Samantha Patri's Blog

I might be a bit old-school.  I started gaming in 1984, give or take. Cut my teeth on Palace of the Silver Princess, picked up Call of Cthulhu as my second ever RPG, and then ended my AD&D experience with Throne of Bloodstone before I moved on to other games in another part of the country. I understand the idea of "fail forward", and I understand the intent. The GM wants the PCs to make it to the BBEG, and doesn't want the road there to be blocked. The GM doesn't want the players to fall to 'accidents' and crappy dice rolls along the way.  No, I totally get this. And in some games, sure.  Okay. But not every game. Here's the thing for me. If the hazard isn't actually hazardous, then there's no point to it being there. Some GMs may talk about 'tension' or 'dramatic scenery', but I'm fine with doing that as background, not as a 'threat that isn't really a threat don't worry about it'. If you're in a swordfi...

One of the strangest curses I ever gave to a PC was the "you succeed" curse. The specifics of this went something like this: If it's a Dexterity/Constitution/Strength Check, you succeed. If it's a Saving Throw, you succeed.  If it's an attack roll, you hit, and the target dies. Immediately. If it's a game of chance, you succeed. What it didn't cover:  Social Skills and Abilities.  Those do not succeed automatically, and the player needs to roll. The player, of course, loved this. Initially. You can dungeon crawl, and evade every trap, pass every saving throw, and slaughter everything in a single go. Hey, what's not to like? Except that the other characters start giving the character the stinkeye. Go into town, gamble, win everything. The NPCs start giving you the stinkeye. You get into a fight in the tavern - every single blow you land kills.  Whether you want it to or not. The bodies pile up, and the city guard are called. You can evade them easily. O...