attack roll special success range starts at 06?

[heptat]

I couldn't find this mentioned anywhere in these forums, so opening this to ask, what exactly does this mean?

Quote

If the D100 result is 20 percent or less of the Adventurer’s skill percentage but is not a result of 01-05, a special success has occurred.

This is from p. 67 of Magic World (in the "Attack and Defense Matrix Continued" section).

Does this mean that the range of a special success is in fact 06 to "20 percent or less of the Adventurer’s skill percentage"? In other words, a 01-05 is a normal success?

By the way, is there automatic success and failure in Magic World like some other flavours of d100 games (I couldn't find mention of it so I assume not)?

[NickMiddleton]

From the errata ( https://basicroleplaying.org/files/file/556-magic-world-errata/ ):

 p. 48 second column: “A critical result occurs on a roll of 01-05” should be “A critical result occurs on a roll of 1/20th of the Adventurer’s skill rating.”

p. 63 Critical definition: “A D100 result of 01-05” should be “A D100 result equal to or less than 1/20th of the Adventurer’s skill rating.”
 p. 67 in the Matrix notes: “If the attack roll is 01-05, a critical success occurs. A critical result represents the best possible achievement with the weapon.” Same change as above.
These are corrected in the revised PDF.

So a critical (1/20th) is ALSO a special (1/5th) result.

There's no explicit general automatic success or failure rules per se for skills: as it says under Routine Actions on p 48: "Routine game actions in routine circumstances always succeed. There is no need to roll dice to walk or to run, or for the routine use of any skill." Albeit under the Skill Rolls section it ALSO points out: "A result of 00 is always a fumble.".

The resistance table DOES include ranges of automatic success & failure - so when raw characteristics are in opposition automatic success / failure are possible - logically a weakling (STR 9) cannot lift a Rhinoceros (SIZ 40) unaided, but in general tend not to apply to skills as a corollary of "The Chronicler tells when to roll dice and tells what sort of roll to make: a skill roll, 
a  Resistance Table roll, a characteristic roll, etc." is that the Chronicler is, ultimately in charge of whether a roll is possible or not.

 

[heptat]

Thanks for that — the way I read what you're saying is, "If the D100 result is 20 percent or less of the Adventurer’s skill percentage but is not a result of 01-05, a special success has occurred." includes an error (and yep, I have the revised edition, so it's an error in the revised edition) and once you swap out "01-05" for "critical range" it all makes perfect sense. MW is pretty neat.

Edited August 27, 2020 by heptat