u/EarthSeraphEdna

Are you familiar with any (non-OSR, non-OSR-adjacent) RPGs that use "rare rolls" for noncombat tasks?

I am specifically asking about noncombat tasks here. I am not taking combat actions into consideration at all here.

By "rare rolls," I mean that the game uses rolls for noncombat tasks, but the system specifically, expressly, unambiguously, explicitly states that these rolls are to be made very rarely, and only for tasks that well and truly strain heroic capacities: to the point wherein it is not unusual for an entire session to go by with zero noncombat rolls. For example, this would be a poor fit for, say, Fate, since rare rolls would make fate points and 1/session stunts too strong.

The closest I know of is the GUMSHOE family of systems, which is half-randomizerless for investigative abilities, reserving dice rolls for non-investigative tasks.

Tom Abaddon's grid-based tactical RPGs could theoretically be run this way, I imagine, though I am not sure it would be a clean fit.

I have been running 13th Age 2e's full release for the past several months like this. I just give the PCs the benefit of the doubt and assume that they are so heroically competent that they automatically succeed at nearly everything outside of combat. I call for noncombat rolls only when: (A) the PCs are attempting something well and truly outrageous, the kind of deeds that would feature in mythological accounts, and this usually comes up only once every several sessions, or (B) a game element specifically says that a roll is required for a certain task, such as ritual casting. Most of the sessions I run are noncombat-oriented sessions with zero noncombat rolls.

I find that this suits my GMing style well enough, though it is not an entirely clean fit for the system I am GMing. It makes limited-use skill check boosters too powerful, and it devalues resourceless skill monkey benefits.

I am wondering if another system handles "rare rolls" for noncombat more aptly.