Comment on “Overcoming the Liquid Environment”

I also want to voice my appreciation for the concept of the "successful swing" because it scratches a particular game design itch: namely, reusing extant components of the rules for new purposes. Here you've introduced a new way to read the attack roll, which adds extra excitement into each throw of the die.

What made you settle on the -8 modifier (ninth level reduced to first) as opposed to some other?