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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 6783744">What I am saying is every situation is going to have some obvious outcomes for particular rolls. If I am a player and trying to climb a wall, and the GM asks for a Climb Skill (or whatever skill or ability in the game covers that action) I am going to assume the stakes have something to do with not climbing the wall. If I fail and the GM says "You make it over the wall but drop your swiss army knife in the process" that is going to feel a bit odd to me, just given how my group tends to run things. Certainly the GM is free to set loss of the army knife as a stake, but I don't think that is at all an apparent stake given what the player knows of the situation going in. I am not saying dropping the knife is a bad stake to set if you want the game to advance forward toward a particular goal or if you find that the most exciting option. For my style of play, I don't see it adding anything except confusion. But even with your point conceded, that just leads me to ask how failing forward is different stake setting. We can certainly have a discussion over appropriate setting of stakes. I can clearly see what Pemerton and others are talking about when they describe fail forward. But I am genuinely having difficulty understanding what it is as you describe it. Not saying your wrong, I just can't really see the distinction between failing forward and the GM setting stakes in your post.</blockquote>