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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 4196993" data-attributes="member: 42582">Not being a playtester, I haven't seen the DMG. But there are any number of existing RPG texts that discuss how to GM mechanics of the same general character as skill challenges. I imagine that professional game designers, before writing up their own advice on GMing such mechanics, would look at those other texts and see what they do and don't get right. Part of that, I assume, would include addressing the balance of power between GM and player arbitration of skill usage.In HeroWars, it is the player who nominates a skill and explains its relevance to the situation, and the GM who assigns a difficulty to the manoeuvre based on his/her assessment of the situation and the player's explanation.A feature of extended contests in HeroWars, which seems not to be present in skill challenges, is this: success or failure is measured by reference to the exchange of Action Points between the contestants, and starting APs are determined by skill rank in the initial skill used (regardless of any penalties imposed on that skill for difficulty). But it is possible during an extended contest to change the skill being used (assuming a suitable narration by the player can be given). The following tactic is therefore called out in the rulebook as a good one: start a contest with your best relevant skill (even if difficult) to get a good set of starting APs, and narrate your use of the skill in such a fashion that the opponent has to use a skill in which they have a comparatively low rank (and thus get few APs). Then, once the contest is underway, change to a skill which (after difficulty mods) will have a better chance of success than the initial skill.This mechanic establishes a nice balance between player and GM - because even if the GM is a little harsh on the player in terms of difficulty penalties, the player can still get the AP benefit of starting with his or her best relevant skill before shifting to a skill that the GM thinks is more suitable. And the player's narration also affects the skill (be it of an NPC, or the world at large, which in HeroWars has skill ranks) that the GM can use to oppose the player.I'm looking forward to seeing what the DMG has to say about, and what mechanical devices (if any) it suggests for, achieving a similar balance.But 1st ed AD&D style action resolution - that is, no dice-based mechanics but simply player/GM negotiation, with the GM having the last word - is perhaps the worst system for giving the GM excessive power, because (in practice) it almost always requires the GM to "make up" the consequences of unforseen actions (whether performed by PCs or NPCs).A formal mechanical system, which distributes narrative authorisation by reference to dice rolls whose results are themselves evaluated by reference to some sort of player-GM distributed narrative control, seems to me no more likely, and probably less likely, to produce arbitrary and/or abusive GMing.And the idea that it is difficult to explain to novice GMs I also think is unfounded. Of course you wouldn't use language like "distribution of narrative authorisation" - but the idea that, in a game, what the players may do depends upon their dice rolls and how those interact with various pre-determined numerical values (skill ranks, number of successes/failures specified by GM) is a pretty basic one. Likewise, I think, the idea that one can describe (narrate) different outcomes based on how the dice rolls turn out.</blockquote>

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