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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8274067" data-attributes="member: 82106">So, here's just a general question on the nature of checks to start with, and if it is even possible to use a check system that has different target ranges for success based on some sort of difficulty factor (which covers both 4e and 5e, and 3e et al as well) in a system where checks are fundamentally a REGULATOR OF DRAMA. That is in Dungeon World there's no such thing as 'scaling by level' or 'difficulty factor'. It doesn't even make sense as a concept in PbtA. While checks ARE triggered by choices made by the players, it is hard to say that they are really 'measures of success and failure' so much as 'measures of fortune'. You don't have a 25% chance to hit a dragon and a 90% chance to hit an orc. You hit either one of them with Hack & Slash on a 7+ on 2d6 (maybe a 6+ if you manage to invoke some 'hold' or something like that). The point being, if you were to substitute a 5e-like attack roll instead, the results would be rather different. Orcs would simply go up in a puff of smoke almost all the time, dragons would eat you almost all the time, which is probably true in DW now, but as the rules are written there would be some give and take. Your blows might not really kill the dragon, it has a bunch of hit points, but they would at least do something, fictionally. With the scaled checks that wouldn't even happen, the sucker would just eat you and you'd stand their unable to fight back at all. Beyond that, outside of combat, a lot of what checks do is pacing. Moves get made that introduce evolution of the game state. The mix of success and failure is more intended to regulate the amount of pressure on the PCs, not to model how hard things are. The GM simply describes THAT. Now, BitD, for example, is a bit different, the values you need to hit are always fixed, but the position and effect vary, which is a bit like changing DCs. I'm just not sure changing DCs is ever going to be a really super good model for this type of game.I mean, it DOES work in Skill Challenges, because there's a lot looser coupling there between a check and what it portends, at least potentially. The GM isn't 'making moves' based on the player moves. I'd note though that effectively it amounts to the same thing, you always basically use medium DCs in 4e SCs, except in specific situations. However you CAN say "this challenge is really hard, all the DCs are level+2 medium! Pacing happens a bit differently.</blockquote>

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