A Single Target Number

Check out Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster coming soon to Kickstarter! The Index Card RPG has a neat idea we can try in many of our tabletop RPGs – using a single target number for an entire scene. Pirate Borg has the same idea. Here's how it works. Instead of worrying about different saving throws, ability checks, or armor classes for various components in a scene – we declare a single target number for the scene. You can, for example, pick a target number of 15 for a mid-range encounter in your 5e game or 20 for a higher-power higher-level game. Whatever checks the characters have to make, they make against that target number. You declare this target number to your players, writing it really big on an index card or putting it as a note on your virtual tabletop so all your players can see it. Doing so simplifies our games in a few ways: It reduces the total number of back-and-forth transactions between players and GMs. It reduces the mental overhead on players when they're rolling checks.…