Danger

Play

Ref: You see light flickering from within the cave. It’s maybe 30ft away through the trees.

Moss: Any signs of life around the cave?

Ref: It’s pretty dark here other than the light from the cave. I assume you put your torches out before you started sneaking up here?

Moss: Yeah, makes sense.

Ref: Well even under the moonlight you can make out shadows of movement. Looks like someone is moving around inside the cave. You also spot a silhouette standing guard, outside, a solid looking figure.

Tal: Wait, I have a plan. Are they carrying a weapon? I could send my raven to steal it if it’s on the ground. She specialises in stealing, after all.

Ref: They’re definitely armed, but let’s do a Luck Roll to see if they’re carrying it. We’ll call it straight 50/50.

Ref rolls a d6, scoring 2. This means fortune does not favour the characters.

Ref: You can see a mace hung on their belt. Your raven could still go for it, but would need a Save to avoid the guard’s attention.

Tal: Let’s do it. CLA Save for my raven?

Ref: Go for it.

Tal rolls a 19, failing the Save.

Ref: Your raven swoops down on the unsuspecting guard, grasping at his mace with her talons. The guard grabs onto the haft, wrenching it free from her grip and winding up to strike. What’s she doing?

Tal: Get her out of there! Actually, she can fly off in the other direction, away from us. Might cause a distraction.

Ref: Let’s see if he falls for it…

Thoughts

I like that Ref is so transparent with their Luck roll here. We all know the classic image of the gamemaster rolling dice secretly behind a screen, but I make the vast majority of my rolls out in the open. They could have gone further and had one of the players roll the die, but either way works.

Ref also shows generosity to the players in assuming they put out their torches before sneaking up to the cave. They could have used this as a “Gotcha!” moment to make the players feel stupid but that style has never appealed to me. I tend to assume that the characters are at least competent. Players will make enough bad decisions on their own without saddling them with characters that do the same.

I think Ref handled the approach to the cave well by ensuring that the players are well- informed and have plenty of opportunity to make choices. The Save roll only came into play when Tal decided to take the risky action, knowing that there would be a Save.

If Ref had simply called for a Save without the players knowing that they were taking a risk, it can create an overly tense environment at the table, where players feel like they’re never safe. While this might sound appealing in some scenarios, I find players respond much more positively to situations where they suffer the consequences of their own choices and actions, rather than the seemingly random cruelty of the game world.

When the Raven fails the Save, Ref could have had the guard immediately strike the bird, launching into combat. Instead they took a softer approach, giving the players a chance to respond before the attack.

Neither option is right or wrong here, and the sweet spot lies somewhere in the middle. If failure spirals into disaster too quickly then the players might feel too much at the mercy of the dice, but if consequences feel too soft then they may feel that their choices and rolls aren’t having any meaningful impact on the progress of the game.