Submitted by Chainsaw Aardvark on Sun, 2007-10-21 11:34.
There is the word of the law, and the spirit. Lawyers have their infamous reputation because they chose between the two facets to support one view or another.
Rolls are included to make life a bit more interesting and unpredictable. Getting stuck in prison is neither of these things, and probably shouldn't have been an option in the scenario. No rule set is going to help with a bad GM, though a good GM can make a poor set of mechanics function.
The dilemma here is most likely with the person running the game, not the system itself.
A critical failure may be a change in the situation rather than anything the character did. With hiccups, it could very well be that the muscle spasms are the sign of a rare tropical disease. As such, a misdiagnoses means she gets sicker or dies, turning the game into an episode of some esoteric medical drama.
Some games use a narrative method, where the outcome on the die only indicates who gets to describe the outcome. However, someone who wants a die roll for every situation probably isn't inclined to try one of these mechanically lighter games.
Skills will continue to be apart of games, as they are a way to define characters, and a limited resource that leads to niche protection and grouping together.
There is a fine line between hobby and obsession. I seem to have lost sight of it some time ago.
This is why we hate attourneys
There is the word of the law, and the spirit. Lawyers have their infamous reputation because they chose between the two facets to support one view or another.
Rolls are included to make life a bit more interesting and unpredictable. Getting stuck in prison is neither of these things, and probably shouldn't have been an option in the scenario. No rule set is going to help with a bad GM, though a good GM can make a poor set of mechanics function.
The dilemma here is most likely with the person running the game, not the system itself.
A critical failure may be a change in the situation rather than anything the character did. With hiccups, it could very well be that the muscle spasms are the sign of a rare tropical disease. As such, a misdiagnoses means she gets sicker or dies, turning the game into an episode of some esoteric medical drama.
Some games use a narrative method, where the outcome on the die only indicates who gets to describe the outcome. However, someone who wants a die roll for every situation probably isn't inclined to try one of these mechanically lighter games.
Skills will continue to be apart of games, as they are a way to define characters, and a limited resource that leads to niche protection and grouping together.
There is a fine line between hobby and obsession. I seem to have lost sight of it some time ago.