@Tim_Eagon Due respect to the other arguments, but I'd say two-thirds, because to me it's the dividing line between "I should succeed unless something goes wrong" and "The chance I'll fail is significant enough that I can't ignore it."
@Tim_Eagon Is that "medium difficulty" for any given skill level at any given time under any given circumstances? Because you've got three axes going different directions, all of which influence the matter.
For a surprisingly good break down of how to think about this sort of thing, read Blades in the Dark, specifically talking about fiction-first consideration of position and effect (two different axes) and their relationship to potential complications and harm (consequences).
Or, more succinctly: a system cannot define a task as "medium difficulty." Only a human being can do that because of the need to evaluate context. Once that difficulty is set, a system can probabilistically guide the outcome, but not until then.
Mechanical determination really only works if you have an extremely limited context for which those mechanics will apply. (You can get away with this and wargames because the context is extremely constrained. RPGs are not.)
@Tim_Eagon That's pretty much impossible to say without knowing more about the game you're talking about and the base assumptions about how competent the PCs are going to be. It also depends if the game is concerned with task resolution vs. outcome resolution.
Regardless: If failure at the task isn't interesting to the narrative, don't engage the game mechanics at all: The PC just does it. You then move on to something interesting. #TTRPG
@Tim_Eagon i imagine medium should be placed at about 80% or something fairly achievable for most people most of the time. Granted that’s a bit arbitrary. I guess we need to define what a medium task is first and assume a “normal” character trying to achieve said task.
@Tim_Eagon <BRP enters the chat> That depends entirely on how skilled you are at that particular task. "Hard" would be half that percentage. :blobsmilehappyeyes:
@Tim_Eagon I've had a lot of thinks about what "difficulty" means. I don't have any satisfactory answers.
"Medium" for Untrained, Apprentice, Journeyman or Master?
I'm not keen on the idea of generic Difficulty Rating labels - why not start with the Chance of Success? You can call it what you like!
It very much depends on the tone of the game. Should PCs be able to do "Hard" tasks quite reliably, or is a "Medium" task considered a notable Challenge?
@Tim_Eagon Depending on the other aspects of the system, I would say 50%, not because a "medium" difficulty task should be failed half the time, but because, if the system has a means for measuring proficiency and/or attributes that affect that percentage, both of those push the success chance to higher than 50%, and its only 50% for someone with average statistics/no proficiency in what they are attempting. But that's just my thoughts.