thread: 2010-06-14 : A Bit of Hardcore
On 2010-06-23, Rafael wrote:
Mauro: The point here is, I think, "Why is he trying to kill the mooks?"[...]If it's because he's a cool fighter[...], dice rolling could be more satisfying, but failing to win the battle could ruin player's fun. And if the master fudges the dice to make him win... the thrill in winning by rolling the dice is because player doesn't know if he'll win or not.
For purposes of this subdiscussion, it's because he wants to be a cool fighter. ;)
First of all, as Alexander D. said, "difficulties, uncertainty, and failure can be interesting". In fact, this is an example of how trad systems can also support the GM in generating a satisfying story that no one anticipated.
Secondly, I said at the beginning that dice are a psychological prop. Yes, if the master constantly and obviously fudges rolls, there is no thrill in victory. But in practice, fudging is both subtle and very rare. This allows players to pretend it isn't happening (something that some of the posters here seem to find bizarre, but I think is very human and similar to other forms of suspension of disbelief).
the players are likely to know in which situations the master'd fudge a die
True, but that actually works for us if the answer is "almost never".
If you decide if the player win or not after rolling the dice, YOU decide if the player win[...] The player could stay at home and let you play by yourself, at this point.
True in theory (this is the argument of the second "mother may I" article), but ridiculously oversimplified in practice. A lot happened to get to the point where a roll was fudged, and the player determined much of that. Also, the point of playing isn't just to generate a story; therefore, even a die roll that doesn't change the story can change the player's experience. The player's reaction (let's say excitement and (undeserved) pride in this case) in turn affects the GM's experience, even though he knows that the roll was meaningless.
Let me repeat that, because it's a critical point for me, and one that many posters here seem to see differently: my roleplaying isn't about the objective artefacts that emerge from play, whether story or experience points—it's about what happens in the minds and emotions of the participants.
P.S. If it's color, he could not care if dice are not rolled.
Can you link me to an explanation of color in this sense? Mother May I also uses the term, and I don't understand it.
