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What is the point of GM's notes?
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<blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 8261615" data-attributes="member: 6696971"><p>Just going to break out some thoughts here and they're going to be a bit all over the place.</p><p></p><p><strong>If </strong></p><p></p><p>* a 5e game used the Success w/ Complications module</p><p></p><p><strong>And</strong></p><p></p><p>* a 5e game had every single aspect of action resolution encoded (therefore intuitable before the orient > action declaration phase) and player-facing</p><p></p><p><strong>And</strong></p><p></p><p>* the 5e game had more pressure points to exert on players than just HPs and Fatigue (the game just doesn't have enough vectors to attack player resources...real resource cost with teeth...and diversity of resource cost with teeth)</p><p></p><p><strong>Then</strong></p><p></p><p><em>Act Now Plan Later </em>and <em>Embrace the Soundrel's Life</em> (<em>Go into Danger Boldly....Fall in Love With Trouble</em>) would be much more portable to 5e. That is because 5e PCs, like Dungeon World and Blades PCs are extremely robust/potent against threats that can take them out (however, unlike DW/Blades, 5e suffers from (a) lack of parity in noncombat conflict resolution and (b) serious runaway power by some classes in noncombat conflict resolution).</p><p></p><p>Act Now Plan Later isn't just about marshalling resources/the fiction via Flashbacks. Its about (a) going heedless into danger because you know you're up to the challenge (you can both play skillfully and the PC build mechanics and action resolution mechanics create robust PCs who can come off the ropes from an early setback) and/or (b) just playing your character recklessly because its fun. </p><p></p><p>(a) and (b) above push back hard against orthodox D&D culture. Overwhelmingly, our culture has stigmatized (b) as unskillful play because D&D has historically (outside of 4e) rewarded extreme planning and extreme turtling and the most careful of resource rationing and dedication to controlling the resource refresh cycle. Everything about this is different than in Blades and in DW. And its not just because the game mechanically isn't suited for this (the action resolution mechanics are going to put you on the ropes...its how you deal with being on the ropes that is skillful in DW/Blades...interestingly...this is 100 % the exact same arc as 4e D&D combat), but the game is just fundamentally less fun and not rewarding (from an xp paradigm/advancement paradigm as well) if you play that way. </p><p></p><p>So that is a big cultural gap to manage.</p><p></p><p>So if you can (i) manage that culture, (ii) ensure that the game doesn't get away from you and become way too dangerous because you're using a large number of creatures (5e's bounded accuracy makes #s profoundly more dangerous than D&D of yore), (iii) play with that module, (iv) encode action resolution and make it player facing (so its inferable and modellable for skilled play), (v) develop/hack in more pressure points for complications than is present in 5e...</p><p></p><p>You do all of those things, then those principles will be considerably more harmonious in their integration with 5e (and when I say harmonious here, I'm meaning both in potency on play and in coherency with the entire loop of play).</p><p></p><p>But its more complex than just porting them in. Now, you can port them in, but the potency and coherency is not going to be there like it is for DW/Blades. The work its doing won't create a through line of play that is both consistently and potently product of the signal of those principles (at least not in the way that it is in the aforementioned games).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Manbearcat, post: 8261615, member: 6696971"] Just going to break out some thoughts here and they're going to be a bit all over the place. [B]If [/B] * a 5e game used the Success w/ Complications module [B]And[/B] * a 5e game had every single aspect of action resolution encoded (therefore intuitable before the orient > action declaration phase) and player-facing [B]And[/B] * the 5e game had more pressure points to exert on players than just HPs and Fatigue (the game just doesn't have enough vectors to attack player resources...real resource cost with teeth...and diversity of resource cost with teeth) [B]Then[/B] [I]Act Now Plan Later [/I]and [I]Embrace the Soundrel's Life[/I] ([I]Go into Danger Boldly....Fall in Love With Trouble[/I]) would be much more portable to 5e. That is because 5e PCs, like Dungeon World and Blades PCs are extremely robust/potent against threats that can take them out (however, unlike DW/Blades, 5e suffers from (a) lack of parity in noncombat conflict resolution and (b) serious runaway power by some classes in noncombat conflict resolution). Act Now Plan Later isn't just about marshalling resources/the fiction via Flashbacks. Its about (a) going heedless into danger because you know you're up to the challenge (you can both play skillfully and the PC build mechanics and action resolution mechanics create robust PCs who can come off the ropes from an early setback) and/or (b) just playing your character recklessly because its fun. (a) and (b) above push back hard against orthodox D&D culture. Overwhelmingly, our culture has stigmatized (b) as unskillful play because D&D has historically (outside of 4e) rewarded extreme planning and extreme turtling and the most careful of resource rationing and dedication to controlling the resource refresh cycle. Everything about this is different than in Blades and in DW. And its not just because the game mechanically isn't suited for this (the action resolution mechanics are going to put you on the ropes...its how you deal with being on the ropes that is skillful in DW/Blades...interestingly...this is 100 % the exact same arc as 4e D&D combat), but the game is just fundamentally less fun and not rewarding (from an xp paradigm/advancement paradigm as well) if you play that way. So that is a big cultural gap to manage. So if you can (i) manage that culture, (ii) ensure that the game doesn't get away from you and become way too dangerous because you're using a large number of creatures (5e's bounded accuracy makes #s profoundly more dangerous than D&D of yore), (iii) play with that module, (iv) encode action resolution and make it player facing (so its inferable and modellable for skilled play), (v) develop/hack in more pressure points for complications than is present in 5e... You do all of those things, then those principles will be considerably more harmonious in their integration with 5e (and when I say harmonious here, I'm meaning both in potency on play and in coherency with the entire loop of play). But its more complex than just porting them in. Now, you can port them in, but the potency and coherency is not going to be there like it is for DW/Blades. The work its doing won't create a through line of play that is both consistently and potently product of the signal of those principles (at least not in the way that it is in the aforementioned games). [/QUOTE]
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