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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8134357" data-attributes="member: 42582">Mythras is RuneQuest, right, with the Gloranthan IP removed?In which case I absolutely agree with you here. I don't know if the most contemporary versions still use strike ranks, but the versions of RQ that I have experience with care about that sort of thing to a high degree of detail.I don't know Far Trek but guess that it's a sci-fi game with a Star Trek-ish flavour? (I just did a quick Google and that seems right.)Anyway, what you posted here reminded me of this extract from the rules for Maelstrom Storytelling (which I first encountered being <a href="http://www.indie-rpgs.com/_articles/narr_essay.html" target="_blank">quoted by Ron Edwards</a>):focus on the intent behind the scene and not on how big or how far things might be. If the difficulty of the task at hand (such as jumping across a chasm in a cave) is explained in terms of difficulty, it doesn't matter how far across the actual chasm spans. In a movie, for instance, the camera zooms or pans to emphasize the danger or emotional reaction to the scene, and in so doing it manipulates the real distance of a chasm to suit the mood or "feel" of the moment. It is then no longer about how far across the character has to jump, but how hard the feat is for the character... If the players enjoy the challenge of figuring out how high and far someone can jump, they should be allowed the pleasure of doing so - as long as it doesn't interfere with the narrative flow and enjoyment of the game. The scene should be presented therefore in terms relative to the character's abilities ... Players who want to climb onto your coffee table and jump across your living room to prove that their character could jump over the chasm have probably missed the whole point of the story.Action resolution in Malestrom Storytelling is a dice pool in which successes (evens, I think) are counted against a difficulty number. The dice pool is a function of PC build plus player choices about using 1x/session resources.The GM's job is to maintain pacing and tension by presenting challenges/obstacles of <whatever> difficulty between the players and their goals. The roll of the dice, plus players' decisions about burning their limited-use resources, will determine what happens.This is completely different from a resolution framework in which first, the GM specifies how far across the chasm is in feet, and second, the player works out how many feet his/her PC can jump based on stats + athletics skill, then third the player scrounges around for other buffs and bonuses (from spells, springy shoes, or whatever else might be available) and finally fourth a check is made, the difficulty of which may be easy or hard depending not on the GM's opinion of what pacing and tension demand but rather the outcome of steps two and three in the context of step one.There can be hybrid approaches too. Burning Wheel, for instance, resemble Maelstrom Storytelling - and doesn't involve any step 1 - but does allow step three, because gear and spells are a thing in BW beyond simply figuring as potential 1x/session resources. It does have other mechanical features, though - in particular its PC improvement rules - which mean players don't always have a reason to max-out at step three.Which approach provides more player agency? I think the agency in Maelstrom is clear: the player sets the goal; the player decides what resources to burn; the GM is providing opposition and narrating failure.I think the agency in the more "simulationist" or "traditional" approach is harder to unpack. Why is there a chasm here? What process determined what buffs and gear might be available at step 3? It could be high agency, or could be pretty close to a railroad. We can't tell without more information and context.</blockquote>

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