To extend the MS analogy a bit more, sure you can remove the classes and levels in the same way you can get rid of IE out of Windows, but you'll be bloody lucky if the thing works afterwards.
If you get rid of levels, classes, and hitpoints and add in wound penalties then you're not playing D20 any more, you're playing using a system that utilises a 20 sided dice and while I'm not familiar with the license in the current incarnation it seems sort of silly to take the concept of rolling high on a 20 sided dice and turn it into a system.
And starwars is SO high fantasy - they use magic swords, use magic powers and one dude shoots lightning from his fingers! I'm not familiar with mutants and masterminds but I'm going to take a wild guess at there being beams, rays, balls and batterings involved - which in my book is high fantasy.
If you get rid of levels, classes, and hitpoints and add in wound penalties then you're not playing D20 any more, you're playing using a system that utilises a 20 sided dice and while I'm not familiar with the license in the current incarnation it seems sort of silly to take the concept of rolling high on a 20 sided dice and turn it into a system.
It's not just rolling high. It's roll high, add numbers, compare. And that does make a system - not a sophisticated one, but a system nonetheless.
What I'm saying comes down to this: The system doesn't matter. It's just a way of getting random numbers under a given statistical bias, and comparing them with other numbers. It's handy and easy to remember one method. It can be a d12, where you divide by three and add 14, and compare it to your Chutzpah score, if you like. And in the same system you can have the d54 roll, if you like, and percentile tables, and coin-flipping, and it's still just manipulation of probability. I can take any set of numbers you want, any subsystem, from any game, and convert it to the d20 mechanism, and it will work, and it will give exactly the same probability of success or failure as the orginal, to within 2.5% as a maximum error (Half of 1-in-20).
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If you get rid of levels, classes, and hitpoints and add in wound penalties then you're not playing D20 any more, you're playing using a system that utilises a 20 sided dice and while I'm not familiar with the license in the current incarnation it seems sort of silly to take the concept of rolling high on a 20 sided dice and turn it into a system.
And starwars is SO high fantasy - they use magic swords, use magic powers and one dude shoots lightning from his fingers! I'm not familiar with mutants and masterminds but I'm going to take a wild guess at there being beams, rays, balls and batterings involved - which in my book is high fantasy.
From:
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It's not just rolling high. It's roll high, add numbers, compare. And that does make a system - not a sophisticated one, but a system nonetheless.
What I'm saying comes down to this: The system doesn't matter. It's just a way of getting random numbers under a given statistical bias, and comparing them with other numbers. It's handy and easy to remember one method. It can be a d12, where you divide by three and add 14, and compare it to your Chutzpah score, if you like. And in the same system you can have the d54 roll, if you like, and percentile tables, and coin-flipping, and it's still just manipulation of probability. I can take any set of numbers you want, any subsystem, from any game, and convert it to the d20 mechanism, and it will work, and it will give exactly the same probability of success or failure as the orginal, to within 2.5% as a maximum error (Half of 1-in-20).