Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8144132" data-attributes="member: 82106">But again, ALL of this discussion is predicated on rules that define binary success and failure of the action described by the player.If the rules instead describe the outcome of the INTENT of what the player is trying to have the PC accomplish, then the problem largely goes away! Instead of 'looking in the gazebo for the clues' and either finding them or not finding them (now what?) the player establishes that his intent is to perform the appropriate investigations in this area in order to achieve a crime solution (or at least advance the investigation). Then they would describe the things that they do, like 'search the gazebo'. If the intent is achieved, then the investigation advances. If the GM and the player want to 'noodle an answer' then we need descriptions of specific clues, and the deciphering and deciding where to go next is then left to the player. Failure of intent could indicate finding a red herring, or some entirely other event (being kidnapped, meeting the Femme Fatale, etc.). I really am not a genius at this genre, so I would personally go read something like 'Gumshoe' and see how they did it, but this seems like a viable approach that would work with basically the mechanics of most story games to one degree or another.</blockquote>