Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Failing Forward
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Neonchameleon" data-source="post: 6780546" data-attributes="member: 87792"><p>Failing forward is a patch over a design flaw - what happens when someone fails a roll? In far, far too many RPGs the answer is "Nothing happens" or failing that "You cross one option off - try another skill?" Which fundamentally isn't interesting.</p><p></p><p>oD&D has no need for Failing Forward - it's a timed game. Faff around too long and there's another wandering monster check. But most games aren't in so artificial an environment as the dungeon. This means that games that work on a simple pass/fail metric (and there are loads) can easily devolve into dice-fests as people take it in turns to see who can pick the lock. A clearly tedious and irritating form of play.</p><p></p><p>Fail Forward is using the DMing advice to fix the system - borderline Oberoni Fallacy. It's vastly better than nothing. But this doesn't make it actually good. I'd far rather use something with consequences for failure like Apocalypse World/Dungeon World (hard moves). Cortex Plus (risking complications), oD&D (timer with wandering monster checks) or 4e (skill challenges being a "Three strikes and you're out" system) than I would simple Fail Forward. Fixing the game is better than giving the GM advice as to how to patch things - which is itself better than not raising this as an issue.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Neonchameleon, post: 6780546, member: 87792"] Failing forward is a patch over a design flaw - what happens when someone fails a roll? In far, far too many RPGs the answer is "Nothing happens" or failing that "You cross one option off - try another skill?" Which fundamentally isn't interesting. oD&D has no need for Failing Forward - it's a timed game. Faff around too long and there's another wandering monster check. But most games aren't in so artificial an environment as the dungeon. This means that games that work on a simple pass/fail metric (and there are loads) can easily devolve into dice-fests as people take it in turns to see who can pick the lock. A clearly tedious and irritating form of play. Fail Forward is using the DMing advice to fix the system - borderline Oberoni Fallacy. It's vastly better than nothing. But this doesn't make it actually good. I'd far rather use something with consequences for failure like Apocalypse World/Dungeon World (hard moves). Cortex Plus (risking complications), oD&D (timer with wandering monster checks) or 4e (skill challenges being a "Three strikes and you're out" system) than I would simple Fail Forward. Fixing the game is better than giving the GM advice as to how to patch things - which is itself better than not raising this as an issue. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Failing Forward
Top