The spirit of classic D&D is to say yes to the question ‘Can my PC try to…’ and then require a dice roll if (and only if) failure can lead to a more interesting situation.

Actually, let me rephrase that, the spirit of ALL RPGs that I’d care to play should be compatible with ‘Say Yes’

That, along with the Rule of Cool, are my main guiding principles to GMing a RPG.

This really hits the nail on the head. Old School play is all about searching the game, and not the rules, for solutions, and interesting consequences for failure (and sometimes success, too).

Congrats on being part of a great game.
.-= Brian´s last blog ..Yes They Could! =-.

Anyhoo. You sound like a good candidate for small-press RPGs like Burning Wheel and Dogs In the Vineyard.
.-= Rafe´s last blog ..Abstract Wealth =-.

I’m glad to see that I grokked the concepts put forward by the game. I will be looking forward to trying it again.

@Zzarchov: I’m sure I could use skills instead of items in a modern game… I do have an IQ slightly superior to the dog in my example…. I would still need the DM to present more scenes where those would be useful. I’ve been told that skills rarely have any real impact in a game like 4e. Plus, I’m a prop guy.

Seriously though, your example was a perfect mix and match for an encounter targeted for multiple types of players. What’s beautiful about older games is that with only one line of text you can create a whole encounter.

And even more interestingly enough, you can do the same in 4e, once the DM starts trusting the rules on Page 42 of the Dungeon master guide and is willing to improv some skill challenges (Chases) and rapid combat (all monsters are minions).

On a different note, Chatty warned me that there would hell to pay should any industry reader chose to comment on my guest post. (a little bit of guest/host rivalry going on here) I’m pretty curious as to what his little warning might lead to and he never said anything about cheating.

Interesting take on the price of failure in classic RPGs. In fact you have half the answer, you are right that failing in many tasks leads to combat. Just check your own example, you used that there with guards being attracted by the noise.

The other half of the answer is a staple of bad Adventure design where failure prevents you from going to the next part of the adventure.

Fortunately, the adventure we played had no such bottlenecks, all rooms were self contained events. While it was low on puzzle, it was a great introductory adventure for the system itself.

But, I really saw how the ‘Say Yes’ philosophy enriches the classic D&D experience.