Fellow GMs, do you differentiate between a ‘4’ and a ‘5’ result?
I understand both are “you do it, with a consequence”, but do you treat the 4 as a worse consequence than the 5? My interpretation is no, that a 4 or 5 is just as good as each other, but thought I’d see how others ran it, and their experience.
On the same note, do you treat 1s as worse than 3s etc?
Personally, I don’t treat 1s, 2s, or 3s any differently, they’re all the same result. Same with 4s and 5s. But that’s just me.
Nope, it’s all about the category, not the number. 👍
Agree with these folks ⬆️
awesome, cheers guys, that was my understanding too.
Ugh, it’s hard enough to differentiate 4-5 from 6 sometimes, let alone have 6 goddamned categories of result..
Rebecca W, how so? One is “pure success” and the other is “success, but”. What’s tripping you up?
Ben Liepis I understand the difference. I’m just complaining. Don’t worry.
Rebecca W, um…cool? I’m not worried. 😊
Ben Liepis 😉 What I wanted to express was not that I don’t understand how the mechanics work, it’s that it doesn’t always feel relevant or natural for a 4-5 to be meaningfully different from a 6, and sometimes I just plain run out of “but” consequences. Like, sometimes things just happen or they don’t, and if there is any room for a complication, it isn’t interesting.
Rebecca W, I feel ya. It can be taxing to think of things past pass/fail. At first, it was hard not to sweat future impact but I eventually said, “Fuck it!” and learned to run with my gut. I started just going with a little spice instead of fiddling too much. Still, there are times I go simple and say, “More Heat”. 😜
FWIW: An action roll isn’t always required. And “Worse Position because _ is now happening” (not botched yet though) can be a more natural option if they did make an action roll and there weren’t interesting things to inflict before Rebecca W
Mark Cleveland Massengale I look at it this way: if there are stakes to failure, we need a roll- and, you make a good point that I often overlook; mixed results can just change the narrative positioning rather than the current outcome.