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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8979465" data-attributes="member: 42582">Similar to some other replies you've had - from [USER=71235]@niklinna[/USER], [USER=6696971]@Manbearcat[/USER]&nbsp; and [USER=82106]@AbdulAlhazred[/USER] - I think you are understating the capacity of the players to affect difficulty.Those other posters have talked about BitD.In Marvel Heroic/Cortex+ Heroic players can establish Assets and Resources, choose whether and how to use SFX, etc. And it is in fact possible to change the nature of a &quot;difficult&quot; chasm, in so far as that is a Scene Distinction that is amenable to being targeted (eg Colossus could grab something long and strong - say a steel beam, assuming the fiction makes such a thing available - and lay it across the chasm).In 4e D&amp;D players can deploy powers, sourced from character abilities or items or whatever, which make it easier to cross a chasm (Mighty Sprint is a favourite in my group's play). In Torchbearer or Burning Wheel a player can deploy a piece of gear and thereby gain an advantage die. Prince Valiant is fairly similar in this respect.Choices about how to tackle a situation also affect difficulty in many systems, as a character will have different ratings in different abilities. Of course this is also likely to affect consequences, because pushing the fiction in a different direction.What is true is that, in these games, there is no path which has no need to make checks as it is taken. The point of play is to find out what happens at certain moments of &quot;crisis&quot;, where whatever it is that matters is at stake. There is no such thing as negating, or overwhelming, situation by first winning in the exploration element of play. That's an approach that I associate, most canonically, with Tomb of Horrors, and perhaps with some CoC scenarios if one ignores the occasional interpolation of Library Use and combat rolls.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8979465, member: 42582"] Similar to some other replies you've had - from [USER=71235]@niklinna[/USER], [USER=6696971]@Manbearcat[/USER] and [USER=82106]@AbdulAlhazred[/USER] - I think you are understating the capacity of the players to affect difficulty. Those other posters have talked about BitD. In Marvel Heroic/Cortex+ Heroic players can establish Assets and Resources, choose whether and how to use SFX, etc. And it is in fact possible to change the nature of a "difficult" chasm, in so far as that is a Scene Distinction that is amenable to being targeted (eg Colossus could grab something long and strong - say a steel beam, assuming the fiction makes such a thing available - and lay it across the chasm). In 4e D&D players can deploy powers, sourced from character abilities or items or whatever, which make it easier to cross a chasm (Mighty Sprint is a favourite in my group's play). In Torchbearer or Burning Wheel a player can deploy a piece of gear and thereby gain an advantage die. Prince Valiant is fairly similar in this respect. Choices about how to tackle a situation also affect difficulty in many systems, as a character will have different ratings in different abilities. Of course this is also likely to affect consequences, because pushing the fiction in a different direction. What is true is that, in these games, there is no path which has no need to make checks as it is taken. The point of play is to find out what happens at certain moments of "crisis", where whatever it is that matters is at stake. There is no such thing as negating, or overwhelming, [i]situation[/i] by first winning in the [i]exploration[/i] element of play. That's an approach that I associate, most canonically, with Tomb of Horrors, and perhaps with some CoC scenarios if one ignores the occasional interpolation of Library Use and combat rolls. [/QUOTE]

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