from the mail files: ESCARGO question

ESCARGO question.

A message from a correspondent, re ESCARGO:

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Instead of Ease:-1, Ease:+2, why not invert the sign and call it Difficulty.

Excellent question! Very slow response! Sorry!

So, a simple Ease +2 skill would become a Difficulty -2 skill. A difficult Ease -2 skill would become Difficulty +2. It's much more understandable then!

Well, I believe that your usage was the initial plan; "Difficulty" is, I agree, more natural as a label.

But after some mental juggling, I thought the math was more intuitive with Ease. The reason: an easy skill will *raise* your final level, so "+2" is intuitive; "-2" is arguably counterintuitive. And since we're talking about an easy skill, "Difficulty +2" sounds all wrong.

The solution that worked here was "Ease +2" -- though again, I agree that "Ease" is somehow clumsier as a word.