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Intelligence and Wisdom Checks (Skills) as GM Tool for Plot Rationing or Expository Dump
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7857872" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Some examples - none from 5e, but some at least would be adaptable to 5e.</p><p></p><p>* <strong>4e D&D</strong> - the PCs were trying to persuade some Maruts that the time of the Dusk War had not yet come. This was being resolved as a skill challenge. After it had been going on for a bit, the player of the invoker/wizard knew that one successful check was required for overall success. He declares that his PC has intuited what final argument would sway the Maruts, and then rolled an Insight check. It succeeded. I invited the player to tell us what that argument was, which he did. And the Maruts were thereby swayed.</p><p></p><p>* <strong>Marvel Heroic RP</strong> - the PCs are lost in a dungeon (mechanically, this was a type of debuff - a Lost in the Dungeon complication). They come to a room which has strange runes in it (mechanically, this was a scene distinction - Strange Runes - comparable to an aspect in Fate). One of the players (the same as in the previous example) declares that his PC is reading the runes, thinking that they might contain some clue as to where the PCs are in the dungeon. He built the appropriate dice pool, made his check, and succeeded - the runes in fact did contain information about where the PCs were in the dungeon (and the Lost in the Dungeon complication was removed).</p><p></p><p>* <strong>Burning Wheel</strong> - two PCs are trying to sneak into a mage's tower via the catacombs. The player of one makes a check agains Catacombs-wise and failes - they're lost! That's the narration - the <em>consequence</em> is that their rival, whom they'd earlier drugged so they could get to the tower before she did, wakes up and is now on the move to the tower. (They see her when they come back up into the streets of the city.) So now it's a simple race, and the PCs lose. So the rival gets to the tower first and decapitates another NPC. One of the PCs wanted the NPC for his own purposes (being under a geas to bring the NPC back to a dark naga for blood sacrifice) and so now looks around for some sort of vessel to catch the spilling blood - and succeeds ona Perception check, and so spots a jug on a table and is able to use it to catch the blood of the NPC.</p><p></p><p>All these actual play examples are a bit like [USER=6696971]@Manbearcat[/USER]'s hypothetical above, in that they involve a degree of uncertainty in respect of the content of the fiction (on everyone's part, not just the players) which then gets filled out via the process of the knowledge-type check - either in a way that is good or is bad for the PCs, depending on success or failure of the check.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7857872, member: 42582"] Some examples - none from 5e, but some at least would be adaptable to 5e. * [B]4e D&D[/B] - the PCs were trying to persuade some Maruts that the time of the Dusk War had not yet come. This was being resolved as a skill challenge. After it had been going on for a bit, the player of the invoker/wizard knew that one successful check was required for overall success. He declares that his PC has intuited what final argument would sway the Maruts, and then rolled an Insight check. It succeeded. I invited the player to tell us what that argument was, which he did. And the Maruts were thereby swayed. * [B]Marvel Heroic RP[/B] - the PCs are lost in a dungeon (mechanically, this was a type of debuff - a Lost in the Dungeon complication). They come to a room which has strange runes in it (mechanically, this was a scene distinction - Strange Runes - comparable to an aspect in Fate). One of the players (the same as in the previous example) declares that his PC is reading the runes, thinking that they might contain some clue as to where the PCs are in the dungeon. He built the appropriate dice pool, made his check, and succeeded - the runes in fact did contain information about where the PCs were in the dungeon (and the Lost in the Dungeon complication was removed). * [B]Burning Wheel[/B] - two PCs are trying to sneak into a mage's tower via the catacombs. The player of one makes a check agains Catacombs-wise and failes - they're lost! That's the narration - the [I]consequence[/I] is that their rival, whom they'd earlier drugged so they could get to the tower before she did, wakes up and is now on the move to the tower. (They see her when they come back up into the streets of the city.) So now it's a simple race, and the PCs lose. So the rival gets to the tower first and decapitates another NPC. One of the PCs wanted the NPC for his own purposes (being under a geas to bring the NPC back to a dark naga for blood sacrifice) and so now looks around for some sort of vessel to catch the spilling blood - and succeeds ona Perception check, and so spots a jug on a table and is able to use it to catch the blood of the NPC. All these actual play examples are a bit like [USER=6696971]@Manbearcat[/USER]'s hypothetical above, in that they involve a degree of uncertainty in respect of the content of the fiction (on everyone's part, not just the players) which then gets filled out via the process of the knowledge-type check - either in a way that is good or is bad for the PCs, depending on success or failure of the check. [/QUOTE]
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