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Message: <blockquote data-quote="doctorbadwolf" data-source="post: 8280914" data-attributes="member: 6704184">Wait why would you narrate failure for something that it is possible they might never figure out? I guess I just don’t have any instinctive or philosophical impulse to tie the die roll that strongly to a singular action. To me, it’s “I try to do XYZ” and then “okay roll this skill(s) for it”, and the roll or rolls represents the overall attempt to do the thing.   If I think that it’s something where enough time will lead inevitably to success, then the roll is just there to determine how long it takes. For me, playing that way slows things down, and is less interesting and engaging than requiring a change in circumstance or approach. I might allow one “I go do something else, eat a snack, clear my head, and try again, but if that doesn’t work, it doesn’t feel right to me to just keep rolling until it works. It doesn’t match my experience of life, nor what we want from telling stories together. I find that for my group, rolling investigation, thieves tools, and sleight of hand, makes the resolution more interesting that a single binary roll.  It also reduces the “only the person with the best modifier to X skill should attempt the task” dynamic by opening up more mechanical approaches.   Picking a lock is going to involve thieves tools, but the artificer, rogue, or the monk with thieves tools from background, all have a good chance of getting past the lock, using different combinations of proficiencies.   That, and since I want a success ladder of sorts, and the d20 is very swingy, it’s a good way to get more of a curve of results.  Oddly, part of my motivation is the same as yours. I don’t want extraneous rolls. The situation determines whether non-binary results will be more interesting, which determines whether it’s a single check or a set of them, but I strongly prefer to just have one resolution of the task. If it’s a thing where the character would just keep trying, then it’s possible the roll determines time rather than success/failure, but either way I just want to do the resolution once. Yeah fair</blockquote>

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