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Stakes and consequences in action resolution
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7599418" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I was thinking more about advantage than disadvantage, so I'll stick to that.</p><p></p><p>What I had in mind is that if my chance of success is 1 in 20, then advantage nearly doubles that (39/400 is near enough to 1 in 10); while if my chance is already good, then advantage doesn't increase it as much (eg if its 50/50 it goes to 3 in 4, which is only 50% more likely; if its 4 in 5 then it goes to 24/25, which is only 20% more likely).</p><p></p><p>But if I'm following properly, the general experience is that doubling a small chance doesn't, in practice, make much difference (eg because those checks don't come up often enough for the doubling to show through) while the more modest increase in to big chances does make a difference (eg because those checks come up a fair bit and already weren't too likely to fail and now are even less likely).</p><p></p><p>The two in combination, I think, because its the relationship between bonuses and DCs that determines the prospects of success, which matter to the viability of conflict resolution for the reasons [MENTION=16814]Ovinomancer[/MENTION] has given.</p><p></p><p>Thinking through some more maths:</p><p></p><p>Suppose a DC of 15 and a bonus of +1. Then the chance of success is 7 in 20, but with advantage is 231/400, or about 11.5 in 20. The latter sort of odds is enough to support conflict resolution in Burning Wheel, but the result is that the players (and their PCs) <em>do</em> fail a lot and hence the play experience can be pretty demanding on them. And demanding on the GM too, because it puts a <em>lot</em> of pressure on the GM to effectively narrate failures.</p><p></p><p>I think D&D (and I include 4e here) has never provided a lot of support to the GM in narrating failure effectively. I don't have a good sense of how much better 5e might be in this respect, but if the general tendency in play is to incline towards making checks with significantly better than 50/50 odds then maybe it doesn't come up too much?</p><p></p><p>Can you elaborate? You may have noticed something in my play example that I missed.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7599418, member: 42582"] I was thinking more about advantage than disadvantage, so I'll stick to that. What I had in mind is that if my chance of success is 1 in 20, then advantage nearly doubles that (39/400 is near enough to 1 in 10); while if my chance is already good, then advantage doesn't increase it as much (eg if its 50/50 it goes to 3 in 4, which is only 50% more likely; if its 4 in 5 then it goes to 24/25, which is only 20% more likely). But if I'm following properly, the general experience is that doubling a small chance doesn't, in practice, make much difference (eg because those checks don't come up often enough for the doubling to show through) while the more modest increase in to big chances does make a difference (eg because those checks come up a fair bit and already weren't too likely to fail and now are even less likely). The two in combination, I think, because its the relationship between bonuses and DCs that determines the prospects of success, which matter to the viability of conflict resolution for the reasons [MENTION=16814]Ovinomancer[/MENTION] has given. Thinking through some more maths: Suppose a DC of 15 and a bonus of +1. Then the chance of success is 7 in 20, but with advantage is 231/400, or about 11.5 in 20. The latter sort of odds is enough to support conflict resolution in Burning Wheel, but the result is that the players (and their PCs) [I]do[/I] fail a lot and hence the play experience can be pretty demanding on them. And demanding on the GM too, because it puts a [I]lot[/I] of pressure on the GM to effectively narrate failures. I think D&D (and I include 4e here) has never provided a lot of support to the GM in narrating failure effectively. I don't have a good sense of how much better 5e might be in this respect, but if the general tendency in play is to incline towards making checks with significantly better than 50/50 odds then maybe it doesn't come up too much? Can you elaborate? You may have noticed something in my play example that I missed. [/QUOTE]
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