thinking about checks vs throws

I'm thinking about ways in which I want checks to be distinct from throws. Both are meant to add uncertainty into the adventuring in ways the referee cannot prepare for.

• Checks happen and regular points in the procedure, and can introduce complications.
• Throws are one-off, prompted by the fiction, and yes-no. Do you hit? Do you save?

Checks correspond, more or less, to d6 rolls and throws, more or less to d20 rolls in od&d. In fact, a person could probably play a very satisfactory retroclone using only this method of play for checks and target 20 for throws and not need any additional rules references.

But if I could leave well enough alone like that, I probably would not be writing this blog in the first place. These are some specific posts that I'm thinking about in particular with regard to checks:

• On dungeon crawling structure. This is honestly the root of the idea that checks are procedural while throws are prompted by the fiction.
• On d6 uses in od&d and simplifications of them.
• The overloaded encounter die (or, in its advanced form, the hazard system) the things I love about this are its simplicity and the way it neatly maps onto the different time scales. The things I do not like about it are that it is resists the chances being altered by situation and that all the outcomes are mutually exclusive.
• On the wilderness encounter chance, which points out that the x-in-6 chance to become lost is rolled separately from the y-in-6 chance to have an encounter. Either, both, or neither can all occur.
• Encounter stew, which is delightful, but too focused on the specific question of dungeon encounters for me to immediately jump from there to a general procedure for a check.

I'm also thinking of the dice mechanic of Swords Without Master, where (for those unfamiliar) two visually distinct d6 are rolled, one for the Glum mood and one for the Jovial mood. If one is greater than the other, that mood prevails. If they are equal, the acting player will be stymied in whatever they're trying to do (the chance of doubles on two dice, of course, being 1-in-6).