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Legends & Lore 09/03 - RPG design philosophy
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6012159" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>This is an interesting line of thought.</p><p></p><p>For me, the unpredicatability in 4e is primarily in the way an encounter unfolds, and the things that are done (by both PCs and NPCs/monsters) on the way through. The outcome is, in a sense, simply the sum of those things.</p><p></p><p>By scaling the difficulty up or down I (as GM) can influence how things will unfold, and I can certainly increase the pressure, and hence the urgency and care with which the players make decisions. But ultimately the unpredictability comes from their decisions, as mediated via the action resolution rules (including dice rolls) and that is independent of the degree of difficulty.</p><p></p><p>A simple example from my session on the weekend is forced movement + cliffs: the unpredictability here results from the saving throw to fall prone at the edge of the cliff, and then - if a PC does fall - how s/he responds to that. And that is not really a function of encounter difficulty.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6012159, member: 42582"] This is an interesting line of thought. For me, the unpredicatability in 4e is primarily in the way an encounter unfolds, and the things that are done (by both PCs and NPCs/monsters) on the way through. The outcome is, in a sense, simply the sum of those things. By scaling the difficulty up or down I (as GM) can influence how things will unfold, and I can certainly increase the pressure, and hence the urgency and care with which the players make decisions. But ultimately the unpredictability comes from their decisions, as mediated via the action resolution rules (including dice rolls) and that is independent of the degree of difficulty. A simple example from my session on the weekend is forced movement + cliffs: the unpredictability here results from the saving throw to fall prone at the edge of the cliff, and then - if a PC does fall - how s/he responds to that. And that is not really a function of encounter difficulty. [/QUOTE]
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