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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6660608" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Some examples I can think of from my 4e game:</p><p></p><p>* <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?309950-Actual-play-my-first-quot-social-only-quot-session" target="_blank">Using Bedevilling Burst to make the waiting stuff drop their jellies</a>, thereby demonstrating that a gelationous cube can be defeated in physical combat;</p><p></p><p>* <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?301282-Actual-play-examples-balance-between-fiction-and-mechanics" target="_blank">Using Come and Get It to shift loose stones in the bottom of a well to block the influx of water into the well</a>, thereby weakening the water weird inside it;</p><p></p><p>* <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?342615-PCs-defeat-Miska-but-relinquish-the-Crystal-of-the-Ebon-Flame" target="_blank">Using Memory of 1000 Lifetimes to recall a teleportation sigil in Hestavar</a>, so that a Planar Portal could be opened that would allow Pelor's divine radiance to shine through and enable a Religion check to help cleanse the tainted angels of Mal Arundak.</p><p></p><p>The best treatment of "fail forward" that I know is in Burning Wheel. (Luke Crane, the lead BW designer, and Ron Edwards are widely credited with being the first to articulate the idea.)</p><p></p><p>In BW, when a player delcares an action for his/her PC, s/he declares an <em>intent</em> - roughly, the way in which s/he wants the fiction to change - and a <em>task</em> - roughly, the thing that his/her PC is doing in the fiction so as to bring about that change.</p><p></p><p>If the check succeeds, the PC succeeds at the task and the players' intent is realised.</p><p></p><p>If the check fails, the players' intent is not realised, and the GM gets to narrate what happens instead. This may or may not involve narrating a failure of the PC's task. The key thing is that the GM is expected to introduce some new element into the fiction which (i) is contrary to the player's intent, but (ii) creates a situation which will generate new pressures for the players to declare actions for their PCs, rather than just stalling/road blocks.</p><p></p><p>A simple example: the low-CHA fighter talks to an NPC, the player rolls a check, and fails. Road block GMing: "The NPC rebuffs you. What do you do now?" Fail forward GMing: "The NPC takes you aside and tells you [blah blah blah]", where the [blah blah blah] is more or less the opposite of what the player wanted his/her PC to hear, or confronts the player with the need to choose between offending the NPC or going against the wishes of one of the other PCs, etc.</p><p></p><p>The key to "fail forward" adjudication is being ready to introduce <em>new elements</em> into the fiction - not because the internal causal logic of the gameworld tells you that you should, but because they frame the PC of the player who just failed the check into a new, dynamic situation of adversity.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6660608, member: 42582"] Some examples I can think of from my 4e game: * [url=http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?309950-Actual-play-my-first-quot-social-only-quot-session]Using Bedevilling Burst to make the waiting stuff drop their jellies[/url], thereby demonstrating that a gelationous cube can be defeated in physical combat; * [url=http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?301282-Actual-play-examples-balance-between-fiction-and-mechanics]Using Come and Get It to shift loose stones in the bottom of a well to block the influx of water into the well[/url], thereby weakening the water weird inside it; * [url=http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?342615-PCs-defeat-Miska-but-relinquish-the-Crystal-of-the-Ebon-Flame]Using Memory of 1000 Lifetimes to recall a teleportation sigil in Hestavar[/url], so that a Planar Portal could be opened that would allow Pelor's divine radiance to shine through and enable a Religion check to help cleanse the tainted angels of Mal Arundak. The best treatment of "fail forward" that I know is in Burning Wheel. (Luke Crane, the lead BW designer, and Ron Edwards are widely credited with being the first to articulate the idea.) In BW, when a player delcares an action for his/her PC, s/he declares an [I]intent[/I] - roughly, the way in which s/he wants the fiction to change - and a [I]task[/I] - roughly, the thing that his/her PC is doing in the fiction so as to bring about that change. If the check succeeds, the PC succeeds at the task and the players' intent is realised. If the check fails, the players' intent is not realised, and the GM gets to narrate what happens instead. This may or may not involve narrating a failure of the PC's task. The key thing is that the GM is expected to introduce some new element into the fiction which (i) is contrary to the player's intent, but (ii) creates a situation which will generate new pressures for the players to declare actions for their PCs, rather than just stalling/road blocks. A simple example: the low-CHA fighter talks to an NPC, the player rolls a check, and fails. Road block GMing: "The NPC rebuffs you. What do you do now?" Fail forward GMing: "The NPC takes you aside and tells you [blah blah blah]", where the [blah blah blah] is more or less the opposite of what the player wanted his/her PC to hear, or confronts the player with the need to choose between offending the NPC or going against the wishes of one of the other PCs, etc. The key to "fail forward" adjudication is being ready to introduce [I]new elements[/I] into the fiction - not because the internal causal logic of the gameworld tells you that you should, but because they frame the PC of the player who just failed the check into a new, dynamic situation of adversity. [/QUOTE]
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