How often does your party fail?

[Numion]

We were tasked to seal the Banewarrens. Once we got in, we looted it ourselves and sold the stuff with some flimsy rationalization. So I guess we failed, but does it count if we deliberately did it, and made excuses?

Besides, quite often the one who hired you is actually the villain, so making mess of the original adventure is ok, as often

Main point is to kill things and take stuff. Playing a low INT characted makes it that much more easier

 

[Numion]

However when they have nothing else to do my current group tends to default to "lets make some money!" And they are absolutely horrible at that. I'd say they end up spending more money on an adventure than they recover, oh... about 100% of the time!

That was the rule in cyberpunk. They'd ask some smalltimers for hits to perform, and then used 5 times the hiring fee on ammunition and explosives while on the job.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I'd say they end up spending more money on an adventure than they recover, oh... about 100% of the time!

I've noticed this. The wealth-by-level guidelines and average monster treasures assume very, very low additional expenses. Travelling by boat, lightning rail and airship is horrendously expensive, I think it's assumed the PCs go everywhere on foot, which takes months.

 

[Jhaelen]

There's rarely a 'complete' failure. There's also rarely a 'complete' success. In general, though, they succeed more often than not. In any case they always have to live with the consequences, e.g. if they fail to weaken an opposing force significantly, later engagements will become more difficult.

I rarely use hard time-lines for my adventures. Even if the party's late they'll still be able to have some influence on the events that take place. If they FUBAR, I'll typically make it known.

Sometimes they ignore opportunities for adventures. I make it a point to inform them later about what happened because of their inaction by introducing rumors or even creating a follow-up adventure dealing with the after-effects.

 

[Crothian]

Our goals are rarely that black and white. The get the omelet made but they break a few eggs in the process. So, then they go clean up those eggs but manage to spill the milk and leave the cheese out so it turns green. And then they have to wipe up that mess and get new cheese. But they use the strong cleaner on the floor and that scars it and the cheese they get is all smelly and doesn't taste good.

 

[Numion]

Our goals are rarely that black and white. The get the omelet made but they break a few eggs in the process. So, then they go clean up those eggs but manage to spill the milk and leave the cheese out so it turns green. And then they have to wipe up that mess and get new cheese. But they use the strong cleaner on the floor and that scars it and the cheese they get is all smelly and doesn't taste good.

The PCs staff a restaurant?

 

[kensanata]

In the last six months, none of my plots had time limits or a limited number of attempts. So, we had:

• Free the child kidnapped by tengu,
• get rid of the orcs in the ruined keep,
• find the smiths daughter held captive by the ettin,
• descend into the barrows of the forgotten king to stop the (other) party of graverobbers,
• keep an aristocrat daughter safe,
• get rid of three necromantic clerics,
• get rid of bandits (small)
• get rid of bandits (big)
• get rid of bandits (small)
• get rid of bandits (medium)
• get rid of the kumo that enchanted all the male samurai in a castle

They needed a second attempt for one of the evil clerics, the ettin, and the first bandits. But they always had enough time to come back later and finish the job. So, is that a 3/11 failure rate or 0/11?

 

[Anti-Sean]

How often to your PCs flat out fail to accomplish their goal, be it short or long term?

Once.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Hard to say. I've got 7 players + 4 cohorts. For many outcomes some of the party will treat it as a success and others as a failure. If they got loot, the rogue considers it a win. if they made an ally, the bard considers it a win. I've even had sessions where both the players and the BBEG considered the day's deeds a success.

So, I really have no idea. I guess if after ~6 years of steady play the game's still going strong that it really doesn't matter.

 

[Wombat]

Often enough to keep them really, really nervous...