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First is you stop caring about the “metagame”. There’s just the game. Second, you telegraph danger ahead of time. Or at the very least, you establish what the likely risk is, the stakes of the roll. You let the player know “okay this sounds like a Stealth roll… what’s at risk here is...

I agree with your last paragraph. I believe many folks have a good idea of what they’re looking for in a game and select games and gaming methods accordingly. However, I also think that there’s plenty of people who don’t fully understand the things they’re claiming not to like. And when they...

Listen, I don’t have any kind of problem with a random encounter. But it’s not any different. And your rolling ahead of time doesn’t make any difference, except perhaps to allow you more time to prep it… but process wise it’s the same. The PCs are in a forest. I imagine a pretty big space. Your...

It was unclear to me if you were expecting a second action or not, that's why I clarified. But yes... a hard move should follow a soft move. So... I'd establish that someone's in the kitchen, on the 7-9 the character would get inside, but alert the cook. Then I'd ask what they do... and the hard...

Again, this depends a lot on the game. This is one of the reasons that "nothing happens" is seen as an undesirable result by some. However, personally, even when I'm running trad type games, I don't allow multiple checks for the same action, or dogpiling by every member of the party. So when...

And none of the comments made here since pointing out why the example you sited was incomplete or how it could be made to work have done anything? I mean, maybe they haven't changed your mind, but you can at least onboard the information and stop describing things as "unconnected" and "random"...

It doesn’t have to happen every time if you don’t want. Some games make Fail Forward an explicit part of the procedures. For other games, like D&D, it’s just there as an option. Also, for @Micah Sweet and @Maxperson and anyone else who thinks that people are just expressing their preferences...

How big of an area are we talking about? Is it like a wilderness hex? Or more specific than that? I mean... how can you predict with that level of accuracy where the PCs will actually physically be in that forest? How do you know to place the trolls on that exact spot? Or is it more a case...

I feel like these two sentences conflict to some extent. In the situation as described, the cook would be something in my mind as a possible complication or encounter. I wouldn't have odds like you describe because I would rely on a different method to determine when and how she shows up...

Wizard’s tower? I don’t know where that came from. I’ve been talking about the example that was linked with the cook and the kitchen.

Right… again, the example as presented was not great. It’s really incomplete and was only meant to give a basic idea of the fail forward method. It was woefully incomplete. As I said above to @The Firebird , I’d have telegraphed the presence of the cook. Probably the light of a cookfire and...

Yes… the area where the PCs are!

Way to assume the worst. As has already been explained to you… by me and by @Campbell , it’s just a different type of GMing. Must you always take everything so personal? It’s like you’re looking to be offended. Weird, I thought it was connected because a cook could possibly hear someone...

Decided in what way? Written down in some way? Included in some boxed text? Statted out as full fledged NPC? Is it not enough to simply imagine that a manor house or castle or similar dwelling would have servants, and that one of the most common types of servants would be a cook? Do we also...

Then I'm not sure why you'd object to a failed roll alerting her. She's involved. No, it doesn't. Success or failure... good outcome or bad outcome... is what depends on the rolls. But beyond that, there are plenty of factors to consider which may make a choice between picking a lock on the...

Sure, but why? It's a dice roll that tells us the cook is there, which is something that you said you're fine with. Prefer, actually.

But wouldn't it be up to the GM to simply make that connection and narrate it accordingly? As I said, the cook's existence isn't contingent on the roll, it's her presence. So what brought her here? The GM can decide that. It's about the outcome, though, isn't it? They failed the roll... so...

The better way to look at it is on a successful roll, things go well, on an unsuccessful roll, things go poorly.

In older editions of D&D, attempting to pick a lock would absolutely involve a random encounter roll. As would searching a room or X amount of time spent moving about a dangerous area like a dungeon. Also, I've always looked at random encounter tables as a list of people/creatures that can be...

I think that skill at lockpicking also includes how fast and how quietly you can pick a lock... these things are an important component of lockpicking precisely to avoid encountering anyone in the midst of it. Earlier in the thread there was a lot of hullabaloo about repurposing terms. When I...