NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 8329159" data-attributes="member: 16814">Fail forward doesn't mean "success with complication," although it might include that.  What it means is that failure doesn't stop everything -- that, even in failure, there is still a path forward.  A hard use of fail forward would be that the intended goal of the PC is either no longer achievable or is deeply complicated now, but there's still options available, eg that you have failed to stop the ritual and now demons are pouring through the BBEG's rift, but now you have the less optimal options to try to close the rift or deal with the demons directly.  This is fail forward.  Alternatively, a softer version would be success with complication -- you fail your check/action/whatever to stop the ritual and so the ritual is disrupted but not before X demons come through and now you have to deal with them.  This lets the PC achieve their goal, but adds a cost.  This is also fail forward.The idea that fail forward MUST include success is not correct -- it's right there in the name "fail" forward.  You can use lots of techniques to absolutely enforce a failure state but still have a path forward for the game to follow.  Forward here doesn't mean towards the players' intended goals, but instead means that the game can still progress -- it isn't stopped.  This applies from finding clues to mysteries to campaign high points, like the rituals above.  Fail forward is just the concept that play doesn't stop on a failure -- a closed door leads to an open window.  It isn't never failing, or just succeed at cost.  Those are just possible tools in the kit.  I don't know where this widespread concept of fail forward being success with complication came from, but that's like saying that tall people are always men.</blockquote>

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