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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8278974" data-attributes="member: 42582">As far as I know, the phrase &quot;firehose of adversity&quot; comes from Paul Czege (<a href="http://www.indie-rpgs.com/archive/index.php?topic=1361" target="_blank">here</a>). He's using it to describe his approach to scene-framing, and contrasting it with what he calls &quot;scene extrapolation&quot; which is typical in much D&amp;D adjudication, CoC adjudication, indeed most mainstream/non-indie RPGing.I believe that [USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER] is using the phrase in a similar fashion, though he's describing PbtA/FitD play rather than strongly scene-framed play.The &quot;firehose of adversity&quot; is not every outcome is as bad as one might possibly conceive. It's that every situation, including consequences that are snowballing in from previous situations, put something real at stake for the character. The contrast is not between the orc hurt me and the orc maimed me but between you open the door; the room beyond is empty and you open the door to the vault; the treasure is gone!; or between you see signs of Orc raiding parties and as your eyes follow the Orc tracks to the horizon, you see a smudge of smoke from the distance; it looks like it must be coming from your village; or between the assassin gets the drop on you - you're hosed, and better roll up a new PC and the assassin gets the drop on you - what do you do? (Baker makes an especial point of that last one in the DitV rulebook, but I think the same point holds for PbtA).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8278974, member: 42582"] As far as I know, the phrase "firehose of adversity" comes from Paul Czege ([URL='http://www.indie-rpgs.com/archive/index.php?topic=1361']here[/URL]). He's using it to describe his approach to scene-framing, and contrasting it with what he calls "scene extrapolation" which is typical in much D&D adjudication, CoC adjudication, indeed most mainstream/non-indie RPGing. I believe that [USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER] is using the phrase in a similar fashion, though he's describing PbtA/FitD play rather than strongly scene-framed play. The "firehose of adversity" is not [I]every outcome is as bad as one might possibly conceive[/I]. It's that [I]every situation, including consequences that are snowballing in from previous situations, put something real at stake for the character[/I]. The contrast is not between [I]the orc hurt me [/I]and [I]the orc maimed me[/I] but between [I]you open the door; the room beyond is empty[/I] and [I]you open the door to the vault; the treasure is gone![/I]; or between [I]you see signs of Orc raiding parties [/I]and [I]as your eyes follow the Orc tracks to the horizon, you see a smudge of smoke from the distance; it looks like it must be coming from your village[/I]; or between [I]the assassin gets the drop on you - you're hosed, and better roll up a new PC [/I]and [I]the assassin gets the drop on you - what do you do? [/I](Baker makes an especial point of that last one in the DitV rulebook, but I think the same point holds for PbtA). [/QUOTE]

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