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5e consequence-resolution
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<blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 8652354" data-attributes="member: 16814"><p>Yes, if your intent is to model some inherent cause and effect, then a static target number is a poor idea. If you look at a situation and say, "Okay, this cliff is described as pretty sheer, with few handholds, and nearly perfectly vertical. Plus it's been raining. So this fictional situation sounds like it would be a pretty hard thing to climb," then you wouldn't want to use a static number but rather a system that adapted difficulty to the fiction. This would be having a system that aligns to the fiction prior to resolution -- ie, the resolution methods are aligned to represent the fictional situation.</p><p></p><p>A static target number system, therefore, would be a bad fit for this approach. But it exists in the wild, in a pretty popular game (Apocalypse World by itself hits the top 10 RPGs, the gamut of PbtA games holds a decently sized slice of the entire RPG pie). So, then, how does that work?</p><p></p><p>It works because these systems are not looking to align resolution with the fiction first, but rather align the fiction to the resolution. In these games, you wouldn't present a cliff to climb as an obstacle by itself unless it was directly important to the play. And how challenging it was to climb would remain pretty vague -- it's a cliff, dangerous (because if it's not dangerous, you're not featuring it in play period), but not in sharp focus. And this is because what the cliff is isn't really that important -- that it's between what a character wants or needs and the character is or somehow asks a question about who this character really is. So you roll the static roll. Most games like this don't have much in the way of bonuses -- usually a small plus or extra die at the top end, so the "accuracy" is well "bounded." The result tells us what happened, and then we can align the fiction. A success? The PC found ample handleholds, scampered up the cliff, and achieved what they wanted. A middle result? The PC gets up the cliff and achieves what they wanted, but at a cost, or a complication. Somethings not right, and we now need to deal with that. A failure? The door's open for bad stuff because we don't really care about climbing the cliff, but about what happens when the PC fails their goal or doesn't get what they want or finds out the answer to who this character is isn't a happy one. But, at no point is the game about how hard this cliff is to climb. We just don't really care about that answer.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ovinomancer, post: 8652354, member: 16814"] Yes, if your intent is to model some inherent cause and effect, then a static target number is a poor idea. If you look at a situation and say, "Okay, this cliff is described as pretty sheer, with few handholds, and nearly perfectly vertical. Plus it's been raining. So this fictional situation sounds like it would be a pretty hard thing to climb," then you wouldn't want to use a static number but rather a system that adapted difficulty to the fiction. This would be having a system that aligns to the fiction prior to resolution -- ie, the resolution methods are aligned to represent the fictional situation. A static target number system, therefore, would be a bad fit for this approach. But it exists in the wild, in a pretty popular game (Apocalypse World by itself hits the top 10 RPGs, the gamut of PbtA games holds a decently sized slice of the entire RPG pie). So, then, how does that work? It works because these systems are not looking to align resolution with the fiction first, but rather align the fiction to the resolution. In these games, you wouldn't present a cliff to climb as an obstacle by itself unless it was directly important to the play. And how challenging it was to climb would remain pretty vague -- it's a cliff, dangerous (because if it's not dangerous, you're not featuring it in play period), but not in sharp focus. And this is because what the cliff is isn't really that important -- that it's between what a character wants or needs and the character is or somehow asks a question about who this character really is. So you roll the static roll. Most games like this don't have much in the way of bonuses -- usually a small plus or extra die at the top end, so the "accuracy" is well "bounded." The result tells us what happened, and then we can align the fiction. A success? The PC found ample handleholds, scampered up the cliff, and achieved what they wanted. A middle result? The PC gets up the cliff and achieves what they wanted, but at a cost, or a complication. Somethings not right, and we now need to deal with that. A failure? The door's open for bad stuff because we don't really care about climbing the cliff, but about what happens when the PC fails their goal or doesn't get what they want or finds out the answer to who this character is isn't a happy one. But, at no point is the game about how hard this cliff is to climb. We just don't really care about that answer. [/QUOTE]
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