It has (after far too long) occurred to me that there are some inconsistencies in the portrayal of DDC modifiers. It is noted that ‘DDC = base + modifier’, with Stability, Prosperity etc. providing a beneficial modifier as a negative number, and an unhelpful modifier as a positive number. For advantage, hardiness and some other misc modifiers a helpful bonus is portrayed as a positive number, contrary to the ‘convention’ established.
While the application of some common sense should generally clarify how modifiers should be applied, it might be worth ensuring some consistency in how modifier is written down.
I think part of the confusion comes from the D20 convention of always portraying beneficial modifiers as positive number, and apply them to the character’s own roll. With the modifiers being applied to the difficulty level instead, the bonuses should either consistently be a negative number, or change it so the calc is ‘DDC = base – modifier’, thus keeping happy bonuses as positive numbers.
I’ll go back to my pedantic little corner now.