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<blockquote data-quote="Guest 6801328" data-source="post: 7588185">I find it ironic that the &quot;goal and method&quot; approach is derided as some kind of DM power trip, but I see this as taking over the poor guy's character and roleplaying for him.&nbsp; If I'm going to subject him to the whim of the dice, I'm at least going to give him the courtesy of letting him narrate his own failures.I was DMing for my nephew, who was about 10 at the time (stop reading here if you've read this before...it's at least the 3rd time I've posted this story here) and he failed an Athletics check climbing up the wall of a mausoleum.&nbsp; His face fell...he was really disappointed. Then I asked him, &quot;Why did you fall?&quot;&nbsp; He stared blankly at me for a moment, then his face lit up and he said, &quot;There was some wet moss on the stone, and I slipped on that.&quot;A few minutes later he said, &quot;That was actually really cool.&quot;Later in the game he crit on a sneak attack (on a ghoul in a tunnel under the mausoleum...of course) and out of 6d6 he got (if I remember it correctly) 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 4.&nbsp; The ghoul exploded.&nbsp; Black blood everywhere.&nbsp; He said, &quot;Ok, that was even cooler than the slipping on the moss thing.&quot;&nbsp; Later he eagerly, and graphically, recounted his exploit to his mom, my sister.&nbsp; (&quot;Really, sis, this game is GREAT for developing minds.&quot;)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Guest 6801328, post: 7588185"] I find it ironic that the "goal and method" approach is derided as some kind of DM power trip, but I see this as taking over the poor guy's character and roleplaying for him. If I'm going to subject him to the whim of the dice, I'm [I]at least[/I] going to give him the courtesy of letting him narrate his own failures. I was DMing for my nephew, who was about 10 at the time (stop reading here if you've read this before...it's at least the 3rd time I've posted this story here) and he failed an Athletics check climbing up the wall of a mausoleum. His face fell...he was really disappointed. Then I asked him, "Why did you fall?" He stared blankly at me for a moment, then his face lit up and he said, "There was some wet moss on the stone, and I slipped on that." A few minutes later he said, "That was actually really cool." Later in the game he crit on a sneak attack (on a ghoul in a tunnel under the mausoleum...of course) and out of 6d6 he got (if I remember it correctly) 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 4. The ghoul exploded. Black blood everywhere. He said, "Ok, that was even cooler than the slipping on the moss thing." Later he eagerly, and graphically, recounted his exploit to his mom, my sister. ("Really, sis, this game is GREAT for developing minds.") [/QUOTE]

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