Quote from: BarefootGaijin;695978That sounds incredibly complicated, but somehow appropriate. Any examples?

I do something similar (though perhaps not exactly what was meant) in Phaserip: stats are rated by Echelons, general classes of competence designated by a descriptor:

Puny - below average
Normal -average
Good - above average
Exceptional - significantly above average
Legendary - peak human
Uncanny - inhuman
Fantastic - low superhuman
Amazing - superhuman
Incredible - high superhuman
Unearthly - godlike

Each Echelon is associated with a Rank and a Rating, one on a scale of 1-10, the other on a scale of 1-100. Depending on the amount of detail I want to focus on I can then either use just the Rank or I can get all fiddly with the Rating (both of these are handled solely by the GM, players just use the Echelons).

Quote from: jibbajibba;694252Which sold better Wilderness Survival Guide or Unearthed Arcana?

TSR was at one point giving away free the Wilderness Survival Guide...

Never did get the story behind that. I assume they printed too many or it undersold.

Quote from: RPGPundit;695950You mean the crazy hobo who's been paid a considerable amount of money to directly advise the lead designer of D&D?

RPGPundit

Yes that one!

Quote from: TristramEvans;696069I do something similar (though perhaps not exactly what was meant) in Phaserip: stats are rated by Echelons, general classes of competence designated by a descriptor:

Puny - below average
Normal -average
Good - above average
Exceptional - significantly above average
Legendary - peak human
Uncanny - inhuman
Fantastic - low superhuman
Amazing - superhuman
Incredible - high superhuman
Unearthly - godlike

Each Echelon is associated with a Rank and a Rating, one on a scale of 1-10, the other on a scale of 1-100. Depending on the amount of detail I want to focus on I can then either use just the Rank or I can get all fiddly with the Rating (both of these are handled solely by the GM, players just use the Echelons).

Don't think he means that I think he means on a monster stat block you might have say "Tactics 2" . In the usual game this means that the DM should role play the moster with good tactical awareness (say its a 1-5 scale) but maybe it won't build traps in advance and won't react to previous incursions by building defenses.
In the Tactical minis game "Tactics 2" give syou a bunch of special moves you can do either to move round the grid, move opponets on the grid or modify elements of play. well defined in the book.
In the Storygame version "Tactics 2" give you 2 plot points you can burn at any time to add complications or counter PC complications to the Tactics domain of the narative.

I asssume that is what he meant. Most obvious interrpretation.

Ah, yeah, I don't really switch between gaming styles that way (just "crunchy tactical" or "loose dramatic"), but isn't D&DNext doing something along those lines?

Quote from: Omega;696183TSR was at one point giving away free the Wilderness Survival Guide...

Never did get the story behind that. I assume they printed too many or it undersold.

That is my point
1 gives a lot of new character optimisation posibilities, classes, spells, items etc.
The other gives lots of campaign detail and DM advice fro running wilderness games. It gives some good rules for building settings, on geography, handling encumberence etc etc ...
WSG was recognised as a well written and well constructed book that filled a real gap
UA is recognised as an absolute mess.

Which sold better?

Quote from: TristramEvans;696211Ah, yeah, I don't really switch between gaming styles that way (just "crunchy tactical" or "loose dramatic"), but isn't D&DNext doing something along those lines?

Yes I beleive that was the point that was being made

You know a thread has lasted too long when the participants have to stop to remind themselves of the basic premise of the original post.

Quote from: Warthur;696249You know a thread has lasted too long when the participants have to stop to remind themselves of the basic premise of the original post.

Yep, my bad, I wasn't really paying very close attention