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How Do Skills Work? (Patreon)

Published:
2024-03-29 18:28:55
Imported:
2024-03
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Content

Ever since we revealed the power roll, A LOT of you have been asking, “How does this affect tests and skills?” I’ve hinted at the answer to this question before over on Twitch and in the MCDM Discord, but I want to reveal the mechanics in full detail for you right now by showing you what I sent to our playtesters. It’s attached to this post!

Please keep in mind that while I have gone over this document a few times, it’s still playtesting and hasn’t been edited yet. This thing will be a lot more polished once it gets into the book!

So that’s what you’re looking at! It’s a short Patreon post, but an attachment over 5,000 words, so enjoy! As a reminder, we’re not looking for design suggestions. We want to share our process with you.

Thanks so much!

—James


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Artist: Gustavo Pelissari
Artist: Gustavo Pelissari

Comments

Kelby B

Nice doc. Clearly articulated. I like the simplicity of the tests, and the consistent examples really help with understanding the intent. I like how opposed rolls are optional, but unnecessary, reducing the Director/Player multi-rolls to determine outcomes, speeding up that RNG generator. Looks great!

Patreon Yeeter

Doom and vanquish (or fortune?) tokens 😳 I look forward to hearing more about those!

Daniel

As a lover of Fitd and PbtA games. I'm curious if consequences and rewards make sense in a tactical game. In modern games, consequences and rewards are fairly arbitrary with guidelines. Added by the GM for the sake of narrative. However, I would suggest that consequences and rewards are not "Tactical". They are uncalculatable. Consequences that players cannot determine and GMs must create. Additionally, they add to the GM workload. In a tactical game, the players won't want new unexpected consequences that they didn't calculate, they aren't fun like FitD. So without rules to guide you, you must imagine and come up with something to harm your players. On the flip side, bonus rewards are extremely helpful for the players. The players may hound for additional bonuses, but the GM has to try and keep the fight balanced. The joy of tactical games is that the GM has an "excuse" to be mean. "I'm not harming you, this dragon is harming you. I have the stat block right here." Adding consequences and rewards strips away that veil from the GM, forcing them to add unnecessary arbitration. Furthermore, if you take away consequences and rewards, what do you have? The system is very similar to the old, but limits the success/failure TN to 8 or 11. That isn't terrible, as the players have a very recognizable target, but at the same token, a ton of power has been taken out of the GMs hands.

Arash - Game Narrative 101

Decoupling skills from attributes is so elegant and freeing! Very interested to see how this is gonna play 5 or so sessions into a campaign. Only thing I can't wrap my head around so far is assisting a test literally replacing numbers, but we'll see where things land :)

Steven V. Neiman
>>133919750

The results of using skills in combat are more formally prescribed, and out of combat D&D has always been like a clunkier version of a PBTA system with the GM inventing results on the fly. Success with a bonus and failure with a consequence might mean more outcomes than D&D generally has, but the results will still be fundamentally similar, with the GM deciding what kind of opportunity cost a failure has. Compared to that, this system is a little cleaner, though I will admit that I'm concerned that the two difficulties will be a bit limiting and the low bonus from skills will feel unimportant. Remember though, this kind of stuff will often feel different in play than you or I imagine from reading the rules. If you're a designer forethought can save you revisions or problems, but as a player it can often lead you to borrow trouble and to break perfectly good design because you wanted to fix a problem that only existed in your imagination. Trust me, I've done it plenty of times and it almost invariably made my life harder for no actual gain.

Zachary James Forsythe

I feel like, with the focus of skills being more niche and character driven, and also less broad and encompassing, you might want to use a different word than "skills". Saying I have these skills here implies that the ones I didn't pick are things for which I am unskilled. I could be wrong, but I don't think that is the intended vibe. Maybe borrowing a word like expertise would be better. I have a good enough roll for jumping and swimming and lifting because I have a good enough Might characteristic, but I have expertise in climbing.