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Legends and Lore October 22nd
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6037185" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>This is what I was trying to get at upthread (or maybe on another thread? I was replying to VinylTap) when I said that, so far from being limited, 4e has a degree of encounter-building power that I've not seen matched by many other (any other?) fantasy RPG.</p><p></p><p>I fear that D&Dnext may lack some of that power.</p><p></p><p></p><p>This is a very interesting question.</p><p></p><p>If you look at the pass/fail cycle in HeroQuest revised, the more continuous successes, the higher the DCs become - until, after a failure, they are reset. This is intended to generate a narratively satisfying tension/release cycle.</p><p></p><p>Letting successful skill challenges make an encounter <em>easier</em> is, as you say, often put forward (buy the books, by posters, etc) as standard GMing procedure, but it seems contrary to the pass/fail cycle: ie your reward for building up the tension of success pile upon success is to have the situation become <em>less</em> tense, and hence less exciting. That doesn't seem like much of a reward.</p><p></p><p>My preference, therefore - although given that I'm using 4e and not HeroQuest revised my implementation is a little hit and miss, and very much intuition rather than science - is for success on the prior skill challenge to open up higher stakes on the final confrontation, rather than to make it easier to succeed at a given challenge.</p><p></p><p>In the Duke example, therefore, success with the Duke should make it <em>possible</em> to confront the border raiders (because now you have man-at-arms to help you), whereas if negotiations with the Duke fail, the ensuing scene that is framed should be something less high stakes. (If the players decide to go off and confront the border raiders without assistance that's fine, but on the approach I'm describing here the GM would have to frame some intervening challenge first, to give the players the chance to build back up to such a high-stakes confrontation.)</p><p></p><p>In the barbarian horder example, success permits the PCs to confront the horde - high stakes! Whereas failure should lead to a different scene being framed - the horde is overrunning the town with no one able to stop it, but the PCs can help evacuate some refugees or rescue the relics from the temple or whatever lower stakes conflict it makes sense to frame.</p><p></p><p>I don't know if the above makes much sense, but it is my attempt to outline a GMing approach that takes Robin Laws on the pass/fail cycle seriously.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6037185, member: 42582"] This is what I was trying to get at upthread (or maybe on another thread? I was replying to VinylTap) when I said that, so far from being limited, 4e has a degree of encounter-building power that I've not seen matched by many other (any other?) fantasy RPG. I fear that D&Dnext may lack some of that power. This is a very interesting question. If you look at the pass/fail cycle in HeroQuest revised, the more continuous successes, the higher the DCs become - until, after a failure, they are reset. This is intended to generate a narratively satisfying tension/release cycle. Letting successful skill challenges make an encounter [I]easier[/I] is, as you say, often put forward (buy the books, by posters, etc) as standard GMing procedure, but it seems contrary to the pass/fail cycle: ie your reward for building up the tension of success pile upon success is to have the situation become [I]less[/I] tense, and hence less exciting. That doesn't seem like much of a reward. My preference, therefore - although given that I'm using 4e and not HeroQuest revised my implementation is a little hit and miss, and very much intuition rather than science - is for success on the prior skill challenge to open up higher stakes on the final confrontation, rather than to make it easier to succeed at a given challenge. In the Duke example, therefore, success with the Duke should make it [I]possible[/I] to confront the border raiders (because now you have man-at-arms to help you), whereas if negotiations with the Duke fail, the ensuing scene that is framed should be something less high stakes. (If the players decide to go off and confront the border raiders without assistance that's fine, but on the approach I'm describing here the GM would have to frame some intervening challenge first, to give the players the chance to build back up to such a high-stakes confrontation.) In the barbarian horder example, success permits the PCs to confront the horde - high stakes! Whereas failure should lead to a different scene being framed - the horde is overrunning the town with no one able to stop it, but the PCs can help evacuate some refugees or rescue the relics from the temple or whatever lower stakes conflict it makes sense to frame. I don't know if the above makes much sense, but it is my attempt to outline a GMing approach that takes Robin Laws on the pass/fail cycle seriously. [/QUOTE]
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