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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Warehouse23" data-source="post: 3767178" data-attributes="member: 27941">One of my favorite swashbuckling enablers are the famous Swashbuckling Cards ( <a href="http://www.scratchfactory.com/Resources/SwashCards.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.scratchfactory.com/Resources/SwashCards.pdf</a> ). The key rules mechanic associated with these cards is that they do not require die rolls . What makes the system work is their simplicity: You want to do X? You have a card for X? X occurs! Continue on with your heroic plan!For certain events in a high-action style of game, there should be no chance of failure. What makes action scenes in movies and books exciting is that the heroes don't fail in their attempts to maneuver. After all, how many pirate heroes have you ever seen fall from a swinging chandelier or slip while cutting their way down a sail with a cutlass? This exciting feeling is killed by the tension associated with dice mechanics which can turn a brilliant and entertaining plan into a complete clown-fest with one bad roll. On the other hand, if you're not willing to part with dice entirely (and I for one am not), DMing practice and adventure design, rather than rules changes, can create a dramatic game. DMs/writers need to decide what the dramatic focus of a "scene" of a game is, and focus opportunities for failure/success around that singular focus. For example, in a tense scene where PCs are being stalked by something terrible in the shadows, huge numbers of spot/listen checks are just going to distract from the experience (and after all, who cares what 5 ft square the something is in?). What's important is that players know that something terrible is out there. How much better to focus on fear/sanity checks (if the game has such a thing), or on survival checks to get a fire lit from wet tinder to ward off the darkness? This is all a rather long-winded way of saying that I really don't think rules mechanics create atmosphere in games. They provide a conflict resolution system. The question is not what rules you need to run a game, but how you apply the rules you have.</blockquote>

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