The system of Scum & Villainy has rules that include mixed successes. Last week, I got TWO such rolls for trying to find a book and another from trying to avoid some guards who were summoned because of what happened in trying to find the book.

Let's talk about mixed success. /2

Mixed success means that I get what I'm looking for, but there's an added complication. In other words, "You succeed! However..."

The way I was stressed about this non-success, y'all...

The storytelling was great and by the end of the session, we were like, "Whew. OK." /3

But it left me thinking about that session for the rest of the week. I sat staring at my screen for a couple of days thinking about the emotions of that moment. Tense. Suspenseful.

Also? Bad. I felt bad for failing. Like I didn't win the day as it were. /4

I thought this was just me until today when we were playing and we had a wee chat. The DM was like, "Hey friends. It's OK. Failure is unavoidable and OK. It is built into the system. There are means to mitigate it and I'll keep you safe. I promise." /5

Ya boi here plays a lot of Dungeons & Dragons. We don't do partial successes. Success and failure is binary. If you don't succeed, there are no mixed success. There is no "You succeed, but...!"

And normally, the consequences are rough going. Damage. Death. Being charmed. Etc. /6

Your every plan and effort is in the service of NOT FAILING because failing hurts and there is no lesson or redemption in it.

When you're steeped in that tradition and manner of interacting with the game and with narratives, the transition to a game like this can be rough. /7

Failure is something I have to go from avoiding to embracing. It's a frequent and familiar visitor. You're going to have those mixed successes.

And sure, you *can* have that sort of thing in D&D, but that's labor on the DM. The system itself doesn't handle or support that. /8

Thank goodness @DichotomusPrime understands that dissonance and addressed it. WHEW. The emotional impact of failing... we need to work on this.

Are we thinking about this in our games and building that into our systems? To whom is that labor assigned at the system level? /9

Anyway, here's to failing without fear in a fantasy setting! /