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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6164640" data-attributes="member: 42582">What I am seeing here (at least in the context of 4e) is nothing but a risk that the GM might ignore the rules. If the GM doesn't ignore the rules then (1) s/he will apply page 42, and hence (2) won't set the damage a couple of levels lower than you, nor let rocks fall on everyone's head and kill them instantly.To be completely honest, what I'm seeing here is simply poor GMing. GMs who don't know how to frame challenging non-combat scenes; and GMs who don't know how to narrate and adjudicate complications. For instance, in the case of the demon horde, IF the GM has framed it as a high-complexity skill challenge then the GM needs to have complications in mind. Possibilities I can think of off the top of my head include that the king is afraid and would rather have the heroes fight the demons; that the king is secretly a demon-worshipper; that the king thinks the PCs are lying or exaggerating, or otherwise doesn't trust them; that the king wants to be seen to not be helping them for some other reason the PCs need to discover; etc.As for "such a great point": vs AC 25, a 35 to hit roll does no more damage than a 25 to hit roll. It's binary, and any pip in excess is wasted. The same is true in a skill challenge, with one exception: if you're using the rules from Essentials then hard successes can, in some circusmtances, count as two successes.This is not correct. Regeneration is modelled by Stamina plus SFX. A forcefield is modelled by Durability. Durability can be used in a reaction pool when defending. Typically Stamina cannot be - it is used in recovery actions or with recovery SFX.I get the sense that you reall have very little familiarity with the system. I GMed my first session the other day - the actual play post is <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?339757-GMed-first-MHRP-session-on-Sunday" target="_blank">here</a>. The short version, though, is that traits and powers had an effect on the game. War Machine ran different arguments in front of Congress from Bobby Drake. Wolverine tracked people and cut them up; Invisible Woman trapped people in force cages; and Iceman slid them down ice slides and froze them into ice cages.This happened in my game when Wolverine hit Armadillo. So they trapped him in a force/ice cage instead.I want to pick up this last point in a way that is (I think) relevant to RP in D&Dnext.In my experience, the single biggest enemy of RP in D&D is that players always have a reason to try and roll their best dice, and therefore try to avoid stepping outside very narrow bands of PC competence. In 4e, I can sometime break this down by thoughtful framing of skill challenges, but even then it isn't easy.Systems like BW, or MHRP, which via a method of (1) separating PC advancement from PC success, and (2) fail forward in action resolution, release this brake on RP. It would be good if Inspiration mechanics could somehow achieve the same thing in D&Dnext.</blockquote>

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