for like combat or high pressure tasks.
Crazy Weazel Gaming
I agree with “Partial success, more results, even more results” — researching, and how many hints you get back.
Keybounce
In general on a d20 roll over game, no. I don’t much care for them. In a roll-under d20 system with skills, they can be quite fun. When the range is more simple, as with PBtA or Land of Eem, graduated successes feel more baked in somehow.
Wes from DM Tales
that’s an interesting thought. for Call of Cthulhu – a d% roll under, you have graduated success because if you roll more than 50% under your skill , you get a bonus, and if you roll 20% of your skill you get an extreme success with even more benefits. Which is graduated success, but with specific thresholds. But you then have luck points the player can spend if they’re close to an extreme success, to get to that extreme sucess level
Jason from Shadomain.com
I like graduated success as long as the results are immediately clear to all the players. When it falls flat, I think it’s because there’s a lot of hemming and hawing over what exactly the results mean, and that slows down play, and short circuits the emotional response from a roll from which pass/fail systems do not similarly suffer. Still, being able to get away with something at a cost is a cool choice for a player to get to make.
The Merlitron
Wrapping It Up
I think we could summarize the opinions very roughly as “it depends”. For a lot of people it depends on the game system, and it seems like a lot of people enjoy game systems that have graduated successes built in.
Aside from the immediate question, one of my favorite things about these discussions is when people reference their own games, so we hear opinions about game systems we might not be as familiar with.
And if you want to join our discussions, join our private email group by sending an email to sh**********@***il.com or join our Discord.
RPG News
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