This brought to mind something I've been thinking about while preparing to introduce a bunch of D&D players (familiar with d20 roll-over) to Call of Cthulu (d100 roll-under): even when the dice/rolling system is consistent, you can swap between the over/under versions. This comes up all the time in CoC when you have to make Sanity checks…
This brought to mind something I've been thinking about while preparing to introduce a bunch of D&D players (familiar with d20 roll-over) to Call of Cthulu (d100 roll-under): even when the dice/rolling system is consistent, you can swap between the over/under versions. This comes up all the time in CoC when you have to make Sanity checks: you first want to roll-under (a success) to minimize how much sanity you lose, but then you typically want to roll-over your Intelligence check (a "failure") because succeeding at that means you understand the implications of the horror before you.
It's a fun twist where normally having high intelligence (i.e. more likely roll-under and succeed) is a benefit when trying to solve the mystery but then becomes a detriment when you actually encounter elements of the Mythos. So while the entire system is d100 and technically roll-under, they've created a single moment when you actually want to roll-over. It can definitely be confusing for new players, and maybe the way Mothership subs in a different die for the exceptional moment helps ease that transition: "I always want to roll under, unless I'm using *this die* that I want to roll over with." But it's also simpler because you only have need to roll percentile dice.
Agree on the special die helping keep things straight.
Also, I really need to look into Call of Cthulhu. It keeps coming up, being recommended, and appears to be a large gap in my gaming (especially TTTRP) experience!
The CoC system is pretty solid, it’s not fancy but is pretty intuitive. If using the “classic” setting, combat is quite different to D&D expectations. Both sides missing frequently is fairly common, but hitting is often pretty decisive (not vs mythos creatures though).Pulp Cthulhu dials up PC competency and resilience to a level where “I choose violence” is a reasonable option or even a preferred one.
Skill development in play is very cool - if you “critically succeed” at a skill roll (<10% of skill rating) at the end of the session make a skill roll. If that advancement roll *fails* then increase the skill by d10? points. You get better at skills by using them successfully but as your skill approaches maximum it becomes harder to improve. I think that’s very elegant.
Oh, CoC 7 (the current version) also incorporates advantage / disadvantage but uses only the 10s dice. I haven’t yet looked at how that alters the probabilities compared with d20 adv/dis.
This brought to mind something I've been thinking about while preparing to introduce a bunch of D&D players (familiar with d20 roll-over) to Call of Cthulu (d100 roll-under): even when the dice/rolling system is consistent, you can swap between the over/under versions. This comes up all the time in CoC when you have to make Sanity checks: you first want to roll-under (a success) to minimize how much sanity you lose, but then you typically want to roll-over your Intelligence check (a "failure") because succeeding at that means you understand the implications of the horror before you.
It's a fun twist where normally having high intelligence (i.e. more likely roll-under and succeed) is a benefit when trying to solve the mystery but then becomes a detriment when you actually encounter elements of the Mythos. So while the entire system is d100 and technically roll-under, they've created a single moment when you actually want to roll-over. It can definitely be confusing for new players, and maybe the way Mothership subs in a different die for the exceptional moment helps ease that transition: "I always want to roll under, unless I'm using *this die* that I want to roll over with." But it's also simpler because you only have need to roll percentile dice.
Agree on the special die helping keep things straight.
Also, I really need to look into Call of Cthulhu. It keeps coming up, being recommended, and appears to be a large gap in my gaming (especially TTTRP) experience!
The CoC system is pretty solid, it’s not fancy but is pretty intuitive. If using the “classic” setting, combat is quite different to D&D expectations. Both sides missing frequently is fairly common, but hitting is often pretty decisive (not vs mythos creatures though).Pulp Cthulhu dials up PC competency and resilience to a level where “I choose violence” is a reasonable option or even a preferred one.
Skill development in play is very cool - if you “critically succeed” at a skill roll (<10% of skill rating) at the end of the session make a skill roll. If that advancement roll *fails* then increase the skill by d10? points. You get better at skills by using them successfully but as your skill approaches maximum it becomes harder to improve. I think that’s very elegant.
Oh wow. I’m going to have to look into that progression system!
Oh, CoC 7 (the current version) also incorporates advantage / disadvantage but uses only the 10s dice. I haven’t yet looked at how that alters the probabilities compared with d20 adv/dis.