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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JonWake" data-source="post: 6162900" data-attributes="member: 95255">I think that when I play, as well as when I run, I want the rules to fall into the background as much as humanly possible. I'd much rather have the rules on improvising be general (do a stat check, maybe some extra random elements) than have a set expected damage, expected to hit, expected to save. The rules on the character sheet are, for me, the reliable bits. As a fighter in Next, I know that I can drop roughly x amount of damage in a fight, I can take y hits, and I am vulnerable to z magic effects. Likewise, with backgrounds, I know that my Artisan will have a minor get out of jail free card.When the player improvises, I want to specifically get away from treating the rules as the primary interaction point and start treating the fiction as the primary interaction point. It is also a way to circumvent a DM, and this is a good thing. This is why there's a DM at all. It goes back to the Combat as Sport/War divide. If there are expected outputs based upon level and play balance, like with page 42, the players are actually disempowered. The smartest, most clever idea ends up having the same effect as pushing the Daily Power button. The players learn that it's always better to push that button, because there is no risk.  Improvising in the game is accepting a large risk for a larger reward. When a player is improvising, to me, that's when they're actually playing the game. That's when they're treating the fictional world as 'real'. That's when there is no asinine divide between 'fluff' and 'crunch', there's just a bunch of people saying 'you're going to try what?!?'  The problem there is that you have to be able to adjudicate that situation on the fly. Having solid system back up never hurts there, and is a huge help, but I think it needs to be tied to the world, not the needs of balanced math. Improvising should be unbalanced.</blockquote>

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