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They probably experiment by doing, not asking. Could that be because you're inserting mechanics into them on a regular basis and thus disrupting their flow? Free-form roleplay of social encounters is often* as smooth as just talking to friends in the pub, except the in-fiction topics are...

The root goal being rolled for was to catch the assassin. The roll(s) failed, and the assassin was not caught. Therefore, result and roll match. That you got a bit of his cloak is what I would call "fail with extras". You failed the root task but got something directly related as a...

Those would be the people who don't go out in the field looking to save captive princes from fire-breathing dragons or raid the trap-filled tombs of Antioch. :) The people who do do these things would, one would think, leave their precious possessions at home or in safekeeping somewhere, unless...

Tough. I'll deal with that argument as and when I have to. :)

"Cavalierly destroy"? Your precious item has the same chance of being destroyed as anything else you're carrying, mitigated by any protective measures you've taken to help ensure its safety. It happens all the time: characters lose items that are mechanically vital to their ability to do...

No. Next question? :)

TSR-era D&D is a better starting point IMO due to its discrete-subsystem design. WotC-era unified design is, by comparison, terrible for kitbashing as before long you're rebuilding the entire thing from the ground up rather than just changing/adding/eliminating a subsystem in relative...

Not quite. I'm saying degrees of success all have to be contained within the "success" side of the roll while degrees of failure all go under the "fail" side. Success with complication is still success.

This treads close to suggesting that either a) narrative games never have players who try to game the system or b) that only good players play narrative games. Hard to see how that comes across very well. The other key thing with the 1e system was that even if you managed to recover those lost...

I don't disagree. The problem comes when you take one really-well-done mechanical element from this game, another from that game, a third from somewhere else, etc. etc. and then try to cobble them all together into something the least bit coherent and-or playable. I won't say it's impossible...

Sorry, but other than the first one "Be a fan of your character..." (which is excellent advice) that mostly speaks to a game that, taken at face value, I'd have little to no interest in playing and less than no interest in running. I'm a bit surprised that in the "Speak to the characters..."...

So if I've got a character who never drinks, in a system with binding social mechanics someone's not even allowed to try to persuade me to drink? Or, if you like, flip it around: it's an NPC who never drinks and a PC doing the persuading.

Bluntly put: yes. If one's enjoyment of a character in part hinges on that character's possession and-or use of a possibly-fragile item, whose job is it to make sure said item is and stays protected? Hint: the answer is not the DM. Further, my take is that if you take something out into the...

No saving throw and you get to know what the target is thinking? Nasty. Does using Detect Thoughts give anything away about the user, e.g. do their eyes glaze over for a moment while they're detecting such that the target might notice? Also, after the fact does the target have any way of...

If the PCs have in-fiction reason to know or think there's a time crunch, then sure. Where it would get really interesting would be if the players (as their PCs) were put in the position of having to choose between: 1. Climb safely, you'll get to the top for sure, but you maybe won't make it...

I'll go a step farther and say that including mechanics to govern ordinary social interactions (as opposed to outright control abilities a la Suggestion, Charm, Dominate, etc.) are the root mistake. I'm fine with control abilities for a few reasons: --- there's only a fairly small subset of...

Seems to me this has circled back around to the example from (was it this thread or another?) regarding a teetotal character being persuaded to drink even though drinking is in theory something the character would never do. I seem to recall that one wasn't exactly met with open arms and warm...

This is where we differ. Sure there can be an open third-story window but I want there to be that very important intervening step where the player actually has the character look for another way in after being balked at the door, as opposed to booting the door in or giving up and leaving or...

I don't think so, as it largely matched their personalities in other areas of life. If someone comes up with a crazy idea that has a low chance of success than that's what it'll have. If needs be I'll even point this out up front. But I'm not going to give bonuses to crazy ideas, nor am I...

Telling the player the potential consequences is fine if-when the PC in the fiction would reasonably know or be able to project said consequences. Thus, if the PC knows there's a ritual happening on the clifftop and that time is of the essence, then by all means make sure the player knows this...