Manbearcat
Legend
We've done this many times before. Here is yet another repository for insight and guidance into the machinery and techniques that make noncombat action scenes in 4e hum. I'll start.
What are Failures?
These are Team PC's Hit Point Pool, Stress Track (what have you). They're the mechanical marker for the good guys' ability to "stay in the fight" for whatever goal they're seeking to attain. They indicate increasing dramatic weight and escalation as the challenge evolves. As these accrue, the GM should render the fiction such that it reflects the PCs being on the ropes > imminent disaster looming > ultimate failure, story loss, and fallout.
What are Successes?
These are the GM's Opposition Hit Point Pool, Stress Track (what have you). That opposition might be the layers of bureaucracy that deny audience with the hobgoblin king and the king's own resolve to keep his borders closed during a regional refugee crisis. That opposition might be the combined potency of (a) time crunch, (b) topographical hazards, (c) elemental hazards, and (d) hostile actors as the PCs attempt to climb down a treacherous mountain peak and reach a group of fleeing refugees before they are overcome by sentient Far Realm mists (that will transform them all into mutate horrors).
They're the mechanical marker for the "bad guys'" ability to "keep the heat on Team PC" and interpose themselves between the PCs' as the good guys seek to attain their goal. They indicate increasing dramatic weight and escalation as the challenge evolves. As these accrue, the GM should render the fiction such that it reflects the PCs heroically overcoming adversity > hope and momentum building > ultimate success, story win, and cuing the good guy theme music.
What are Failures?
These are Team PC's Hit Point Pool, Stress Track (what have you). They're the mechanical marker for the good guys' ability to "stay in the fight" for whatever goal they're seeking to attain. They indicate increasing dramatic weight and escalation as the challenge evolves. As these accrue, the GM should render the fiction such that it reflects the PCs being on the ropes > imminent disaster looming > ultimate failure, story loss, and fallout.
What are Successes?
These are the GM's Opposition Hit Point Pool, Stress Track (what have you). That opposition might be the layers of bureaucracy that deny audience with the hobgoblin king and the king's own resolve to keep his borders closed during a regional refugee crisis. That opposition might be the combined potency of (a) time crunch, (b) topographical hazards, (c) elemental hazards, and (d) hostile actors as the PCs attempt to climb down a treacherous mountain peak and reach a group of fleeing refugees before they are overcome by sentient Far Realm mists (that will transform them all into mutate horrors).
They're the mechanical marker for the "bad guys'" ability to "keep the heat on Team PC" and interpose themselves between the PCs' as the good guys seek to attain their goal. They indicate increasing dramatic weight and escalation as the challenge evolves. As these accrue, the GM should render the fiction such that it reflects the PCs heroically overcoming adversity > hope and momentum building > ultimate success, story win, and cuing the good guy theme music.