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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 6151614" data-attributes="member: 8461">I'm not saying that such a manner of granting narrative control isn't workable, just that I personally don't find it desirable. It's entirely possible to have mechanical abilities that grant narrative agency happen for reasons that are - in the context of the game world - divorced from the character's abilities. I simply find them to be unfulfilling. The reason I don't care for them is because they seem to portray the character as achieving success (in whatever narrative option he exercises) for reasons that have nothing to do with personal ability. For me, a heroic character is one with heroic abilities to successfully change a situation into one where victory can be achieved, rather than it simply happening for external reasons.Now, I do have some latitude here - I have no problem with characters receiving something like a luck bonus to checks, as these are small enough mechanical bonuses that they need not have any conspicuous analogue in the context of the game world; characters do not "see" a bout of good luck happening when they do something like swing a sword or dodge a lightning bolt.However, narrative options seem to me to be (very) conspicuous by their very nature. Doing something like convincing an enemy to stand down or circumventing a stone wall is an issue where a stroke of luck that solves the problem is going to be noticeable. Now, by itself, that's not really a problem - plenty of stories have such monumental strokes of good fortune happening. The problem is that a role-playing game doesn't have the same type of narrative progression that stories do. Player-characters tend to spam their abilities over and over (if not each round, then still with some degree of regularity over a longer period of time). It's one thing to have a one-time stroke of good luck happen when Lancelot shows up to solve your problem. It's another thing when he shows up for the twelfth time to do so, because you get one "Lancelot shows up" card per game session, and so why not use it? Major strokes of good fortune that occur with some regular frequency strain the narrative.Of course, as I said above, that's just my take on it. Unto itself, it works - I just don't care for the manner in which it does so.Strictly speaking, it doesn't mean either of those things. It means discussing different ways of doing so, both in their pros and their cons. I'm simply pointing out what I feel is a con for that particular idea.That reason is "because they were written that way" - it has nothing to do with the inherent nature of feats, skill checks, and stunts.</blockquote>

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