My first go as a player in 4e
Callan S.:
Perhaps spend off X amount of hitpoints for it to hit? Or spend X number of healing surges for it to hit? Or perhaps if you do three laps of the house (the RL one!), hehe.
I'm basically bouncing around new game design ideas here. I'm assuming that fits your thread.
masqueradeball:
Yeah, for sure. I definitely like the idea of a game asking "How much is this worth to you." Being able to spend HP to make up the difference in the dice would be pretty nifty.
Also, I think this really hits the nail on the head for me and 4e combat: as far as I can tell there is no way to take risks. The risks are provided for you (by the GM) and there is a built in series of tasks you perform to address them. This isn't true on a bigger level, I guess, where you can choose whether to get into the fight or not, but if the game is played as designed, all potential encounters should be GM provided and planned risks that choosing to ignore would mean not receiving your mechanical reward...
Callan S.:
Well, here I might turn the spotlight around to yourself. What do you mean by 'taking risks'?
I'll say that in video games like GTA, mercenaries and fallout 3 I've taken risks doing certain stuff in play that...had nothing much to do with the game. They did usually including collecting game currencies like cash, but as to the overall beginning, middle and end of the game, they weren't terribly relevant.
Then again in the card game 'lunch money' I've taken risks in playing a certain card, uncertain if the target player had a counter card to it that would instead trounce me. This had everything to do with the game.
So which do you mean?
And in regard to the former how enabled are you to simply go off as a solo player and attempt to pursue other things? Probably not a great deal if the GM's been influenced by game 'the party always stays together' culture, then on top the party design for play and the handling time of prep work on the fly. Though I think this whole 'miss out on a mechanical reward' thing is a red herring - if your ignoring the overall beginning/middle/end of the game, of course your ignoring it's rewards. That's you doing that to you. Though notably the games in the first example above have various other currencies sprinkled about.
masqueradeball:
As far as I can tell in this 4e game, powering up your character is how you reach the end game... there are things out there that we must confront in order to resolve our various personal story lines and the way to confront them is in combat and by getting more powerful in/better at combat...
What do I mean by taking risks? I mean, choosing whether or not to sacrifice or endanger something that is important to me as a player. I'm not sure I follow your examples, but I can provide a few of my own:
Cyberpunk 2020, when you choose to take on a new bit of cyber at the risk of getting cyber psychosis.
Legend of the 5 Rings when you attempt to insult a samurai subtly enough that he can't retaliate without losing face.
Legend of the 5 Rings when you choose to retaliate despite the fact that you'll probably lose face.
Exalted when I balance the increased difficulty of my action against the bonus that the stunt dice will give me.
etc...
In each of these I try to do something in order to gain some kind of benefit or reward but where I might lose something important to my me (up to and including my character). It has to involve me making a choice and it has to involve potential for failure but not guaranteed failure/
Callan S.:
Well, I'll pose this - how's a game system going to know what's important to you as a player?
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