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General Tabletop Discussion
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Some thoughts on skills.
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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8913837" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>OK, the existence of a PC with a very high Perception, what is that telling you? It is telling you that the player is signaling something. They want to engage successfully in tasks that relate to this skill! In other words "I'm perceptive, I'll max Perception." The upshot is, you should, generally, not fail checks involving this skill, and the GM should not simply jack up the DC such that this is a possibility. I mean, OK, there COULD be a case where the character failing to perceive something adds drama, the Owlbear is so stealthy it even surprised Jorgenson! There might not even BE a perception check involved in that case, it may simply be color used to explain some other mechanical outcome. </p><p></p><p>So, I agree with your thesis, at least in a sense. The relative levels of potency of various characters in various situations is more a measure of the sort of dramatic outcomes that are being signaled. Its NOT an attempt to simulate something! It is interesting to note that games like Dungeon World don't have DCs either, nor even 'difficulty'. There is an ability bonus, so the wizard sure does better on INT based checks, but what the game does is make sure that everything is basically in that dramatic sweet spot, you may be the greatest maze runner of all time, but there will SOMETHING that will trip you up, and there's no such thing as PCs that never have to make risky checks!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8913837, member: 82106"] OK, the existence of a PC with a very high Perception, what is that telling you? It is telling you that the player is signaling something. They want to engage successfully in tasks that relate to this skill! In other words "I'm perceptive, I'll max Perception." The upshot is, you should, generally, not fail checks involving this skill, and the GM should not simply jack up the DC such that this is a possibility. I mean, OK, there COULD be a case where the character failing to perceive something adds drama, the Owlbear is so stealthy it even surprised Jorgenson! There might not even BE a perception check involved in that case, it may simply be color used to explain some other mechanical outcome. So, I agree with your thesis, at least in a sense. The relative levels of potency of various characters in various situations is more a measure of the sort of dramatic outcomes that are being signaled. Its NOT an attempt to simulate something! It is interesting to note that games like Dungeon World don't have DCs either, nor even 'difficulty'. There is an ability bonus, so the wizard sure does better on INT based checks, but what the game does is make sure that everything is basically in that dramatic sweet spot, you may be the greatest maze runner of all time, but there will SOMETHING that will trip you up, and there's no such thing as PCs that never have to make risky checks! [/QUOTE]
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Some thoughts on skills.
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