#been reading advice posts and question posts and complaint posts and u kno what........... u kno what.

[equalseleventhirds]

so it's been several months since i made this post abt giving success-with-consequences to players who do the annoying 'well i succeeded that means i can do this superhuman thing'

and u kno, i do stand by it for problem players (and it can be a fun strategy if ur upfront w/ non-problem players, it makes for some interesting results)

but i have been hanging out in ttrpg spaces reading posts again (i know, i know) and u kno.... sometimes, as a gm, when u call for/allow a roll? u just gotta be prepared to give straight-up success to ur players. sometimes they get to win, and that's okay. not everything u make for them to fight or persuade or w/e is so powerful & special & vital to ur story that u can't let them do the thing. and if they can't, talk to ur players!! tell them, hey, due to this situation, you will not be able to fully succeed; here's the kinds of partial successes i can offer if you still want to attempt and roll high enough.

and this does apply to adventures too; it's ok for players to win. like, i love to end on a cliffhanger, and the easiest way ofc is for the villain to escape...... but that's just the easiest way. and doing it all the time is defs too damn much, or the players never feel like they're winning, and that's frustrating. (as noted in that one leverage episode, you can't forget about the rage quit.) sometimes they have to beat the villain. sometimes they get to kill the villain, or lock the villain up in jail, and then they can go on to bigger badder villains (and maybe come back to question the villain in jail: look, new information source!)

or if the villain does escape, give them another win. save the town. learn the vital information. get the amazing weapon. etc. mix success into ur failures.

like i defs have made this mistake w/ adventures before, and all the time i am learning things. but sometimes it's easy to get so caught up in your own story and ~being mysterious~ that you forget that, while ttrpgs aren't about winning, it still feels good to win.

(caveat that this does not apply to things like trophy dark or ten candles, where the goal is to lose, and everyone goes into it knowing that. it's also ok to play like dnd or other ttrpgs this way! as long as, again, everyone goes into it knowing that they're playing to lose. communication key etc.)