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Failure stakes for a travel Skill Challenge
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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7560953" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>Lets think about this in terms of "play to see what happens". In that paradigm, arrival at the destination cannot ever be seen as a given. In fact in a truly 'story now' mode of play <strong>there is no destination.</strong> Thus, in those terms, [MENTION=1282]darkbard[/MENTION]'s question becomes literally incoherent; that is, a game built to work that way is incoherent with his stated scenario. </p><p></p><p>I don't want to sidetrack the thread, its clear enough that he's got some sort of 'scripted' play going on in which the GM has already constrained the outcome to arrival at the planned destination. However, it can be interesting to contrast the different techniques and see how their fundamental play architectures lead to different game experiences.</p><p></p><p>So, in my story now HoML campaign, the PCs might strike out towards a remote destination across the 'darkness' of the world. If the player's stated interest is focused strictly on some element which has been narratively constrained in previous play to require the PCs to be at that remote location, then arrival there should be a given and any costs involved should be seen as 'stakes'. It might, thus, be appropriate to challenge the players, "how badly do you really want to do X, are you willing to pay N amount of resources to do that?" This would play out in HoML as an SC, most likely. It would necessarily have the constraints in that case similar to darkbard's outline in the OP.</p><p></p><p>The form of said challenge would then be one where passing would allow arrival with resources intact, and failure would not. The players could choose to pay for successes (an option in HoML that is missing in 4e) and get some kind of 'middle path' where they spend a bit but most likely less than failure would cost.</p><p></p><p>The challenge COULD also take some other forms. It could be something like a sacrifice, choose between success and you lose your loyal henchman, or failure if you save him, that sort of thing (again, this could be a dilemma brought on by failure, you can 'turn it into success' at a cost). A reward scenario could work too, again with possibly some sort of compromise or extra cost element potentially involved (let the fey steal the child, get their help). </p><p></p><p>What all these have in common is really their focus on elucidating how the PCs story evolves, what choices they make, and how those choices lead to different possible story outcomes. Remember, there is no fixed script which requires arrival at the destination either! It could be that events along the way lead the PCs down a different path, or maybe the players decide that their goal isn't worth the cost. Maybe they turn back, or maybe they arrive much later or with different goals.</p><p></p><p>I find it interesting that you can't really necessarily tell which set of techniques are used to play out a narrative after the fact.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 7560953, member: 82106"] Lets think about this in terms of "play to see what happens". In that paradigm, arrival at the destination cannot ever be seen as a given. In fact in a truly 'story now' mode of play [b]there is no destination.[/b] Thus, in those terms, [MENTION=1282]darkbard[/MENTION]'s question becomes literally incoherent; that is, a game built to work that way is incoherent with his stated scenario. I don't want to sidetrack the thread, its clear enough that he's got some sort of 'scripted' play going on in which the GM has already constrained the outcome to arrival at the planned destination. However, it can be interesting to contrast the different techniques and see how their fundamental play architectures lead to different game experiences. So, in my story now HoML campaign, the PCs might strike out towards a remote destination across the 'darkness' of the world. If the player's stated interest is focused strictly on some element which has been narratively constrained in previous play to require the PCs to be at that remote location, then arrival there should be a given and any costs involved should be seen as 'stakes'. It might, thus, be appropriate to challenge the players, "how badly do you really want to do X, are you willing to pay N amount of resources to do that?" This would play out in HoML as an SC, most likely. It would necessarily have the constraints in that case similar to darkbard's outline in the OP. The form of said challenge would then be one where passing would allow arrival with resources intact, and failure would not. The players could choose to pay for successes (an option in HoML that is missing in 4e) and get some kind of 'middle path' where they spend a bit but most likely less than failure would cost. The challenge COULD also take some other forms. It could be something like a sacrifice, choose between success and you lose your loyal henchman, or failure if you save him, that sort of thing (again, this could be a dilemma brought on by failure, you can 'turn it into success' at a cost). A reward scenario could work too, again with possibly some sort of compromise or extra cost element potentially involved (let the fey steal the child, get their help). What all these have in common is really their focus on elucidating how the PCs story evolves, what choices they make, and how those choices lead to different possible story outcomes. Remember, there is no fixed script which requires arrival at the destination either! It could be that events along the way lead the PCs down a different path, or maybe the players decide that their goal isn't worth the cost. Maybe they turn back, or maybe they arrive much later or with different goals. I find it interesting that you can't really necessarily tell which set of techniques are used to play out a narrative after the fact. [/QUOTE]
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