Any advice on best practices for resolving dice rolls that read “you do it but the danger manifests” in situations…

5 thoughts on “Any advice on best practices for resolving dice rolls that read “you do it but the danger manifests” in situations…”

1. You’ve almost done it – your last step – but you didn’t see it coming – loosing your balance you slam your head (resistance roll) – with pain exploding in your head – your sight fading you manage to grap the rope and pull yourself to the other side …

2. Chris Boyd , Joshua, is right. The easiest way not paint yourself into a corner with a contradictory outcome, is to always make sure the danger you present to the player is never mutually exclusive to the success of the action being undertaken.

   If a character climbing across a thin ledge succeeds but faces the effect of the danger,  dropping an important item, drawing attention from a guard  — or any of a number of other things — would all be valid dangers since they woudn’t contradict the success of the action.

3. One way to look at this kind of situation is to explicit why the character faces the danger.

   In your example, maybe he wants to climb across a thin ledge to escape a guard. He could fall and still could escape the guard who would not dare to follow him (or would be too cautious in his slow descent).

4. Aye. Orthogonal goals and dangers are best.

5. Good answers, everyone.

   For situations like this, it’s sometimes handy to be a bit vague with the danger, saying “This sounds risky. You could definitely get hurt here.”

   Then, on a 1-3, they fall (they don’t make it across + they get hurt).

   On a 4/5, they have to scramble and catch themselves, maybe twisting an ankle or hurting their arm when they catch themselves. (they make it across).

   Think of a danger in broad strokes first. “You get hurt,” “You draw suspicion,” “You’re trapped,” then fill in the exact details after the roll(s).

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