CofD and Professional Training

[Thenomain]

@Misadventure said in CofD and Professional Training:

Singing: How much is that Pain Bot in the window? (Bark bark!)

[Killer Klown]

Yeah, so one thing I've been noticing as CofD gets more and more mature... they're moving away from specific mechanics in pretty obvious ways. What I mean by this is that the dice are truely becoming secondary to the system; you use them to cover cinematic accomplishments or dramatic events, but not for any nitty-gritty, granular activities. As mentioned, much of this is covered in how vague the skills are (Crafts, Academics and Athletics are some of the worst) but it's seeping into other things as well - have a look at the Hurt Locker writeup on firearms if you haven't already. They don't even have ammo counts anymore; it basically boils down to a handwaggle and a 'yeah, you can keep firing until either you screw up, or go all cheerleader in a zombie movie and spray your load all at once' If all you're doing is plinking off one shot from your sidearm every round? You can keep doing it until the proverbial cows come home and kick the pigs into orbit. Range is handled in much the same loosey-goosey kind of way; it's based on positioning rather than the gun itself, and 'movement' is a relative calculation that more factors in how many rounds it would take a person of x speed to cover a range band, rather than any specific numbers.

Bottom line? I think all the vaguery is by design. There's a definite sense, at least in my mind, that someone got it into their head that they're never going to make a realistic system with the mechanics provided, so they just went with something easy and more or less minimalist. Broad skill categories? Cut down on sheet bloat. Vague weapons? It's CofD, not Cyberpunk. 8-again, 9-again, etc? Some things are just easier to use or luckier than others - and it offsets the standardized difficulty number. As was mentioned, neither of these things makes it more likely that you will succeed or less likely that you will fail in a simple roll - it just makes it more likely that you'll succeed well, or win at a contested roll because you have an edge.
Rote and, less used, Advanced Action are a slightly stickier point - but both of those basically are to reflect that you're probably going to succeed on whatever it is you're doing, but still leaves at least a little room for the dice hating you and having you fail.