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Do you use the Success w/ Complication Module in the DMG or Fail Forward in the Basic PDF
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<blockquote data-quote="tetrasodium" data-source="post: 8277531" data-attributes="member: 93670"><p>I think we disagree on what constitutes "meaningful", you seem to set it somewhere closer to an area I might call "<strong>Boring</strong>" trivial irrelevant beneath notice uninteresting or whatever. Look at these quotes from <a href="https://www.evilhat.com/home/fate-core-downloads/" target="_blank">the fate core book</a> for some light on the other viewpoint.</p><p>[spoiler="when to roll the dice pg187"]</p><p>When to Roll dice</p><p>Roll the dice when succeeding or failing at the action could each contribute something interesting to the game</p><p>.This is pretty easy to figure out in regards to success, most of the time—the PCs overcome a significant obstacle, win a conflict, or succeed at a goal, which creates fodder for the next thing.</p><p></p><p>With failure, however, it’s a little more difficult, because it’s easy to look at failure in strictly negative terms—you fail, you lose, you don’t get what you want. If there’s nothing to build on after that failure, play can grind to a halt in a hurry.</p><p>The worst, worst thing you can do is have a failed roll that means nothing happens—no new knowledge, no new course of action to take, and no change in the situation. That is totally boring, and it discourages players from investing in failure—something you absolutely want them to do, given how important compels and the concession mechanic are. Do not do this<strong>. If you can’t imagine an interesting outcome from both results, then don’t call for that roll.</strong> <strong>If failure is the uninteresting option, just give the PCs what they want and call for a roll later, when you can think of an interesting failure. If success is the boring option, then see if you can turn your idea for failure into a compel instead, using that moment as an opportunity to funnel fate points to the players.</strong></p><p>[/spoiler]</p><p></p><p>[spoiler="notice, pg116"]</p><p>notice</p><p>The Notice skill involves just that—noticing things. It’s a counterpart to</p><p>Investigate, representing a character’s overall perception, ability to pick out</p><p>details at a glance, and other powers of observation. Usually, when you use</p><p>Notice, it’s very quick compared to Investigate, so the kinds of details you</p><p>get from it are more superficial, but you also don’t have to expend as much</p><p>effort to find them.</p><p>o Overcome: You don’t really use Notice to overcome obstacles too</p><p></p><p>often but when you do it’s used in a reactive way: noticing some-</p><p>thing in a scene, hearing a faint sound, spotting the concealed gun</p><p>in that guy’s waistband.</p><p><strong>Note that this isn’t license for GMs to call for Notice rolls left </strong></p><p><strong>and right to see how generally observant the players’ characters are; </strong></p><p><strong>that’s boring. Instead, call for Notice rolls when succeeding would </strong></p><p><strong>result in something interesting happening and failing would result </strong></p><p><strong>in something just as interesting.</strong>[/spoiler]</p><p></p><p></p><p>[spoiler="drama is better than realism pg178"]</p><p>draMa is Better</p><p>tHan reaLisM</p><p>in Fate, don’t get too bogged</p><p>down trying to maintain abso-</p><p>lute consistency in the world</p><p>or adhere to a draconian sense</p><p>of realism. the game operates</p><p>by the rules of drama and fic-</p><p>tion; use that to your advan-</p><p>tage. there should be very few</p><p>moments in the game where</p><p>the pcs are free of conflicts or</p><p>problems to deal with, even if</p><p>it’d be more “realistic” for them</p><p>to get a long breather.</p><p><strong>When you’re trying to decide </strong></p><p><strong>what happens, and the answer </strong></p><p><strong>that makes the most sense is </strong></p><p><strong>also kind of boring, go with </strong></p><p><strong>something that’s more exciting </strong></p><p><strong>than sensible! you can always </strong></p><p><strong>find a way later on to justify </strong></p><p><strong>something that doesn’t make </strong></p><p><strong>immediate sense.</strong>[/spoiler]</p><p></p><p>[spoiler="Skills & specific measurements pg204"]</p><p>Though it may seem counter-intuitive, we find that creating minutiae</p><p>like that detracts from the verisimilitude of the game in play. As soon as</p><p>you establish a detail like, “Great Physique can dead lift a car for five sec-</p><p>onds,” then you’re cutting out a lot of the variability that real life allows.</p><p>Adrenaline and other factors allow people to reach beyond their normal</p><p>physical limits or fall short of them—you can’t factor every one of those</p><p>things in without having it take up a large amount of focus at the table.</p><p><strong>It becomes a thing for people to discuss and even argue about, rather than </strong></p><p><strong>participating in the scene.</strong></p><p><strong>It’s also boring. If you decide that a Fair (+2) Resources can buy anything </strong></p><p><strong>that’s 200 gold pieces or less, then you’ve removed a great deal of potential </strong></p><p><strong>for tension and drama. Suddenly, every time you have a Resources-based </strong></p><p><strong>problem, it’s going to hinge on the question of whether or not the cost is </strong></p><p><strong>200 gold pieces, rather than whatever the point of the scene is. It also turns </strong></p><p><strong>everything into a simple pass/fail situation, which means you don’t really </strong></p><p><strong>have a good reason to roll the skill at all. And again, this is not realistic—</strong></p><p><strong>when people spend money, it’s not about the raw dollar amount as much as </strong></p><p><strong>it is a question of what someone can presently afford.</strong></p><p><strong>Remember, a skill roll is a narrative tool, meant to answer the following </strong></p><p><strong>question: “Can I solve X problem using Y means, right now?” When you </strong></p><p><strong>get an unexpected result, use your sense of realism and drama to explain and </strong></p><p><strong>justify it, using our guidelines above. “Oh, you failed that Resources roll to </strong></p><p><strong>bribe the guard? Guess you spent just a bit more at the tavern last night than </strong></p><p><strong>you thought... wait, why is your belt pouch gone? And who’s that shady </strong></p><p><strong>character walking a little too quickly just past the line of guards? Did he just </strong></p><p><strong>wink at you? That bastard... now what do you do?</strong>”[/spoiler]</p><p>If you define meaningful as literally anything at all then yea it's going to be hard to have maningful consequences for success & failure both. If you define meaningful closer to the definition of something of serious import quality of purpose it's a bit higher bar. Those excerpts talk a lot about when to call for a roll or not too so they should help</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="tetrasodium, post: 8277531, member: 93670"] I think we disagree on what constitutes "meaningful", you seem to set it somewhere closer to an area I might call "[B]Boring[/B]" trivial irrelevant beneath notice uninteresting or whatever. Look at these quotes from [URL='https://www.evilhat.com/home/fate-core-downloads/']the fate core book[/URL] for some light on the other viewpoint. [spoiler="when to roll the dice pg187"] When to Roll dice Roll the dice when succeeding or failing at the action could each contribute something interesting to the game .This is pretty easy to figure out in regards to success, most of the time—the PCs overcome a significant obstacle, win a conflict, or succeed at a goal, which creates fodder for the next thing. With failure, however, it’s a little more difficult, because it’s easy to look at failure in strictly negative terms—you fail, you lose, you don’t get what you want. If there’s nothing to build on after that failure, play can grind to a halt in a hurry. The worst, worst thing you can do is have a failed roll that means nothing happens—no new knowledge, no new course of action to take, and no change in the situation. That is totally boring, and it discourages players from investing in failure—something you absolutely want them to do, given how important compels and the concession mechanic are. Do not do this[B]. If you can’t imagine an interesting outcome from both results, then don’t call for that roll.[/B] [B]If failure is the uninteresting option, just give the PCs what they want and call for a roll later, when you can think of an interesting failure. If success is the boring option, then see if you can turn your idea for failure into a compel instead, using that moment as an opportunity to funnel fate points to the players.[/B] [/spoiler] [spoiler="notice, pg116"] notice The Notice skill involves just that—noticing things. It’s a counterpart to Investigate, representing a character’s overall perception, ability to pick out details at a glance, and other powers of observation. Usually, when you use Notice, it’s very quick compared to Investigate, so the kinds of details you get from it are more superficial, but you also don’t have to expend as much effort to find them. o Overcome: You don’t really use Notice to overcome obstacles too often but when you do it’s used in a reactive way: noticing some- thing in a scene, hearing a faint sound, spotting the concealed gun in that guy’s waistband. [B]Note that this isn’t license for GMs to call for Notice rolls left and right to see how generally observant the players’ characters are; that’s boring. Instead, call for Notice rolls when succeeding would result in something interesting happening and failing would result in something just as interesting.[/B][/spoiler] [spoiler="drama is better than realism pg178"] draMa is Better tHan reaLisM in Fate, don’t get too bogged down trying to maintain abso- lute consistency in the world or adhere to a draconian sense of realism. the game operates by the rules of drama and fic- tion; use that to your advan- tage. there should be very few moments in the game where the pcs are free of conflicts or problems to deal with, even if it’d be more “realistic” for them to get a long breather. [B]When you’re trying to decide what happens, and the answer that makes the most sense is also kind of boring, go with something that’s more exciting than sensible! you can always find a way later on to justify something that doesn’t make immediate sense.[/B][/spoiler] [spoiler="Skills & specific measurements pg204"] Though it may seem counter-intuitive, we find that creating minutiae like that detracts from the verisimilitude of the game in play. As soon as you establish a detail like, “Great Physique can dead lift a car for five sec- onds,” then you’re cutting out a lot of the variability that real life allows. Adrenaline and other factors allow people to reach beyond their normal physical limits or fall short of them—you can’t factor every one of those things in without having it take up a large amount of focus at the table. [B]It becomes a thing for people to discuss and even argue about, rather than participating in the scene. It’s also boring. If you decide that a Fair (+2) Resources can buy anything that’s 200 gold pieces or less, then you’ve removed a great deal of potential for tension and drama. Suddenly, every time you have a Resources-based problem, it’s going to hinge on the question of whether or not the cost is 200 gold pieces, rather than whatever the point of the scene is. It also turns everything into a simple pass/fail situation, which means you don’t really have a good reason to roll the skill at all. And again, this is not realistic— when people spend money, it’s not about the raw dollar amount as much as it is a question of what someone can presently afford. Remember, a skill roll is a narrative tool, meant to answer the following question: “Can I solve X problem using Y means, right now?” When you get an unexpected result, use your sense of realism and drama to explain and justify it, using our guidelines above. “Oh, you failed that Resources roll to bribe the guard? Guess you spent just a bit more at the tavern last night than you thought... wait, why is your belt pouch gone? And who’s that shady character walking a little too quickly just past the line of guards? Did he just wink at you? That bastard... now what do you do?[/B]”[/spoiler] If you define meaningful as literally anything at all then yea it's going to be hard to have maningful consequences for success & failure both. If you define meaningful closer to the definition of something of serious import quality of purpose it's a bit higher bar. Those excerpts talk a lot about when to call for a roll or not too so they should help [/QUOTE]
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