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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 7977832" data-attributes="member: 6785785">It very well may not be to your liking, I get that....but I think that the way you kind of keep saying that the PCs rarely succeed "without screwing something up" is an inaccurate way to describe success with complication. That's not at all what is happening on a 4-5, which is part of what I was trying to explain above.So not to beat a dead horse, but maybe a different example that aligns more clearly to what D&D does will work. In combat in D&D, the player declares he is attacking a target, and then makes a roll to see if he hits, and the DM compares the roll to the target's AC. The result is binary; he hits and rolls damage, or he misses and does not. You can also score a critical hit, dealing extra damage. Those are the possible outcomes. Then play moves on to the next character in initiative order, which includes the NPCs.In Blades, the player declares he is attacking a target. The GM sets Position and Effect, and then the player decides if he wants to continue. If so, he makes an Action Roll using the relevant stat (let's say Skirmish to stab his opponent with a knife). The result isn't binary in this game; you can score a full success on a 6 (or a critical success if more than one 6 is rolled), a partial success or success with complication on 4-5, or a failure on a 1-3.So let's say you get a 4-5. That means you succeed. Your character stabs the guy. He's most likely done for....but the GM has to add a complication of some sort. Let's say he declares that before you stab the guy, he manages to bring his own blade to bear, and slashes your arm as you drive your knife home, and you take level 2 Harm: Slashed Arm. There are ways you may resist this harm if you wanted to spend Stress, but let's just leave the example here. NPCs don't get a turn of their own, so this is largely incorporated into the narration on a Failure 1-3 or Success With Complication 4-5.In D&D, the PC hits his target and does X damage. Then the opponent goes, and on his turn he hits the PC for Y damage. Would you describe this as the PC "screwing up" in some way?In Blades, the same scenario results in the PC eliminating his target, but taking some kind of damage of his own in the process. I don't see how this is the PC "screwing up". He didn't fail to eliminate the opponent without getting hurt becuase he's bad at what he does. He got hurt because the guy he attacked was actually dangerous. There are other options the GM could narrate as part of the complication....it doesn't have to always be Harm. Maybe the opponent thrashes violently as he's stabbed, and he falls away, pulling the blade from the PCs hand. Now the PC has to rely on another weapon (if he has room in his inventory for one) or spend time retrieving the lost knife. Or maybe the opponent dies, but cries out, alerting other nearby opponents that something's wrong, and soon the PC will be facing more enemies.Whatever the GM decides, it's about creating a new situation for the PC to deal with, not about the PC screwing up in some way. The situation is constantly evolving. It's more dynamic than the back and forth hit or miss, inflict some HP damage or not of D&D. I say this not as a knock on D&D...the games just do things in different ways.I hope that helps explain what success with complication might actually mean, and how it's not some kind of failure on the part of the PC.</blockquote>

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