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Skill challenges: action resolution that centres the fiction
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8739155" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Upthread, [USER=82106]@AbdulAlhazred[/USER] mentioned "rightward arrows" - that is, moments in play when the fiction feeds into the mechanics.</p><p></p><p>As per the OP, skill challenge resolution involves rightward arrows, the most obvious being that the fiction establishes what checks are possible. Without that fiction - which it is the job of the GM to provide, as per the DMG (p 74: "You describe the environment, listen to the players’ responses, let them make their skill checks, and narrate the results") - then actions can't be declared by the players.</p><p></p><p>Here are two RPG resolution systems that <em>don't</em> involve rightward arrows:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">*<a href="http://www.lumpley.com/index.php/anyway/thread/427" target="_blank">As Vincent Baker has himself noted</a>, In A Wicked Age the initial description of the situation and action generates a rightward arrow (depending on what I describe my character as doing, I build my dice pool from 2 of the 6 descriptors on my sheet). But from that point on there are no rightward arrows. The rules tell us to accompany our dice rolls with narration of actions, but those are purely "optional" in the sense that you can still roll the dice and compare the totals even if no fiction is narrated.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">*Agon is a wonderful Homeric heroes RPG from John Harper. Nearly all resolution is by a single opposed check - the fictional context is established, the players describe their heroes' approach to overcoming the obstacle that confronts them, and then dice pools are built, rolled and compared. <em>After</em> the mathematical outcome is determined, each player then "recites their deeds", in order from the poorest-rolling to the best-rolling. The rules require incorporating reference, in that narration, to all the elements the player drew on to build their pool, but just as for In A Wicked Age this is "optional" in the sense that the resolution won't change if it is not done.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Some conflicts in Agon are "battles" - a series of applications of the above procedure. But in these cases, too, there are no real rightward arrows. The first contest determines who gains a superior position in the battle, but this expresses itself in mechanical terms (ie a bonus die for an upcoming dice pool). There is then the resolution of the "threats", that is, the bad consequences that will follow from the actions of the opponent if the heroes don't successfully defend against them. But the consequences of the threats typically don't follow through to subsequent framing and resolution. There is also the possibility to "seize control" of the battle: whoever wins here (heroes or their opponent) gets to establish the stakes and some key mechanical parameters of the finale. But those can be expressed in purely mechanical terms - the fiction, again, is "optional".</p><p></p><p>I think this shows that, while skill challenges cop a lot of flack, they have some clever elements in their design. They're not perfect, but nor are they an amateur design effort.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8739155, member: 42582"] Upthread, [USER=82106]@AbdulAlhazred[/USER] mentioned "rightward arrows" - that is, moments in play when the fiction feeds into the mechanics. As per the OP, skill challenge resolution involves rightward arrows, the most obvious being that the fiction establishes what checks are possible. Without that fiction - which it is the job of the GM to provide, as per the DMG (p 74: "You describe the environment, listen to the players’ responses, let them make their skill checks, and narrate the results") - then actions can't be declared by the players. Here are two RPG resolution systems that [i]don't[/i] involve rightward arrows: [indent]*[url=http://www.lumpley.com/index.php/anyway/thread/427]As Vincent Baker has himself noted[/url], In A Wicked Age the initial description of the situation and action generates a rightward arrow (depending on what I describe my character as doing, I build my dice pool from 2 of the 6 descriptors on my sheet). But from that point on there are no rightward arrows. The rules tell us to accompany our dice rolls with narration of actions, but those are purely "optional" in the sense that you can still roll the dice and compare the totals even if no fiction is narrated. *Agon is a wonderful Homeric heroes RPG from John Harper. Nearly all resolution is by a single opposed check - the fictional context is established, the players describe their heroes' approach to overcoming the obstacle that confronts them, and then dice pools are built, rolled and compared. [i]After[/i] the mathematical outcome is determined, each player then "recites their deeds", in order from the poorest-rolling to the best-rolling. The rules require incorporating reference, in that narration, to all the elements the player drew on to build their pool, but just as for In A Wicked Age this is "optional" in the sense that the resolution won't change if it is not done. Some conflicts in Agon are "battles" - a series of applications of the above procedure. But in these cases, too, there are no real rightward arrows. The first contest determines who gains a superior position in the battle, but this expresses itself in mechanical terms (ie a bonus die for an upcoming dice pool). There is then the resolution of the "threats", that is, the bad consequences that will follow from the actions of the opponent if the heroes don't successfully defend against them. But the consequences of the threats typically don't follow through to subsequent framing and resolution. There is also the possibility to "seize control" of the battle: whoever wins here (heroes or their opponent) gets to establish the stakes and some key mechanical parameters of the finale. But those can be expressed in purely mechanical terms - the fiction, again, is "optional".[/indent] I think this shows that, while skill challenges cop a lot of flack, they have some clever elements in their design. They're not perfect, but nor are they an amateur design effort. [/QUOTE]
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