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Skill challenges: action resolution that centres the fiction
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8739407" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>For practical purposes it is impossible for the GM to decide the state of the world, in all relevant respects, before each action is declared and resolved. Which guards know the password? Is their knowledge out-of-date due to a password change? Where is everyone in the castle? How many of them might recognise a disguised PC? Which accents will they treat as foreign or suspicious?</p><p></p><p>In my experience, the practical upshot of the sort of approach you advocate - once the fiction becomes richer than the artificially austere environment of a classic D&D dungeon - is that the GM has to make stuff up as they go along prior to actions being declared and resolved, <em>or else</em> introduce new fiction into the situation as part of success or failure narration. The first case puts the shape of the fiction primarily into the hands of the GM. The second case does likewise, <em>unless</em> (and to borrow [USER=6696971]@Manbearcat[/USER]'s phrase) the GM is on some sort of "budget". A skill challenge is exactly that sort of rationing device. The GM has no more than N moves (and maybe 2 fewer, if the players roll no failures) before they are obliged to narrate a final conclusion to the situation. No more than N troublesome townsfolk, password-forgetting guards, suspicious responses to accents, etc.</p><p></p><p>Again speaking from my own experience, the closed scene approach (or other, somewhat comparable approaches, such as Burning Wheel's combination of <em>intent and task</em>, <em>say 'yes' or roll the dice</em> and <em>fail forward</em>) has two benefits over the approach you advocate:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">* It produces more interesting play, in the sense that the players do not have to try to puzzle out the GM's - perhaps ad hoc - conception of the fictional situation, and instead can follow their own sense of the fiction and (if their checks succeed) make that part of the shared fiction;</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">* It produces more interesting fiction, in the sense of fiction that more closely resembles the inspirational fiction (eg JRRT/LotR, REH/Conan, etc).</p><p></p><p>Here's an example to illustrate what I mean - the resolution is Cortex+ Heroic Fantasy (ie Marvel Heroic RP adapted to a different set of tropes - in our case, mythical Vikings), but skill challenges are similar enough:</p><p></p><p>To me, these events seem to more closely evoke the feel of Viking myths and related fairy tales - spying the ox, and then trying to trick the dim-witted giant chief into trading back the horse for his own ox, and then narrowly avoiding being eaten when the deception is seen through - than would happen if the resolution was based on GM notes + discreet action resolution. (What happens if the GM doesn't think to note a barn in the steading, or a giant ox? Why should such an interesting fictional element be contingent on the GM thinking of it?)</p><p></p><p>Here's an example from a 4e skill challenge:</p><p></p><p></p><p>I don't know how the discreet action approach factors in the Elven singing of a song of apples blossoming in the summer, or even really how it gives a clear "weight" (or as [USER=82106]@AbdulAlhazred[/USER] sometimes puts it "valence) to the Perception and Arcana checks that reveal the truth of the magical situation.</p><p></p><p>In a skill challenge these are easy to resolve. And the resulting fiction is colourful, engaging, and reflects the players' as well as the GM's conceptions of the situation.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8739407, member: 42582"] For practical purposes it is impossible for the GM to decide the state of the world, in all relevant respects, before each action is declared and resolved. Which guards know the password? Is their knowledge out-of-date due to a password change? Where is everyone in the castle? How many of them might recognise a disguised PC? Which accents will they treat as foreign or suspicious? In my experience, the practical upshot of the sort of approach you advocate - once the fiction becomes richer than the artificially austere environment of a classic D&D dungeon - is that the GM has to make stuff up as they go along prior to actions being declared and resolved, [i]or else[/i] introduce new fiction into the situation as part of success or failure narration. The first case puts the shape of the fiction primarily into the hands of the GM. The second case does likewise, [i]unless[/i] (and to borrow [USER=6696971]@Manbearcat[/USER]'s phrase) the GM is on some sort of "budget". A skill challenge is exactly that sort of rationing device. The GM has no more than N moves (and maybe 2 fewer, if the players roll no failures) before they are obliged to narrate a final conclusion to the situation. No more than N troublesome townsfolk, password-forgetting guards, suspicious responses to accents, etc. Again speaking from my own experience, the closed scene approach (or other, somewhat comparable approaches, such as Burning Wheel's combination of [i]intent and task[/i], [i]say 'yes' or roll the dice[/i] and [i]fail forward[/i]) has two benefits over the approach you advocate: [indent]* It produces more interesting play, in the sense that the players do not have to try to puzzle out the GM's - perhaps ad hoc - conception of the fictional situation, and instead can follow their own sense of the fiction and (if their checks succeed) make that part of the shared fiction; * It produces more interesting fiction, in the sense of fiction that more closely resembles the inspirational fiction (eg JRRT/LotR, REH/Conan, etc).[/indent] Here's an example to illustrate what I mean - the resolution is Cortex+ Heroic Fantasy (ie Marvel Heroic RP adapted to a different set of tropes - in our case, mythical Vikings), but skill challenges are similar enough: To me, these events seem to more closely evoke the feel of Viking myths and related fairy tales - spying the ox, and then trying to trick the dim-witted giant chief into trading back the horse for his own ox, and then narrowly avoiding being eaten when the deception is seen through - than would happen if the resolution was based on GM notes + discreet action resolution. (What happens if the GM doesn't think to note a barn in the steading, or a giant ox? Why should such an interesting fictional element be contingent on the GM thinking of it?) Here's an example from a 4e skill challenge: I don't know how the discreet action approach factors in the Elven singing of a song of apples blossoming in the summer, or even really how it gives a clear "weight" (or as [USER=82106]@AbdulAlhazred[/USER] sometimes puts it "valence) to the Perception and Arcana checks that reveal the truth of the magical situation. In a skill challenge these are easy to resolve. And the resulting fiction is colourful, engaging, and reflects the players' as well as the GM's conceptions of the situation. [/QUOTE]
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