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GM fiat - an illustration
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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9625003" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>Absolutely. Something a lot of other-game (particularly D&D) experienced GMs may struggle with in PbtA/FitD/etc. games is that there are actually pretty strong rules which constrain what the GM is allowed to do. I don't know the specifics of what it means to cancel the score, but from what you've said here, it sounds like it is (at the very least) a soft move, if not an outright hard move. GMs in PbtA should not be making even soft moves when a roll does well (e.g. full success), and I can't imagine FitD games are radically different on this front.</p><p></p><p>Like...for a D&D comparison, it would be like if you critically hit on an attack, and the GM declared that the force of your blow broke your weapon as if a crit fumble had been rolled. Even for a game using crit-fumble rules, invoking them when the player critically <em>succeeded</em> would be Very Not Okay and would almost surely significantly erode player trust in that GM, even if the GM has a great plan and is genuinely trying to do good things with this choice. It's not that it's outright <em>impossible</em> for a GM to do this, but in a very real sense they are violating both the letter and the spirit of the rules to do so.</p><p></p><p>I'm sorry you dealt with such an experience, [USER=7025508]@Crimson Longinus[/USER], because I can absolutely agree that if a thing like that happened to me, it would damage the experience. Maybe not irrevocably, but now I'm going to be pulled away from the doing-of-things, and pulled toward unhelpful meta thinking: "Can I trust the GM to honor the text of the rules? If I succeed, will the GM take that away? If I fail, will the GM cushion the blow too much?" It's the gaming equivalent of being reminded that your tongue is in your mouth or that you are wearing clothes, it's just not <em>good</em> for play actually focused on what's happening within the fiction.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 9625003, member: 6790260"] Absolutely. Something a lot of other-game (particularly D&D) experienced GMs may struggle with in PbtA/FitD/etc. games is that there are actually pretty strong rules which constrain what the GM is allowed to do. I don't know the specifics of what it means to cancel the score, but from what you've said here, it sounds like it is (at the very least) a soft move, if not an outright hard move. GMs in PbtA should not be making even soft moves when a roll does well (e.g. full success), and I can't imagine FitD games are radically different on this front. Like...for a D&D comparison, it would be like if you critically hit on an attack, and the GM declared that the force of your blow broke your weapon as if a crit fumble had been rolled. Even for a game using crit-fumble rules, invoking them when the player critically [I]succeeded[/I] would be Very Not Okay and would almost surely significantly erode player trust in that GM, even if the GM has a great plan and is genuinely trying to do good things with this choice. It's not that it's outright [I]impossible[/I] for a GM to do this, but in a very real sense they are violating both the letter and the spirit of the rules to do so. I'm sorry you dealt with such an experience, [USER=7025508]@Crimson Longinus[/USER], because I can absolutely agree that if a thing like that happened to me, it would damage the experience. Maybe not irrevocably, but now I'm going to be pulled away from the doing-of-things, and pulled toward unhelpful meta thinking: "Can I trust the GM to honor the text of the rules? If I succeed, will the GM take that away? If I fail, will the GM cushion the blow too much?" It's the gaming equivalent of being reminded that your tongue is in your mouth or that you are wearing clothes, it's just not [I]good[/I] for play actually focused on what's happening within the fiction. [/QUOTE]
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