[Solar System Actual Play] Characters Grow by Trial and Error
Paul T:
Hmmm. Good example!
I'll be thinking about this one.
Note: The issue wasn't boredom in the sense of nothing happening at the table (I'm sure we could have made fun, exciting narrative out of the conflict) but the inevitability of one outcome (in this case, failure).
I suppose that, really, the issue was that none of us were *really* open to the possibility of failure in that particular conflict. There's a lesson there! In the future, I'll try to come up with more interesting counter-stakes.
Eero Tuovinen:
Yes! That's a very common issue - and it's one that a classical goal-based conflict resolution game is not very good with. If I'm going to write more about Solar System, I'm going to include something substantial about non-conflict struggles. Those are actually a pretty tricky thing in conflict-based rpgs, as it takes some experience to even recognize that something is a struggle without being a conflict; and even if you recognize the situation, it's still an open question whether one can be satisfied by just declaring a non-conflict and doing freeform narration. Might be how we've been schooled to think about roleplaying, but it feels like there should be some mechanical impact when a character struggles just for color and fictional sensibilities.
Of course, the by-the-book solution here is to run an unopposed Ability check against some minor Harm. "We all know that your character will succeed in his cinematic escape here, but do make a Riding check - I want to see whether you'll break any ribs on the way out." This allows everybody to feel like the struggle has been procedurized, but there is no major stakes in the way of accepting a loss gracefully.
Paul T:
Ooh! Good trick.
I was thinking along the lines of, "Think of a complication to success. (You succeed, but...) On a failure, the complication takes place."
The Harm trick is kind of a special case of that for when you're not feeling creative. I like it!
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