thread: 2005-11-10 : Open House: Ask a Frequent Question...
On 2005-11-17, Collin M. Trail wrote:
There seem to be two major principals of game design which are often advocated around here, but seem like they could sometimes conflict.
One is Conflict Resolution, where it is important that the consequences of success or failure are defined in terms of the conflict, not the task, so that players aren't thwarted by a task which is successful but doesn't move them towards the desired outcome.
The other is Fortune in the Middle, where further choices are made after the dice are rolled in order to determine how a conflict resolves. This sometimes means that the ultimate outcome is different from what was anticipated.
Won't these two approaches often come into conflict? It seems like situations could arise where the stakes are clearly defined, but instead of success with the dice dictating actual success in the conflict, FitM could mean that the stakes are changed after the fact.
Is this a problem, or have I gotten confused somewhere? If it is a potential conflict, do you have any ideas how to try and resolve it?
