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doppelgreener
doppelgreener
05:21
It's been a couple of years since I started Fate, and I've had cause to reflect on something a few times recently.
Of the various problems the system has, the biggest failing seems to be there's a significant lack of guidance available for determining the difficulty of a task someone's attempting.
The guidance in Fate Core and Accelerated is thin, and more or less come down to "pick 4 if it's hard, more if it's harder".
How the narrative should translate difficulty into numbers is difficult to figure out. I'll be thinking more about this in upcoming games.
A technique that's been advised to me from time to time is thinking of the person's score on their sheet and whether I want this action to potentially cost them anything, but I'm going to put that aside in an upcoming session and think of the narrative alone, forgetting everything on the character sheet except for, y'know, who the character is: who are they, what are they trying to do, and how difficult would this be in a good story?
It'll either be a fair challenge (+2), a great challenge (+4), a very serious challenge (+6), or a phenomenal challenge (+8), or totally ridiculous (+10 or higher, or seriously let's break this down into a Challenge instead).
If they happen to have a really big score in a relevant skill, cool, that just means they're good at confronting challenges of that scale. It doesn't mean it was any less phenomenal a challenge for them.
If an elephant wants to barge through a wooden door, that's +2, whether the elephant's also got +4 physique (it's a very hardy elephant) or invested nothing into physique (+0, and if it fails to break through the door, this is going to be hilarious and a little bit pitiful)
As a hypothesis, if it's a bigger challenge, it's probably also more dramatic, and will likely present us with more opportunities for fun costs when it fails.
BESW
BESW
06:17
So, here's how I've been approaching that lately: I take the highest skill rank available to the PCs (+5 in ARRPG, +3 in Umdaar) and set that as "hard." If you're good at it, you've got a good chance of succeeding.
Also, ARRPG to the rescue:
> If the PCs are overflowing in fate points, or it’s a crucial moment in the story when someone’s life is on the line, or the fate of many is at stake, or they’re finally going against foes that they’ve been building up to for a scenario or two, feel free to raise difficulties across the board.
You should also raise difficulties to indicate when a particular opponent is extremely prepared for the PCs, or to reflect situations that aren’t ideal—if the PCs are not prepared, or don’t have the right tools for the job, or are in a time crunch, etc.
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
Yeah, that's a good case in which to consider "I'm gonna take whatever I think it is, then bump it up by 2 in order to cost resources and make them put more on the line."
trogdor
trogdor
06:33
I have had some trouble deciding on difficulties myself
BESW
BESW
@doppelgreener I built this into the termite fight by saying "Any zone that is Swarming with workers gives +1 to all Termite rolls."
(And by saying it that way, I created the opportunity for players to remove that bonus by changing or overcoming the zone aspect.)
 
5 hours later…
trogdor
trogdor
11:30
none of use bothered to do that,... but it is still a nice touch
I think most of us felt like doing something else with our turn was probably more important on that occasion
I certainly felt like I would be letting the team down if I didn't just keep hacking at the terminal XD
not in a negative way at all, in case it sounded/read like that
I enjoyed myself immensely that session
I don't always feel like Dr Light gets a full chance to show off his science stuff like that
he doesn't have to, because obviously I also made him capable of other things
but it was nice
 
8 hours later…
StackExchange
StackExchange
19:40
Evil Hat Productions: Bubblegumshoe
posted on February 15, 2016 by Sean Nittner

2-6 13+ 2-8 hr $25 Bubblegumshoe Someone stole my kid brother’s bike… Someone sabotaged the pep rally… Someone destroyed the Homecoming queen’s reputation… The world is full of mysteries. It’s […]


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