Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Why PCs should be competent, or "I got a lot of past in my past"
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9268110" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Key questions these guidelines raise are (i) who decides, and how, if the outcome is uncertain; and (ii) who decides, and how, what the consequences of failure are, and whether they're interesting.</p><p></p><p>I worked with someone who was an experienced horse rider, and then one day her horse threw her and she broke her back. I guess that's an interesting consequence, and not a certain one when you get up on your horse. But the circumstances were pretty routine.</p><p></p><p>So I don't think "routine", "uncertain", "interesting" and the like are objective properties of a given fictional circumstance. Someone has to decide, <em>is this routine?</em> or rather <em>is this worthy of a roll?</em></p><p></p><p>That bit about "bumbling about" relates to my post upthread about my Burning Wheel play: I roll a lot of failures, but my character is not bumbling about. A failure in BW is a bit like a 6- roll in Apocalypse World: it licences the GM to introduce new stuff that thwarts or at least cuts across the player's hope/expectation for where things are going with their PC. It doesn't mean that the PC is incompetent.</p><p></p><p>I think the experience of incompetence becomes greater when player failure on rolls is narrated as PC bumbling; and also when the GM is using their own private conception of the situation (maybe guided by their notes) to decide what is routine, what is at stake, when failure is worth testing for, etc. In this sort of play, the meaning of success or failure is often quite opaque, and that contributes to a feeling of not being in control, which in turn contributes to a sense that the PC lacks compentence.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 9268110, member: 42582"] Key questions these guidelines raise are (i) who decides, and how, if the outcome is uncertain; and (ii) who decides, and how, what the consequences of failure are, and whether they're interesting. I worked with someone who was an experienced horse rider, and then one day her horse threw her and she broke her back. I guess that's an interesting consequence, and not a certain one when you get up on your horse. But the circumstances were pretty routine. So I don't think "routine", "uncertain", "interesting" and the like are objective properties of a given fictional circumstance. Someone has to decide, [I]is this routine?[/I] or rather [I]is this worthy of a roll?[/I] That bit about "bumbling about" relates to my post upthread about my Burning Wheel play: I roll a lot of failures, but my character is not bumbling about. A failure in BW is a bit like a 6- roll in Apocalypse World: it licences the GM to introduce new stuff that thwarts or at least cuts across the player's hope/expectation for where things are going with their PC. It doesn't mean that the PC is incompetent. I think the experience of incompetence becomes greater when player failure on rolls is narrated as PC bumbling; and also when the GM is using their own private conception of the situation (maybe guided by their notes) to decide what is routine, what is at stake, when failure is worth testing for, etc. In this sort of play, the meaning of success or failure is often quite opaque, and that contributes to a feeling of not being in control, which in turn contributes to a sense that the PC lacks compentence. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Why PCs should be competent, or "I got a lot of past in my past"
Top