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Challenge the Players, Not the Characters' Stats
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<blockquote data-quote="mhacdebhandia" data-source="post: 4502274" data-attributes="member: 18832"><p>I'm saying that the question of whether or not my character could get out of a dungeon deathtrap isn't particularly interesting or relevant to the kind of experience I want from playing <em>D&D</em>.</p><p></p><p>Having my character survive experiences like that because I was quick-witted enough to figure out how he could escape isn't important to me at all; I am, in fact, perfectly happy to use the rules of the game to determine whether or not my character has the skills to survive, because as far as I am concerned the challenges of the game only matter inasmuch as they provide colour for the story of my character's adventures in the world.</p><p></p><p>To continue the example from my previous post - dungeon deathtraps spice up the story of my character's pursuit of his brother's killer, but they're not the reason I play the game. In fact, I <strong>prefer it</strong> when the rules of the game add the element of chance or risk to the question of "does he get out of danger?", because it's a way to add complications to the story that neither I as a player nor the DM can foresee. I don't mind it when my characters fail, because I don't think it ruins the story; some stories end in failure and tragedy, and I find them just as interesting.</p><p></p><p>(I think it's incumbent upon the DM to make all challenges matter - a random encounter that ends in my character's death is boring, but if the villain lures my PC into a deathtrap and my character can't escape, that's fine! It was an organic part of the story; had I succeeded it would have been part of my character's struggle to catch the villain and make him pay.)</p><p></p><p>If, instead, the game was "old-school" and turned on <strong>my personal ability</strong> to think of a way to get my character out of a deathtrap, that completely eliminates that spontaneity, and replaces it with a test of my personal problem-solving skills that I find pretty damn uninteresting. It's not even that I'm bad at solving problems! It's just not exciting - I don't enjoy it even a tenth as much as, for instance, dealing with an unforeseen setback on my character's quest for justice. It's more interesting to me to figure out how my character will come to terms with an ally's betrayal than to figure out how I, the player, should talk my character out of an arrest warrant.</p><p></p><p>I don't game to have my real-life skills tested. I game to create a fictional character and put them through hell and high water as they try to pursue their goals or deal with their problems. The mechanics of the game are a welcome, sometimes spontaneous facilitator, but the actual <strong>challenges</strong> around which those mechanics are arranged are only important for providing that spontaneity - they're not at all important in and of themselves.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="mhacdebhandia, post: 4502274, member: 18832"] I'm saying that the question of whether or not my character could get out of a dungeon deathtrap isn't particularly interesting or relevant to the kind of experience I want from playing [i]D&D[/i]. Having my character survive experiences like that because I was quick-witted enough to figure out how he could escape isn't important to me at all; I am, in fact, perfectly happy to use the rules of the game to determine whether or not my character has the skills to survive, because as far as I am concerned the challenges of the game only matter inasmuch as they provide colour for the story of my character's adventures in the world. To continue the example from my previous post - dungeon deathtraps spice up the story of my character's pursuit of his brother's killer, but they're not the reason I play the game. In fact, I [b]prefer it[/b] when the rules of the game add the element of chance or risk to the question of "does he get out of danger?", because it's a way to add complications to the story that neither I as a player nor the DM can foresee. I don't mind it when my characters fail, because I don't think it ruins the story; some stories end in failure and tragedy, and I find them just as interesting. (I think it's incumbent upon the DM to make all challenges matter - a random encounter that ends in my character's death is boring, but if the villain lures my PC into a deathtrap and my character can't escape, that's fine! It was an organic part of the story; had I succeeded it would have been part of my character's struggle to catch the villain and make him pay.) If, instead, the game was "old-school" and turned on [b]my personal ability[/b] to think of a way to get my character out of a deathtrap, that completely eliminates that spontaneity, and replaces it with a test of my personal problem-solving skills that I find pretty damn uninteresting. It's not even that I'm bad at solving problems! It's just not exciting - I don't enjoy it even a tenth as much as, for instance, dealing with an unforeseen setback on my character's quest for justice. It's more interesting to me to figure out how my character will come to terms with an ally's betrayal than to figure out how I, the player, should talk my character out of an arrest warrant. I don't game to have my real-life skills tested. I game to create a fictional character and put them through hell and high water as they try to pursue their goals or deal with their problems. The mechanics of the game are a welcome, sometimes spontaneous facilitator, but the actual [b]challenges[/b] around which those mechanics are arranged are only important for providing that spontaneity - they're not at all important in and of themselves. [/QUOTE]
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