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<blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 6755893" data-attributes="member: 1465"><p>This is also my favourite way. No retries unless the situation changes to your advantage.</p><p></p><p>If I wanted to freely allow retries, I wouldn't even ask for a dice check, and would just let you succeed.</p><p></p><p>This isn't a hard-rule, just a general principle, but then each case is different. People usually mention combat, chases or other high-stress situations where <em>failure </em>is randomly caused by outside forces, and thus it makes a lot of sense to allow retries. That to me could mean that if there hadn't been a high-stress situation, the task could have been an automatic success.</p><p></p><p>The point is:</p><p></p><p>- if you ask for a check it means that you are declaring that success and failure are both possible</p><p>- if you are going to allow infinite retries, don't even bother asking for a check!</p><p>- if you allow <em>limited</em> retries, just realize that you are merely changing the probabilities, and therefore you are needlessly complicating the system (you could just change the DC instead)</p><p></p><p>Instead, I just consider the randomness of the check related with the inherent randomness of the <em>object</em>: if you failed to pick the lock, it is because <em>this lock</em> just beats you, and not because <em>this attempt</em> went bad.</p><p></p><p>---</p><p></p><p>The only good alternative, is to allow retries but ALSO with added cost (automatic or random chance): more time wasted, the need to spend some resources, or receiving damage/penalty. </p><p></p><p>Some examples could be, you can retry your Lockpicking over and over, but each time you either:</p><p>- take a proportionally longer time (second attempt takes half an hour, third attempts takes two hourse...)</p><p>- spend a 'charge' of your lockpicking tools (whatever that means), when 'depleted', the tools are broken forever</p><p>- have a random chance of damaging yourself or the tools each time</p><p></p><p>This is a good system, but clearly requires either some significant work to make it consistent, or good improvisational skills by the DM.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Li Shenron, post: 6755893, member: 1465"] This is also my favourite way. No retries unless the situation changes to your advantage. If I wanted to freely allow retries, I wouldn't even ask for a dice check, and would just let you succeed. This isn't a hard-rule, just a general principle, but then each case is different. People usually mention combat, chases or other high-stress situations where [I]failure [/I]is randomly caused by outside forces, and thus it makes a lot of sense to allow retries. That to me could mean that if there hadn't been a high-stress situation, the task could have been an automatic success. The point is: - if you ask for a check it means that you are declaring that success and failure are both possible - if you are going to allow infinite retries, don't even bother asking for a check! - if you allow [I]limited[/I] retries, just realize that you are merely changing the probabilities, and therefore you are needlessly complicating the system (you could just change the DC instead) Instead, I just consider the randomness of the check related with the inherent randomness of the [I]object[/I]: if you failed to pick the lock, it is because [I]this lock[/I] just beats you, and not because [I]this attempt[/I] went bad. --- The only good alternative, is to allow retries but ALSO with added cost (automatic or random chance): more time wasted, the need to spend some resources, or receiving damage/penalty. Some examples could be, you can retry your Lockpicking over and over, but each time you either: - take a proportionally longer time (second attempt takes half an hour, third attempts takes two hourse...) - spend a 'charge' of your lockpicking tools (whatever that means), when 'depleted', the tools are broken forever - have a random chance of damaging yourself or the tools each time This is a good system, but clearly requires either some significant work to make it consistent, or good improvisational skills by the DM. [/QUOTE]
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