I know I’m the first person to say this in this thread but sometimes I prefer choices where you can only pick the option if you pass the check. Life of a Wizard did this and I felt it worked, for me at least. I didn’t get one of those instances which I find a little frustrating. “The stat needed was 50 but I had 48” That really stings and I do get a bit salty when that happens. I don’t get the shock of failing something I was sure I would pass. I guess some people enjoy that, but I don’t really.
Another small problem is not knowing if your stat is high enough to pass. 40% in something is gonna be different from one game to another and that kinda irks me when I don’t know if I should risk it or not. But I guess I just perfectly described real life.
I’d relate that to the topic of bad design. Percent should never find its place in stats or traits whatsoever, except as progression. I prefer level system rather than percent.
When I eventually get off my butt and write a ChoiceScript story, I plan on handling stat checks in two ways: If the stat it above the “required” value, you will always succeed. If its below, you can still try, and you will have a randomized chance (based on your stat) to still succeed.
I am more for the win and because I can sometimes missunderstand something because english is not my mother language I am for fixed because it would actually enforce the choosen character.
Given that you’re writing a story, it doesn’t make sense to lead a character down an unwinnable path. You should always give different choices that can lead to success depending upon stats. So, if you character has, e.g., a Combat vs. Magic stat and you want a decision that depends upon that pair, then there should be a combat route to success and a magic route to success. If the character is high Combat/low Magic and goes for the Magic solution, then they fail because they’re playing the character inconsistently. But they should be able to blunder unknowingly into a situation where not having a high Combat leads to ruin.
In short, inconsistent or stupid play can lead to failure, but consistent play should always have some way to succeed.
