Quote Originally Posted by PhoenixPhyre View Post
If they'd have set the core d20 + mod vs DC thing to be say "roll 1d20, do some calculus to figure out which table to roll on, then roll on that table (and each table uses a different pattern), which tells you which other table to use (once you factor in the phase of the moon)...", I'd say the whole system is bad (for me).

And that second italics is important. There are only a very few things that can make a system objectively bad. If the system itself just doesn't work at all (such as if you're missing critical parts of generating a character or the rules for doing so are internally contradictory so its impossible to make a legal character). A few things like that. But that's a really easy bar to clear. Beyond that, it's mostly a matter of taste and what works for you, personally, based on the things you're trying to do with it.
I think, like with programming, if the complexity of the process exceeds the required complexity to generate the solution, then you have objectively bad code. Or, at least, objectively suboptimal code - which, for both programs and games, I suspect is synonymous with bad.