D&D General A glimpse at WoTC's current view of Rule 0

[Vaalingrade]

if a publisher instructs a writer to write a book about a particular subject, was that piece a collaboration between the publisher and the writer?

As a writer: absolutely not.

 

[Aldarc]

Yet even in those games doesn't playing your character with integrity come first, even if doing so leads to less drama and-or a less engaging story?

What is the antecedent to "those games"? I talked about different types of games, and it's not clear which set you are referring to here.

 

[AnotherGuy]

The 4e DMG2 sets out a version of that principle on p 83, in the context of a discussion of skill challenge adjudication/resolution:

Each skill check in a challenge should accomplish one of the following goals:​

​

*Introduce a new option that the PCs can puruse, a path to success that they didn't know existed.​

​

*Change the situation, such as by sending the PCs to a new location, introducing a new NPC, or adding a complication.​

​

*Grant the players a tangible consequence for the check's success or failure (as appropriate), one that influences their subsequent decisions.​

This is something that I and (of other participants in this thread) @Manbearcat posted about a lot 10+ years ago. The failure to apply this principle seems to be why some people weren't able to run satisfactory skill challenges.

Just curious
When it comes to SC, do you as DM struggle sometimes to come up with x number of tests (skill checks) required for the SC difficulty that you have selected?
Can/Do players provide assistance with possible ideas for these tests?

 

[soviet]

Maybe. For me it would depend on how much further input the publisher had (or wants to have) over the content.

"Write a book about Hobgoblins" - no real collaboration there.
"Write a book sympathetic to Hobgoblins"
"Write a book sympathetic to Hobgoblins and use the world of Akrayna as the setting"
"Write a book sympathetic to Hobgoblins, set on the world of Akrayna, and name the heroine something close to Kara as that's my daughter's name" - by this point I think we've reached collaboration.

Really? I mean, it's just giving the writer the name of a world and the name of a character. Or are you assuming that 'set on the world of Akrayna' also comes with some sort of lore bible for that world?

 

[Vaalingrade]

Just curious
When it comes to SC, do you as DM struggle sometimes to come up with x number of tests (skill checks) required for the SC difficulty that you have selected?
Can/Do players provide assistance with possible ideas for these tests?

Not who you're asking but I don't even suggest/pick skills for my challenges if I'm not writing out the adventure for someone else to use. I just present the issue and ask them how they approach it.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Not who you're asking but I don't even suggest/pick skills for my challenges if I'm not writing out the adventure for someone else to use. I just present the issue and ask them how they approach it.

But if you are going to use the mechanic of say 6 successes before 3 failures, do you have difficulty sometimes deriving (or in your instance) having the players derive the required number of challenges (however they are overcome) to attain those 6 successes?

 

[Vaalingrade]

I still set the difficulty, they just pick the skills to use.

 

[AnotherGuy]

I still set the difficulty, they just pick the skills to use.

Ah, the creativity of it all falls on them, that does make it much easier to run, but then what about the ideas they come up with - do you do any evaluation on them or are all ideas valid?

 

[Vaalingrade]

Ah, the creativity of it all falls on them, that does make it much easier to run, but then what about the ideas they come up with - do you do any evaluation on them or are all ideas valid?

Unless someone objects, it's valid. People don't really tend to go way out there unless they're doing a bit at which point it's usually funny enough that no one is bothered.

 

[AnotherGuy]

I'm very much a fan of table consensus and so yeah that works for me. It keeps the boundary pushers in check by the rest of the players who care about setting consistency and the integrity of the story without leaving it all in my lap as DM.