What's Your "Sweet Spot" for a Skill system?

[pointofyou]

It was! But surely the Survival check involved the act of cooking.

It's at least as plausible to me that the Survival check involved the decision whether to cook.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

It was! But surely the Survival check involved the act of cooking.

No. It was about finding a well hidden place to camp. Whether characters cooked or not, well or badly, has nothing o do with their chances of being found.

 

[pointofyou]

No. It was about finding a well hidden place to camp. Whether characters cooked or not, well or badly, has nothing o do with their chances of being found.

I could see narrating a failed Survival check in those circumstances as a decision that this was a perfect time to smoke some meat.

 

[Wolfpack48]

I could see narrating a failed Survival check in those circumstances as a decision that this was a perfect time to smoke some meat.

Right. Refer to my post further up on what a fumbled cooking roll could mean in a simulationist game.

 

[hawkeyefan]

No. It was about finding a well hidden place to camp. Whether characters cooked or not, well or badly, has nothing o do with their chances of being found.

Why wouldn’t it? This is the problem. You can’t seem to imagine the idea that cooking could somehow attract bandits, when it’s incredibly obvious that it could!

 

[pointofyou]

Right. Refer to my post further up on what a fumbled cooking roll could mean in a simulationist game.

I am not a hardcore simulationist but I do tend to think that consequences should befit the task being accomplished. Testing Survival to camp inconspicuously should have different consequences than testing Cooking to prepare the next day's rations.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Why wouldn’t it? This is the problem. You can’t seem to imagine the idea that cooking could somehow attract bandits, when it’s incredibly obvious that it could!

Making fire might attract bandits. What you do with that fire really doesn't matter, nor does the chance of bandits being attracted have anything to do with your cooking skill or difficulty of the recipe, the two factors the odds were derived from. Furthermore, in the original example it was specifically stated that the roll did no measure how well the character cooked, merely the odds of that cooking being interrupted by the bandits. The whole reason why the example was made was to demonstrate the possibility of the failure not reprinting doing badly in the task, but causally unrelated badstuff preventing a successful completion.

 

[niklinna]

Clearly we need more skills: Survival by foraging and hunting, Survival by cooking rations, Survival by locating potable water, Survival by foraging and hunting with bandits about, Survival by cooking rations with bandits about, Survival by locating potable water with bandits about, Cooking in a kitchen, Cooking in the woods, Cooking by taking that frozen pot pie out and chucking it in the microwave, Cooking in a kitchen with bandits about, Cooking in the woods with bandits about, Cooking by taking that frozen pot pie out and chucking it in the microwave with bandits about....

 

[pointofyou]

Clearly we need more skills: Survival by foraging and hunting, Survival by cooking rations, Survival by locating potable water, Survival by foraging and hunting with bandits about, Survival by cooking rations with bandits about, Survival by locating potable water with bandits about, Cooking in a kitchen, Cooking in the woods, Cooking by taking that frozen pot pie out and chucking it in the microwave, Cooking in a kitchen with bandits about, Cooking in the woods with bandits about, Cooking by taking that frozen pot pie out and chucking it in the microwave with bandits about....

Nah.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Making fire might attract bandits. What you do with that fire really doesn't matter, nor does the chance of bandits being attracted have anything to do with your cooking skill or difficulty of the recipe, the two factors the odds were derived from. Furthermore, in the original example it was specifically stated that the roll did no measure how well the character cooked, merely the odds of that cooking being interrupted by the bandits. The whole reason why the example was made was to demonstrate the possibility of the failure not reprinting doing badly in the task, but causally unrelated badstuff preventing a successful completion.

So there’s a clear way to connect the events of play and you choose not to do so and then blame the system?

Ugh.