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 coming! 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
*Dungeons & Dragons
Skill challenges: action resolution that centres the fiction
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="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8739100" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>Yeah, I don't agree that this is a difficulty. I know it seems hard to grasp when you haven't done it a bunch of times, but there's really no issue with these tallies constraining play. They may MEASURE play, such that you will not find some extra crazy amount of difficulty just because you picked a rather colorful but perhaps less than ordinarily practical method of solving your problem! So, the guy who deploys a raft to cross the river will employ raft-building-appropriate skills, and the guy who decides to charm 1000 hummingbirds to fly him across will employ a DIFFERENT set of skills (and probably some magic, etc. but whatever). Obviously each party in this case will need to demonstrate some fictional logic for how its attempt is feasible, perhaps genre appropriate, etc. but as the 4e DMG says "say yes." Certainly my Coure of Summer Winds Druid can summon up some birds, eh?</p><p></p><p>We might have different goals. OTOH I don't think the situation lacks opportunity for skilled play. There can be a huge difference in outcomes depending on how well you approach the problem you are solving! Pick the wrong skill, act rashly, be too conservative, take a path you are not well equipped for, you will find it much harder. This is tactics, is it not?</p><p></p><p>I don't think what you are contrasting with is any different! How does a player have any idea what paths are likely to be more or less tactically advantageous when the GM presents a serial set of 'checks' to pass? Worse, how do you even gauge the consequences? The player doesn't know what is at risk and what the costs are. IME this leads to very conservative 'save all my resources and take no risks' play.</p><p></p><p>No, because you have no idea what the GM is actually going to decide is how many checks you need to pass given any particular path that you take! There's nothing tactical about a blind walk. At best the player is playing their intuition and experience as a gamer or with the GM and considering 'what makes sense', which is exactly what they are doing when they decide which skill to utilize in an SC and what matching action to take.</p><p></p><p>I mean, I don't offhand reject various propositions. I don't perceive it as really a trade off. IMHO it is just easier for GMs to run things in a way that suites them when they decide what and when all the checks are and how many are 'enough'. It IS less demanding in a sort of basic sense, but its also much easier for it to just fall rather flat. I'm perfectly happy with mechanical challenge, btw. I spent YEARS running games for some extremely ruthless and calculating wargamers, including one guy who COULD NOT LOSE at anything, no matter what, lol. So by creating these closed scene resolution style encounters, things were much more interesting. Now they could calculate the heck out of what would maximize their math, but they also had to contend with the fiction at the same time.</p><p></p><p>I'm not sure what you mean about standing in opposition...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8739100, member: 82106"] Yeah, I don't agree that this is a difficulty. I know it seems hard to grasp when you haven't done it a bunch of times, but there's really no issue with these tallies constraining play. They may MEASURE play, such that you will not find some extra crazy amount of difficulty just because you picked a rather colorful but perhaps less than ordinarily practical method of solving your problem! So, the guy who deploys a raft to cross the river will employ raft-building-appropriate skills, and the guy who decides to charm 1000 hummingbirds to fly him across will employ a DIFFERENT set of skills (and probably some magic, etc. but whatever). Obviously each party in this case will need to demonstrate some fictional logic for how its attempt is feasible, perhaps genre appropriate, etc. but as the 4e DMG says "say yes." Certainly my Coure of Summer Winds Druid can summon up some birds, eh? We might have different goals. OTOH I don't think the situation lacks opportunity for skilled play. There can be a huge difference in outcomes depending on how well you approach the problem you are solving! Pick the wrong skill, act rashly, be too conservative, take a path you are not well equipped for, you will find it much harder. This is tactics, is it not? I don't think what you are contrasting with is any different! How does a player have any idea what paths are likely to be more or less tactically advantageous when the GM presents a serial set of 'checks' to pass? Worse, how do you even gauge the consequences? The player doesn't know what is at risk and what the costs are. IME this leads to very conservative 'save all my resources and take no risks' play. No, because you have no idea what the GM is actually going to decide is how many checks you need to pass given any particular path that you take! There's nothing tactical about a blind walk. At best the player is playing their intuition and experience as a gamer or with the GM and considering 'what makes sense', which is exactly what they are doing when they decide which skill to utilize in an SC and what matching action to take. I mean, I don't offhand reject various propositions. I don't perceive it as really a trade off. IMHO it is just easier for GMs to run things in a way that suites them when they decide what and when all the checks are and how many are 'enough'. It IS less demanding in a sort of basic sense, but its also much easier for it to just fall rather flat. I'm perfectly happy with mechanical challenge, btw. I spent YEARS running games for some extremely ruthless and calculating wargamers, including one guy who COULD NOT LOSE at anything, no matter what, lol. So by creating these closed scene resolution style encounters, things were much more interesting. Now they could calculate the heck out of what would maximize their math, but they also had to contend with the fiction at the same time. I'm not sure what you mean about standing in opposition... [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Skill challenges: action resolution that centres the fiction
Top