Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Out with the old (Game design traditions we should let go)
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Blue" data-source="post: 8668443" data-attributes="member: 20564"><p>Something to let go would be that each pillar of play has differing pre-defined levels of granularity instead of the time spent on it being based on how important it is to the players.</p><p></p><p>So if (uncertain) activity X is not of much import but we do have some moderate level of care about the output, solve it with a die roll (or whatever). If it's more important, have it mechanically heavier (though don't weight it more towards the average with "more of the same type of roll"). If it's of great importance to the players, then zoom down to a high level of granularity that's going to take some time to resolve.</p><p></p><p>To use some high fantasy examples, a wandering monster, haggling for expensive items, navigating to the next port or tavern brawl might be dealt with with a die roll, because they are of low import to the player. And enough levels of response that it's not "you succeed/failed to navigate" but also "it took you three extra days" or "some other dwarf out-drank you and you came in second" or whatever. Note that inherently means that we aren't artificially increasing stakes by taking a scene that the players don't care about and out of nowhere assigning arbitrarily high stakes like possible character death in a system designed for resource attrition.</p><p></p><p>On the other hand, mayhaps being able to flow the tracks of the kidnapper is quite important, and especially do they arrive before or after the "extraneous" kidnappees are disposed of. That might be zoomed in, with more rolls and some meaningful choices about approach. Same thing for a moderate skirmish, or convincing the sheriff that the party didn't steal the dowry chest.</p><p></p><p>And a final level that zooms all the way in, only for scenes that are the most important <em>to the players</em>. They should involve everyone, and have meaningful choices made along the way that inform the result. This is probably the only level that might get down to task-resolution granularity. This is the big "convince the duchess her husband is betraying her and the duchy" or "stop the ritual turning people into abominations" or whatever. These come around only once or thrice in an adventure, a few more times that that in an arc.</p><p></p><p>The idea that all of activity X is zoomed into THIS level and all of activity Y is zoomed out to THAT level, without being able to focus session time on what is actually important to the players, is an relic that does not serve the table.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Blue, post: 8668443, member: 20564"] Something to let go would be that each pillar of play has differing pre-defined levels of granularity instead of the time spent on it being based on how important it is to the players. So if (uncertain) activity X is not of much import but we do have some moderate level of care about the output, solve it with a die roll (or whatever). If it's more important, have it mechanically heavier (though don't weight it more towards the average with "more of the same type of roll"). If it's of great importance to the players, then zoom down to a high level of granularity that's going to take some time to resolve. To use some high fantasy examples, a wandering monster, haggling for expensive items, navigating to the next port or tavern brawl might be dealt with with a die roll, because they are of low import to the player. And enough levels of response that it's not "you succeed/failed to navigate" but also "it took you three extra days" or "some other dwarf out-drank you and you came in second" or whatever. Note that inherently means that we aren't artificially increasing stakes by taking a scene that the players don't care about and out of nowhere assigning arbitrarily high stakes like possible character death in a system designed for resource attrition. On the other hand, mayhaps being able to flow the tracks of the kidnapper is quite important, and especially do they arrive before or after the "extraneous" kidnappees are disposed of. That might be zoomed in, with more rolls and some meaningful choices about approach. Same thing for a moderate skirmish, or convincing the sheriff that the party didn't steal the dowry chest. And a final level that zooms all the way in, only for scenes that are the most important [I]to the players[/I]. They should involve everyone, and have meaningful choices made along the way that inform the result. This is probably the only level that might get down to task-resolution granularity. This is the big "convince the duchess her husband is betraying her and the duchy" or "stop the ritual turning people into abominations" or whatever. These come around only once or thrice in an adventure, a few more times that that in an arc. The idea that all of activity X is zoomed into THIS level and all of activity Y is zoomed out to THAT level, without being able to focus session time on what is actually important to the players, is an relic that does not serve the table. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Out with the old (Game design traditions we should let go)
Top