Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Balesir" data-source="post: 6182105" data-attributes="member: 27160">I'm certainly aware of the shift in paradigm - and in fact that's the root of my concern. What I'm worried about is where the players' heads are at; I don't want it to be in a gamist region of figuring out ways that they can get their background to be relevant by inventing wierd connections and artificial linkages. I want to take all that off the table; that's what Primetime Adventures does quite successfully. The "choosing of skill" mini-game you talk about is just one facet of this same issue - the other facet is the finagling a contrived story about why tumbling is useful for charming the handsome prince (for example).There are two 'legs' to getting around this, in my experience. First is taking the "resources" bit and, since you can't get rid of it altogether while still leaving anything of substance in "backgrounds" (which, as you say, are meant to be a player route to contributing to the setting), making it really simple. PTA does this by saying you can use each background N times per session - but note that the use of backgrounds can be completely at the players' discretion. You don't need to finagle some sort of 'special use' or contrived story and get it past the GM - just make up a cool description and run with it. Choose when to use it, sure - at least, don't use it frivolously, because you only get so many goes. But don't sweat the justification.The second leg is related to "Fail Forward" but is more like BWs "Let It Ride". This basically amounts to "only roll for something once" - if a character succeeds, they get the whole cake. No second rolls or multiple successes required - if you succeed, you really succeed. This also relates to the "resource game" thing; you don't need to worry that, by using your bonus on a roll for something that is important to you, you are going to be suckered because "that roll only gets you half way - now you have to make the really difficult roll!" If you are rolling to capture the fleeing spy, for instance, then a success captures the spy - it doesn't mean "you gained on her"*.By saying "whichever background you choose, it will work when you need it to" and "you only get limited bonuses, so choose what to use them for - but if you use them you will get the benefit for what you are rolling for, not just part-way" I find (taking PTA as my guide) that you can channel the resource game into the story by making the decision to use/not use about "is this important to my character" rather than "is this something I can swing?" or "is this potentially profitable?"*: If you want a multiple roll "skill challenge" type affair for dramatic tension, you could just say "the bonus applies to one challenge, not to just one roll". That's well within the spirit of what I'm trying to get at, here.</blockquote>

Verification