Difficulties, Degrees of Success and ratings

[Zapp]

I'm a bit confused.

The difficulties are listed as rising in steps of three (3, 6, 9, ...) while the degrees of success are listed as steps of four?

Wouldn't it be much more simple and intuitive to have a common stepping, so a Formidable (12) Test which you need two DoS'es on would equal a Very Hard (18 ) test? (using a stepping of three in this example)

As is, this test requires you to make a Test which reaches 20. Harder than "Very Hard" but not as hard as "Heroic".

If Tests can be set at every rating and not just the "named" ones, why bother with the names at all?

[Skyman]

Degrees of success are in steps of 5 actually, probably since that's pretty easy to calculate (you beat it by 5, two degrees of success, 10 means three, etc). I think that in playtesting that probably also proved to be a good number, while 3 would have been too low but about right for the difficulty steps.

And the names are there, I expect, to give a reference point for around how high difficulties should be depending on the nature of the task, and make it easier to set your own difficulties.

[Patchface]

If Tests can be set at every rating and not just the "named" ones, why bother with the names at all?

And the names are there, I expect, to give a reference point for around how high difficulties should be depending on the nature of the task, and make it easier to set your own difficulties.

Skyman has the right of it, I believe. And, as far as I'm concerned, giving benchmarks to help GM's estimate difficulties is a very good thing.