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Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7760761" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Now that's what I call serious thinking about encounter design in a RPG!</p><p></p><p>I want to elaborate on it a bit. <em>Compelling fictional hooks</em> aren't trivial to come up with. In my experience (reading D&D modules, and modules for other systems too; reading posts on these boards; what I've seen from other GMs; etc) these are often done in terms of MacGuffins that the players are expected to collect/identify and then deploy - the Sunsword vs Straad would be a well-known example. Another common variation is the gate/portal that the "big bad" has to be forced through by the PCs. But this sort of thing can just re-establish the "control of your character" issue at a higher level, by setting up steps that have to be taken to resolve the encounter. Everything becomes a puzzle with a single (or a small set of) pre-established solution(s).</p><p></p><p>I think for fictional hooks to permit, and even better <em>invite</em>, open-ended play we need reliable ways of setting difficulties for various sorts of interaction with the fiction, of establishing balanced consequences of various choices, etc. (It <em>can</em> be done through unmediated adjudication of the fiction, but I think this always in danger of collapsing into sheer player persuasion/GM fiat - I felt the pressure of this in my Classic Traveller game when the PCs got taken as prisoners on board an enemy starship and the players used that opportunity to stage a hijacking (taking advantage of their numbers being about twice what the NPCs were expecting, having taken on some unknown-to-the-NPC recruits). The outcome wasn't sheer GM fiat, but it had strong elements of it, because Classic Traveller doesn't have a conflict resolution mechanic for this particular sort of scenario. I tried to use Burning Wheel-style framing and adjudication of the discrete checks in the process to manage it; and frankly, even in BW this sort of scenario is not easy to handle in a fiat-free way.)</p><p></p><p>I think at least one edition of D&D obviously provided such reliable ways. Marvel Heroic RP/Cortex+ Heroic does likewise.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7760761, member: 42582"] Now that's what I call serious thinking about encounter design in a RPG! I want to elaborate on it a bit. [I]Compelling fictional hooks[/I] aren't trivial to come up with. In my experience (reading D&D modules, and modules for other systems too; reading posts on these boards; what I've seen from other GMs; etc) these are often done in terms of MacGuffins that the players are expected to collect/identify and then deploy - the Sunsword vs Straad would be a well-known example. Another common variation is the gate/portal that the "big bad" has to be forced through by the PCs. But this sort of thing can just re-establish the "control of your character" issue at a higher level, by setting up steps that have to be taken to resolve the encounter. Everything becomes a puzzle with a single (or a small set of) pre-established solution(s). I think for fictional hooks to permit, and even better [I]invite[/I], open-ended play we need reliable ways of setting difficulties for various sorts of interaction with the fiction, of establishing balanced consequences of various choices, etc. (It [I]can[/I] be done through unmediated adjudication of the fiction, but I think this always in danger of collapsing into sheer player persuasion/GM fiat - I felt the pressure of this in my Classic Traveller game when the PCs got taken as prisoners on board an enemy starship and the players used that opportunity to stage a hijacking (taking advantage of their numbers being about twice what the NPCs were expecting, having taken on some unknown-to-the-NPC recruits). The outcome wasn't sheer GM fiat, but it had strong elements of it, because Classic Traveller doesn't have a conflict resolution mechanic for this particular sort of scenario. I tried to use Burning Wheel-style framing and adjudication of the discrete checks in the process to manage it; and frankly, even in BW this sort of scenario is not easy to handle in a fiat-free way.) I think at least one edition of D&D obviously provided such reliable ways. Marvel Heroic RP/Cortex+ Heroic does likewise. [/QUOTE]
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