It’s interesting to me that the SRD and most of the microgames have roll outcomes on a spread of 1-2/3-4/5+, but Inner System Blues instead uses 1/2-3/4+. Do you have thoughts about considerations for picking an outcome spread?
The latest versions of everything all have the same spreads (1–2 disaster, 3–4 setback, 5+ success), so you may be looking at an older version of Inner System Blues. The original spread was inspired by the luck roll in Electric Bastionland (which doesn't lead to many interesting disasters even when unskilled). I also tested with the Blades in the Dark spread (1–3 disaster, 4–5 setback, 6+ success), which felt like more of a downer than intended. I recorded all the dice results folks rolled and found that if we'd been using the spread I have in there now, it would've been about 70% "I get at least some of what I want," which was around what I was shooting for.
Nice! I agree that the original spread in EB was too forgiving for my tastes… Blades in the Dark can have the opposite specifically because players can choose to resist consequences, and in any case often those consequences are “tick a clock”, not always immediate.
Apparently I just have an older copy… thanks for the answer!
The 3-4 setback range becomes quite interesting when a character is hindered - because then they have to either get help from someone else, set up a good plan to arrange the circumstances in their favor, or else accept not-quite-making it.
Also, this makes it more interesting to carry forward a consequence as a temporary hindrance to the next related roll(s).
Absolutely. This makes it more like the Soft Horizon games that inspired 2400 (like The King Machine and Sand Dogs), which often see you rolling a d6 as your highest die, meaning you can't get a full success without any risk realized. 2400 doesn't go quite as far as Soft Horizon, though, as that game actually lowers and eliminates dice for each hindrance you face until you literally can't take certain actions. We had a game once where two of the players were so badly injured they couldn't even attempt a roll to rescue a third character who was being attacked. I left that out of 2400 because I wanted it to be more streamlined, but generally speaking, I think limiting options and roll results can lead to some tense and dramatic situations!