Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8114497" data-attributes="member: 82106">There is a reason you teach and write, and I get locked in the back room to architect large software solutions <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> You have said it in a much clearer and more succinct manner. As a 'Gygaxian' process-focused mechanical system SCs really DON'T WORK. At best they might give you the equivalent of a combat encounter in certain fairly bounded situations (IE a race or contest, etc. Actually the DMG1 examples bear this out pretty well). As soon as you get into any scenario where PCs could change their approach or adapt their goals in any significant way, then the system, as narrowly written, isn't going to cut it. You can certainly 'wing it' but this system really only comes into its own when you are able to write SCs from a meta-game perspective. So, if a check is framed more in terms of how it impacts a PCs interests, vs a mechanical outcome, then it works better. For example: The evil minister attempts to kidnap the Paladin's girlfriend. This invokes a skill check (of some sort) as this narrative unfolds. If the PC succeeds, the plot fails to put plot pressure on the paladin. What the exact fictional position which results is, that entirely depends on narration. The mechanical result is a success, the fictional result is avoiding this obstacle, BUT success might force the paladin to pay a price! Is he willing to abandon his ally to save his girlfriend? This gets even more of a hard choice if there is a failure. He could invoke an advantage (a mechanic of SCs from RC) to erase that failure (IE save the girl) but now he's going to really be giving something up (maybe his ally actually DIES). Now, you can kind of get this narrative out of the classic way of employing SCs, but only if the GM maps that out ahead of time, and you run the risk of things going 'off the rails', whereas when the terms of the challenge are structured in this more character-oriented process way then you can simply adapt. "Oh the evil minister was poisoned, his son swears he will 'hurt the rogue' and threatens his father instead." (This example maybe isn't the best, as it smacks of "you can't win" but you get the idea).</blockquote>

Verification