D&D 4E 4E Hack: "Fiction First" Playtest


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pemerton

Legend
What I want to do is try and use what I wrote down as the "DM's Advice" in my hack and use those principles to make decisions.

<snip 8 sound principles>

THE BUCK STOPS HERE
(Any conflict about the rules ends with the DM's judgement call)
Interesting. I saw you used the "buck stops" rule when it came to the guard outside the saloon. Have you had to use the rule in the context of a combat or skill challenge?

I run a quick skill challenge as Kryx convinces the guards to turn against Sosruko.

This was interesting. Kryx had a massive modifier - +13. He was rolling against the Will Defence of the guards - 14. That means he could only fail on a 1 if he said something that gave him a penalty.

Pointless exercise in dice rolling? No, as it turns out. Having to go through a number of checks meant that the guards made some demands of their own - that Kryx would be their new sheriff, that they would still keep their jobs, and that Kryx would "deal" with the bandits. Kryx gave them his word (part of the reason he was able to get such a high modifier), and as a dragonborn and a paladin that's a big deal.​
Excellent stuff! This makes a point about the structure of skill challenges that I've never really thought about before (maybe because I've never had the issue of auto-success come up in quite this way before) - although I think I may have experienced its effects without realising quite where they were coming from!

The summary might go like this: it's not just "say yes or roll the dice" - it's "say yes or engage the fiction!"
 






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