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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Should time spent on system mechanics be based in interest or importance/risk?
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<blockquote data-quote="The Crimson Binome" data-source="post: 7328210" data-attributes="member: 6775031"><p>So, if I have this right, you're describing the 3E/5E skill system as low-involvement, the 4E skill challenge system as medium-involvement, and the 3E/4E combat systems as high-involvement.</p><p></p><p>In that case, I would want systems of interest to have higher involvement than systems of disinterest. That part should be obvious and straight-forward, I would think. I don't want to spend a lot of time doing stuff that isn't interesting, so just abstract that out to a single die roll.</p><p></p><p>In general, I feel like I <em>should</em> want important things (with dramatic outcomes) to have higher involvement than less-important things (where the outcome doesn't matter), but that's just because complex system skew closer toward the average and humans are naturally risk-averse. As a player, it kind of seems like cheating to suggest that important things are best-eleven-out-of-twenty instead of best-two-out-of-three <em>because</em> I want to win and I'm unlikely to attempt anything if the odds aren't in my favor. It feels more fair to say that importance is not a factor.</p><p></p><p>As a GM, I would normally hope that important things (with dramatic outcomes) are likely to be interesting enough to warrant modeling with higher-investment mechanics, so I might ratchet up the involvement of important encounters by one step while otherwise basing involvement purely on interest. For example, a battle against some chumps might be done with theater-of-the-mind, while a battle against a boss or dragon would warrant a full grid combat. Talking your way past a guard might be a simple check, while talking your way past the king involves progressively shifting his attitude.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The Crimson Binome, post: 7328210, member: 6775031"] So, if I have this right, you're describing the 3E/5E skill system as low-involvement, the 4E skill challenge system as medium-involvement, and the 3E/4E combat systems as high-involvement. In that case, I would want systems of interest to have higher involvement than systems of disinterest. That part should be obvious and straight-forward, I would think. I don't want to spend a lot of time doing stuff that isn't interesting, so just abstract that out to a single die roll. In general, I feel like I [I]should[/I] want important things (with dramatic outcomes) to have higher involvement than less-important things (where the outcome doesn't matter), but that's just because complex system skew closer toward the average and humans are naturally risk-averse. As a player, it kind of seems like cheating to suggest that important things are best-eleven-out-of-twenty instead of best-two-out-of-three [I]because[/I] I want to win and I'm unlikely to attempt anything if the odds aren't in my favor. It feels more fair to say that importance is not a factor. As a GM, I would normally hope that important things (with dramatic outcomes) are likely to be interesting enough to warrant modeling with higher-investment mechanics, so I might ratchet up the involvement of important encounters by one step while otherwise basing involvement purely on interest. For example, a battle against some chumps might be done with theater-of-the-mind, while a battle against a boss or dragon would warrant a full grid combat. Talking your way past a guard might be a simple check, while talking your way past the king involves progressively shifting his attitude. [/QUOTE]
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Should time spent on system mechanics be based in interest or importance/risk?
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