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Change the Situation (Skill Challenges)!
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<blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 7111994" data-attributes="member: 6696971"><p>Alright, so lets take a quick look at the above and see where a new or Skill Challenge-...challenged GM might struggle:</p><p></p><p>1) The player of the Fighter declares that s/he wants to barrel through the timber wall using Athletics so as to get their pals out of the smoke-choked hall and closer to ultimate egress. </p><p></p><p>GM says something akin to "<em>...no, running through a heavy timber wall isn't realistic!</em>"</p><p></p><p><insert buzzer sound></p><p></p><p>That is exactly what we don't want to be doing. Remember, 4e wants to encourage just this sort of archetypal stunting (DMG 42). (a) It is a genre logic system (where maybe Heroic tier Fighters are smashing through heavy timber walls, maybe at Paragon its stone, and maybe Epic you're talking about thick, hewn stone walls) and (b) one of its fundamental principles is equivalent to Vincent Baker's "say yes or roll the dice."</p><p></p><p>2) The GM says yes, but when the Fighter fails, the GM adjudicates the fiction as:</p><p></p><p>"Ok, you barrel into the wall with all your might and bounce off the heavy timbers with a resounding thud (you lose a Healing Surge and accrue 1 Failure in the SC). The cobwebs clear in a moment and you're still in the smoke-choked hallway. What do you do?"</p><p></p><p><insert buzzer sound></p><p></p><p>Nosiree. The situation remains fundamentally status quo. Nothing interesting happens. No new decision-points have opened up. No new obstacles have emerged. The current situation hasn't escalated or become more urgent/dire/desperate.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Manbearcat, post: 7111994, member: 6696971"] Alright, so lets take a quick look at the above and see where a new or Skill Challenge-...challenged GM might struggle: 1) The player of the Fighter declares that s/he wants to barrel through the timber wall using Athletics so as to get their pals out of the smoke-choked hall and closer to ultimate egress. GM says something akin to "[I]...no, running through a heavy timber wall isn't realistic![/I]" <insert buzzer sound> That is exactly what we don't want to be doing. Remember, 4e wants to encourage just this sort of archetypal stunting (DMG 42). (a) It is a genre logic system (where maybe Heroic tier Fighters are smashing through heavy timber walls, maybe at Paragon its stone, and maybe Epic you're talking about thick, hewn stone walls) and (b) one of its fundamental principles is equivalent to Vincent Baker's "say yes or roll the dice." 2) The GM says yes, but when the Fighter fails, the GM adjudicates the fiction as: "Ok, you barrel into the wall with all your might and bounce off the heavy timbers with a resounding thud (you lose a Healing Surge and accrue 1 Failure in the SC). The cobwebs clear in a moment and you're still in the smoke-choked hallway. What do you do?" <insert buzzer sound> Nosiree. The situation remains fundamentally status quo. Nothing interesting happens. No new decision-points have opened up. No new obstacles have emerged. The current situation hasn't escalated or become more urgent/dire/desperate. [/QUOTE]
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