You are correct. I find that when I have players who either have MSH as their first RPG or at were at one time more Runequest (BRP) system orienteted than AD&D or D20 OGL, they enjoy MSH pretty much as is.
However, I must congratulate myself for the the -1CS, -3CS, and -5CS Primary Modifier System (TM) that I came up with.
It doesn't screw things up at the upper levels of skill v. manueverability. However, it makes combat more sensible when normals with skill are combating foes with far above normal ranks of manueverability.
Most games would degenerate into a coin flip to determine who can hit who. What I mean is, if for instance an attacker with a total Fighting ability of Remarkable is trying to slugfest a foe with Remarkable to Incredible Agility, he doesn't sink to having a 50/50 chance as all of the other games on the market would reduce him to.
Instead he retains that strong and impressive 65 percent chance of at least landing a punch.
However, vs. Amazing, Monstrous, or foes with Unearthly and greater ability, he will suddenly sink from 65 percent to, respectively, 60 percent, 50 percent, or 40 percent.
I have discovered that this has made the combats more interesting and exciting.
At the lower end of the ability scale, the agent with the Good Fighting or Agility plus the Talent with a knife or blaster pistol that raises them to Excellent rank, would find themselves -1CS v. an Incredibly agile foe, -3CS v. an Amazingly agile foe, and -5CS v. a foe with Monstrous or greater agility. . . that's a Shift Zero chance if you're keeping score.
Depending upon the Game Judges discretion, if the total of negative modifiers cause the attacker to drop below Shift Zero,then the attacker has NO CHANCE or at least a Yellow to Red chance to succeed.
For instance, the villanous agent whose ability with his blaster is Excellent is firing at the superhero Madame Butterfly. Her Amazing Agility combined with her shrinking power forces her attacker to lose several column shifts:
The Primary Modifier (TM) reduces the agents chance to Poor (Ex v. Am = minus 3CS); the extra -3CS for her shrinking power brings him one shift below Shift Zero.
One shift below Shift Zero could be a Yellow chance if the the Game Judge wants to at least make the attack interesting ( the agent has a 6 percent chance to hit, AND it will most likely will require Madame Butterfly to make an END FEAT v. Stunning. . . or. . . the GJ can simply declare that the agent's attack misses.
At the very least playtest it before dismissing it.
It makes sense to me and keeps the defensive adjustement critics happy.
Whenever you combine my Primary Modifier System (TM) this with my Battle Cycle Table (TM), you have an extremely marketable game that appeals not only to the D20 Zombies who exist on our planet, but also to those of us who resisted or overcame the lure of the D20 OGL.
We can embrace a superhero based game where the battles flow like those found in a comic book.
