Just ran across these forums yesterday, and did a bit of browsing.

I noticed that some are concerned that too great an emphasis is placed on attribute scores when compared to skill values (i.e. they are equal in terms of achieving successes).

How about this as a possibility...

First, don't think of the TN as being "5". Instead, think of the "TN" as rolling the highest or second highest result possible on a given die type.

Second, use d6 for skill levels (as normal), BUT use d10 for attribute levels (with a success being a 9 or 10 on the d10).

As options (to avoid the impossible to achieve task)...

1. As suggested elsewhere, for skills allow the roll of a "6" to grant another die roll. However, for attribute dice, this would only occur on a "10".

or, alternately

2. Don't bother with bonus dice, but do away with a required number of successes to succeed. Instead, have every roll (unless the GM decides a single success would be sufficient) be be opposed by another roll. The number of dice rolled would depend upon the difficulty. In order to succeed, you would have to roll more successes than the opposing roll. The degree of success (or failure) would be the difference in numbers of successes. For example, a simple task might oppose the PC's attempt with 3d6, while a task with a fair chance of failure might oppose with 6d6.

Anywho, just a few odd thoughts...

I don't like that idea - it's rather inconsistent to use different Dx.

Some better idea: Higher the TN of the attribute dice to 6. It's rather the same chance as TN9 on d10(20% on d10, 16,67% on d6), but you don't have to use different dice.

If you're going that route, why not just add (attribute/2) dice instead of (attribute) dice to the roll? Then you don't have to keep track of which dice are special and which are not.

The most elegant solution I've seen was on another thread: simply limit the number of attribute dice that can be added by skill. If your skill is X, you can add at most X dice from the attribute. This makes attributes signifigant but not moreso than skill.

Hm. Point.

The only solution that I can see working out of these is the one where attr dice is limited by skill, coupled with the minimum one die for defaulting. Of course this would practicly mean that you get 2 points for every skill point you buy up to your attribute level. But no such system is in place, you would be able to get an avarage chance of success with just one point in a skill, provided that you have an attribute above avarage. Hmm. I think it could be handled with expencive attribute values, even though I don´t like attributes becoming to attractive in the first place. It should be very hard to improve them, because it should naturaly be easier to focus on improving one´s skill than one´s presets.

I'm wondering if it might be a little more like the old Earthdawn mechanic, where you don't get the full value of the attribute added to your roll, but it helps out.
Like 1/2 Att+skill. Something to that effect. Guess we'll see.