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Message: <blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 6793537" data-attributes="member: 85870">First off, really good description of elements. I think you've identified most of the core, relevant goals for "action resolution paradigm X" (since we don't want to call it "fail forward" or "success at a cost"). Interestingly, your list sounds very much like a conversation the people at Fantasy Flight had when they made the new Star Wars/Warhammer Fantasy RPG games, because it seems like the action dice mechanic those systems use is based on this kind paradigm. As I recall, the Fantasy Flight "resolution system" assumes that the following basic outcomes are possible for a given check:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Overwhelming success -- Success at the described task, plus a situational boon/bonus/something cool that improves the party/player's position. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Basic success -- You succeeded at the described task at hand, without any additional boon or hindrance. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Success with a hindrance -- You succeeded at the task at hand, but something negative occurs which may affect future outcomes/decisions. I haven't played the game, but it's my impression that the defined hindrance should typically be applied to the immediate situation (as opposed to say, some situation that happens a week later).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Failure with a potential benefit --- You failed at the described task, but something happened that may situationally help the player/party. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Basic failure --- You failed at the task, with no other situational boon or hindrance.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Catastrophic failure --- You failed at the task, and something situationally negative further hinders the player/party beyond the described task resolution. </li> </ul>These are hard coded into the dice mechanics and skill system. But in looking at it, the only difference between this and what I do with Savage Worlds is the middle two tiers. Savage Worlds already has overwhelming success, basic success, failure, and catastrophic failure built into its dice mechanics as well. Thus, the middle two segments are likely the ones that are most relevant to the idea of "fail forward"/"success at cost"/Unnamed Resolution Paradigm X. In the case of the Fantasy Flight mechanic, though, one of the key points is that by hard coding it into the dice it removes some of the judgement call from the GM. Yes, the GM and player ultimately have to agree on the nature of a boon/hindrance when it happens, but the GM isn't deciding when one should be present --- it's the dice deciding that. The GM doesn't get to arbitrarily decide BOTH that a boon/hindrance happen AND the nature of that boon/hindrance.I think this approach also assumes some player collaboration and input to avoid abuse. If a GM's hindrances are things like, "You catastrophically failed your attack. So let's see, you drop your sword on your foot, take 20 hp damage and suffer a penalty to movement," the players are going to rebel pretty quickly. The simplest way to apply this same kind of result without having to use the Fantasy Flight system is to first houserule a degree of success / degree of failure to dice throws. In D&D, set a range (say, +2 / -2 from the DC of the check) that is either standard success or failure, and then move up and down the scale to assign the appropriate degree thresholds. The second thing to do would be to add a single Fudge / Fate die to your roll --- A blank means no boon or hindrance, a + means a boon, a - means a hindrance. The other way to do it would be to add a simple d6 "fate die" roll to every check. A 6 on your "fate" die means a boon; a 1 means a hindrance.</blockquote>

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