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A GMing telling the players about the gameworld is not like real life
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<blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 7583395" data-attributes="member: 6785785"><p>I think that for me and my group, we’ve stopped looking at our game as a game, as contradictory as it sounds. It’s much more an exercise in collaborative storytelling. This is generally speaking; obviously, what game we are playing has a huge impact on how we proceed, but that mindset does inform how we proceed regardless of system. </p><p></p><p>So even with a game that’s very challenge oriented like D&D, there’s a lot less concern about something being an “unfair” advantage because everyone’s working toward making the story more interesting, rather than worrying about trying to win. So to beat a dead horse a bit more, a player introducing the idea that his character has an Uncle Elmo who’s given </p><p>him adventuring advice isn’t a “weak justification” to gain an “unfair advantage” (nice pejoratives, those!) so much as a clever way to introduce a fictional element that helps move the game forward and also adds to the world the PCs inhabit. Any GM would be happy to have such a connection to work with, I would think, especially since so many characters seem to always be free of such connections. </p><p></p><p>When it comes to 5E specifically, one of the things I’ve started doing is emulating the “partial success” or “success with a complication” from more narrative games and incorporating it into D&D by having tiered DCs for most tasks. So a DC of 12 grants partial success/ success with complication, DC 16 is a full success, and DC 20 is a Critical success. The actual numbers will adjust up or down a bit depending on the actual task, but that’s the gist.</p><p></p><p>I think this works so well because partial successes are so interesting, and actually add to the fiction as you play. They also remove some of the binary “pass/fail” issues with skill checks in D&D. It still relies pretty heavily on GM judgment in establishing the DCs, but I find it really opens up play.</p><p></p><p>I’ve also started using Clocks as presented in Blades in the Dark. Just a nice little mechanism to help make skill challenges a bit clearer and meaningful. </p><p></p><p>These two minor alterations have really worked for my game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="hawkeyefan, post: 7583395, member: 6785785"] I think that for me and my group, we’ve stopped looking at our game as a game, as contradictory as it sounds. It’s much more an exercise in collaborative storytelling. This is generally speaking; obviously, what game we are playing has a huge impact on how we proceed, but that mindset does inform how we proceed regardless of system. So even with a game that’s very challenge oriented like D&D, there’s a lot less concern about something being an “unfair” advantage because everyone’s working toward making the story more interesting, rather than worrying about trying to win. So to beat a dead horse a bit more, a player introducing the idea that his character has an Uncle Elmo who’s given him adventuring advice isn’t a “weak justification” to gain an “unfair advantage” (nice pejoratives, those!) so much as a clever way to introduce a fictional element that helps move the game forward and also adds to the world the PCs inhabit. Any GM would be happy to have such a connection to work with, I would think, especially since so many characters seem to always be free of such connections. When it comes to 5E specifically, one of the things I’ve started doing is emulating the “partial success” or “success with a complication” from more narrative games and incorporating it into D&D by having tiered DCs for most tasks. So a DC of 12 grants partial success/ success with complication, DC 16 is a full success, and DC 20 is a Critical success. The actual numbers will adjust up or down a bit depending on the actual task, but that’s the gist. I think this works so well because partial successes are so interesting, and actually add to the fiction as you play. They also remove some of the binary “pass/fail” issues with skill checks in D&D. It still relies pretty heavily on GM judgment in establishing the DCs, but I find it really opens up play. I’ve also started using Clocks as presented in Blades in the Dark. Just a nice little mechanism to help make skill challenges a bit clearer and meaningful. These two minor alterations have really worked for my game. [/QUOTE]
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