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!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9099055" data-attributes="member: 42582">This is not at all clear: AD&D has rules for evasion and extracting oneself from melee; so does 5e D&D.The stakes of the skill challenge are (I'm assuming) can the PCs persuade the Baron? The GM is not at liberty just to declare that the players lose, any more than the GM is at liberty, when adjudicating a combat, to just decide that the Orc ducks (because that's what the Orc would really do), that the Orc runs the PC through with its spear (because that's what would really happen), etc.To elaborate: in D&D combat, the GM is not at liberty to decide that really the Orc would have ducked even though the to hit die shows that the Orc was struck. Rather, the dice tell us whether or not the Orc is able to duck.In a skill challenge, the GM is not at liberty to decide that the Baron would really walk away from the PCs who are trying to extract a concession from him, even though the players have not yet failed the skill challenge. Rather, the dice tell us whether or not the Baron has the will and/or inclination to walk away.Any given person may or may not wish to adjudicate combat in that fashion, or to adjudicate interpersonal interactions in that fashion, but the way in which they work and the way in which they generate shared fiction is not mysterious, in either case.Are you asking about the fiction? That's part of what the GM has to do in narrating the skill challenge.Are you asking about the mechanics? For the reasons I just stated: the GM doesn't have unilateral power to decide that the players lose.</blockquote>

Verification