Monday, June 23, 2025

The d20 is Brutal

The d20 Beginner Box die that killed Pathfinder 2 for me.

You do not want to roll against a difficulty of 1 or 2.

Don't risk it, use effort to knock that down, and don't roll.

These d20 dice are brutal; they do not care what the number you have to roll is. You will be smiling and rolling against a 3 on the die, and a 1 will come up like a middle finger. One GM Intrusion later, I have a blown tire in a vehicle chase, and I might not have the XP to avoid it. This can change the entire course of the adventure and narrative.

I have d20 dice that hate me. One I got in a Pathfinder 2 Beginner box would not roll above a 6 after a dozen rolls. After a while, I was like, "Sorry, we will just retake the critical failure this turn."

In a horror game, a GM Intrusion could mean one of the group gets lost, wounded, or even killed. In a survival game, nothing good can happen from this, and you will be wishing you had knocked that easy roll down to not even needing to touch the dice.

I have had multiple "sure things" turn into disasters because I wanted to be cheap and save a few points. At least taking GM Intrusions outside of rolling a 1 will gain you and the group XP, which you can use as a buffer from dice-inflicted narrative wounds.

Don't chance it. The less you roll, the better off you are.

Cypher System is so much better than Daggerheart when playing a narrative-focused game, since it does not rely on hope and fear die roll mechanics, along with a massive framework of a hope-to-powers economy. I like Daggerheart, but Cypher System wins on narrative panache, simplicity, player-to-GM economy, and style.

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