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<blockquote data-quote="Cadfan" data-source="post: 4063010" data-attributes="member: 40961">Hong is arguing that because risk is a question of perception, there are about a million other ways to create a perception of risk (or to give a character a stake in the outcome, which is perhaps a better way of putting things) besides killing a PC or two with a door.Frankly, in my opinion, I find that sort of risk to be the clumsiest possible way to run a game.&nbsp; Its like in horror movies where, rather than actually create tension or drama or fear, they just have some bad guy disembowel a pretty girl in high definition.&nbsp; It gives the viewers the gut punch a horror movie is supposed to create, but its a trite gut punch.There are better ways to give a player a stake in the outcome of a hazard besides insisting that an individual hazard carry an X in 20 chance of character death.&nbsp; Unfortunately, most of those don't work for random traps.&nbsp; If a random trap has an X% chance of killing you, its an awfully lame way to die.&nbsp; Why is it lame?&nbsp; Because you're getting killed by something in which you had almost no stake.&nbsp; If a random trap does NOT have an X% chance of killing you, chances are your cleric will patch you up, and you'll move on, ensuring that the you have as much stake in the trap as you have in your cleric's 4th Cure Serious Wounds of the day- that is, none.Which is of course why WOTC is pushing so heavily to integrate traps and skill hazards into larger scenes involving multiple traps, multiple skill hazards, and combat.&nbsp; That way the individual trap isn't a &quot;roll above a 6 or die&quot; challenge, its part of a larger scenario.&nbsp; The scenario as a whole gives you a risk of character death just as much as any D&amp;D fight does.&nbsp; This also has the effect of giving characters a stake in the trap almost automatically- instead of the trap being a challenge in which they &quot;roll above a 6 or die, or maybe waste a cure spell,&quot; the trap affects their ability to do something cool that they wanted to accomplish, like leap over a pit to attack a wizard.&nbsp; The players now have a stake in the trap, almost for free.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Cadfan, post: 4063010, member: 40961"] Hong is arguing that because risk is a question of perception, there are about a million other ways to create a perception of risk (or to give a character a stake in the outcome, which is perhaps a better way of putting things) besides killing a PC or two with a door. Frankly, in my opinion, I find that sort of risk to be the clumsiest possible way to run a game. Its like in horror movies where, rather than actually create tension or drama or fear, they just have some bad guy disembowel a pretty girl in high definition. It gives the viewers the gut punch a horror movie is supposed to create, but its a trite gut punch. There are better ways to give a player a stake in the outcome of a hazard besides insisting that an individual hazard carry an X in 20 chance of character death. Unfortunately, most of those don't work for random traps. If a random trap has an X% chance of killing you, its an awfully lame way to die. Why is it lame? Because you're getting killed by something in which you had almost no stake. If a random trap does NOT have an X% chance of killing you, chances are your cleric will patch you up, and you'll move on, ensuring that the you have as much stake in the trap as you have in your cleric's 4th Cure Serious Wounds of the day- that is, none. Which is of course why WOTC is pushing so heavily to integrate traps and skill hazards into larger scenes involving multiple traps, multiple skill hazards, and combat. That way the individual trap isn't a "roll above a 6 or die" challenge, its part of a larger scenario. The scenario [I]as a whole[/I] gives you a risk of character death just as much as any D&D fight does. This also has the effect of giving characters a stake in the trap almost automatically- instead of the trap being a challenge in which they "roll above a 6 or die, or maybe waste a cure spell," the trap affects their ability to do something cool that they wanted to accomplish, like leap over a pit to attack a wizard. The players now have a stake in the trap, almost for free. [/QUOTE]

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