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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Argyle King" data-source="post: 5655189" data-attributes="member: 58416">This is where -IMO- playing the part of the character comes in.  The character has motivations and goals, so the GM has an idea of what the best and worst outcomes are.  How far a margin is from those two poles should give an idea of what happens next.  I suppose you're right in that this does require judgement, but it's shouldn't be a blindly made call.  I would also view it as a strength of the GM's chair to not be completely tied down to completely preset conditions in the same way that a video game's programing might be.If you're a GM who prefers more prepared results, there's no reason you can't list the various thresholds of success.  For example, let's say I am preparing a skill challenge in which the PCs are negotiating with the king for help and decide that complete success with no failure means he provides the PCs with a platoon of his guards, a magic item, and some gold.  We'll say 6 successes are required.I can then also list that no success and all failure means the PCs get nothing; the king says he is unable to help them.  Next on the list -If the PCs get at least two successes before failing, the king expresses his regret that he cannot aid them, but does provide the purse of gold and wishes them well.  If the PCs get at least 4 successes before failure, they get the gold and the item... etc.Does this mean the GM still has input on the results?  Yes, but it's not completely arbitrary.  There should be some idea of what the opportunities and consequences are already.  Also, as mentioned, I personally prefer to set those poles in accordance with the whims of the character the PCs are interacting with (if they are interacting with someone else) rather than base them solely on my own mind.  If the challenge is one in which there is no interaction with another character, I should still have an idea based on the surrounding world.  While this *does* mean there are judgement calls at times, I would hardly call that bias in the context of the OP.  At least not any more than I would call physics bias for not allowing elephants to fly (sans Dumbo.)  If I truthfully really have no idea at all how to handle something, there have been times when I've been honest with the players at the table and asked for a group consensus.  Getting back to margins - I think it depends upon which game you're playing if I would say the margins usually don't give you the details.  There are games in which a rapid fire attack with a machine gun uses margin of success to determine how many rounds hit their target.  The target may then dodge; their margin of success determines how many rounds they successfully dodged.  That being said, I will admit to probably not having as much variety in my gaming library as some of the other posters here on Enworld.  It's my experience that 'some of the time' the margin does not give details, but I openly admit to the possibility of my answer being different if my gaming tastes were also different and exposed to other games than what I currently play.</blockquote>

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