Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 8279246" data-attributes="member: 6779196">This is, in my opinion, a very counter-productive practice. Rolls should always be relevant, otherwise they’re a waste of time. And the gameplay experience is more satisfying when players can make informed decisions. Calling for pointless rolls just to befuddle your players is... I’m trying to be polite here... the absolute antithesis of what I would consider good DMing practice.Uncertainty of ability is irrelevant. If you get it done, you get it done, doesn’t matter how well.This is a completely separate issue. I was responding to a comment about calling for rolls and using the result to determine how well the character accomplished something, not whether they accomplished it at all.But yes, obviously you don’t hit every pitch thrown your way, that’s (part of) why individual attempts should be rolled for individually.You’ve misunderstood me. When I say “dramatically ought to be (un)certain” I’m talking about dramatic tension, not about what I personally think would make a better story. Again, whatever happens in the game is the story, it’s not the DM’s role to try to nudge events in any particular direction. I have a strong preference for emergent storytelling in RPGs. But if there’s no dramatic stakes to a task (that is to say, nothing interesting or consequential will happen or fail to happen based on the results), there’s no dramatic uncertainty.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Charlaquin, post: 8279246, member: 6779196"] This is, in my opinion, a very counter-productive practice. Rolls should always be relevant, otherwise they’re a waste of time. And the gameplay experience is more satisfying when players can make informed decisions. Calling for pointless rolls just to befuddle your players is... I’m trying to be polite here... the absolute antithesis of what I would consider good DMing practice. Uncertainty of ability is irrelevant. If you get it done, you get it done, doesn’t matter how well. This is a completely separate issue. I was responding to a comment about calling for rolls and using the result to determine how well the character accomplished something, not whether they accomplished it at all. But yes, obviously you don’t hit every pitch thrown your way, that’s (part of) why individual attempts should be rolled for individually. You’ve misunderstood me. When I say “dramatically ought to be (un)certain” I’m talking about dramatic tension, not about what I personally think would make a better story. Again, whatever happens in the game is the story, it’s not the DM’s role to try to nudge events in any particular direction. I have a strong preference for emergent storytelling in RPGs. But if there’s no dramatic stakes to a task (that is to say, nothing interesting or consequential will happen or fail to happen based on the results), there’s no dramatic uncertainty. [/QUOTE]

Verification