Trollbabes and Unbeatable obstacles

[Vaxalon]

Let's say you're running a game of Trollbabe, and the player wants his character to do something that's game-breakingly powerful.  For example, throw a rock at a castle and knock it down.

Now, the way I see it, if you were playing at the "organized groups" scale, that could work, but not on the personal scale.

Does the GM in Trollbabe ever say, "Sorry, that's just not going to happen."?

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Fred,

The rules get into this issue on page 26. Although Scale seems tempting to use as the guideline (in this case -4, one for each step), it's actually just asking for trouble because the damn dice will produce the "silly" result.

Instead, consider the free-and-clear phase. Parameters of what's possible for conflicts are set here. The stated goal is "Knock down the castle," which bluntly, ain't going to happen from one person throwing a rock.

So the GM (and in fact anyone at the table) has every right at this point to say, "Look, the most success you'll get from that is killing a key person with it, or maybe cracking open a useful portal, or something similar. But you ain't knockin' down the castle."

This is not just arbitrary you-can-you-can't talk! You see, if the player is successful, it's the GM who gets to narrate. The GM is outright telling the player how he or she intends to narrate a success, making it impossible for the player to claim confusion about what "would happen" upon a successful roll.

It's negotiable, sure. If the player comes up with a perfectly reasonable way for this particular rock to knock down this particular castle, then no problem. But "I made the roll!" won't cut it. The GM has already been clear just how far the narration can accomodate the stated success.

Best,
Ron

[Vaxalon]

Ah, of course.  Yet again, Trollbabe reveals its elegant solution.