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Message: <blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 5744676" data-attributes="member: 463"><a href="http://isabout.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/the-pitfalls-of-narrative-technique-in-rpg-play/" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://isabout.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/the-pitfalls-of-narrative-technique-in-rpg-play/" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://isabout.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/the-pitfalls-of-narrative-technique-in-rpg-play/" target="_blank">OK, so you're talking about Narrativist play.  I don't see how the 4e tools scaling off PC level facilitate narrativist play at all, really, though I think there are elements that can assist with dramatic story-creation.</a><a href="http://isabout.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/the-pitfalls-of-narrative-technique-in-rpg-play/" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://isabout.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/the-pitfalls-of-narrative-technique-in-rpg-play/" target="_blank">I think now what you're saying is that 4e as written makes random character death or TPK less likely; the PCs should be able to go around (according to their own motivations) and not get killed because the world always scales to them Oblivion style?  And this facilitates non-turtling play.</a><a href="http://isabout.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/the-pitfalls-of-narrative-technique-in-rpg-play/" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://isabout.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/the-pitfalls-of-narrative-technique-in-rpg-play/" target="_blank">I think that makes sense.  OTOH a status quo world can also facilitate non-turtling play: it enables the players to make a good threat assessment, they can make a good estimate of the risk and avoid overly risky ventures. IME 1e worked like this, with its 1 hd orcs, 4+1 hd ogres, 8 hd hill giants etc.  </a><a href="http://isabout.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/the-pitfalls-of-narrative-technique-in-rpg-play/" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://isabout.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/the-pitfalls-of-narrative-technique-in-rpg-play/" target="_blank">Also in 1e, PCs became very robust after a few levels, they gained very high survivability in absolute terms, even against same-level threats.  This encouraged increasing boldness; the players had assurance their PCs were very unlikely to die in the normal course of adventuring.</a><a href="http://isabout.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/the-pitfalls-of-narrative-technique-in-rpg-play/" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://isabout.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/the-pitfalls-of-narrative-technique-in-rpg-play/" target="_blank">Really turtling players is the result of either over-cautious players, or an overly adversarial GMing style.  In either case it's dysfunctional play.  But there are several solutions, hard scaling to PC level is just one of them.  A predictable status quo world, and PCs that become more robust relative to likely threats as they level up, are viable alternatives.</a></blockquote>

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