IF our Tav suceeds ... Narator tells us what we remembered, just we we know it.
If our Tav fails tho ... another party member (Gale in this case, since i picked Arcana as example) can enlighten us ... and the best part, he can enlighten us WITHOUT EVEN MOVE A MUSCE so our enemies are not alerted, bcs we share mental conection.
Isnt this option like thousand times better?
Would actualy feel like our companions are there and actualy do something.
Hm, well, I don't think it's such a good idea.
I mean, yes, from a mechanical standpoint, it achieves what many are looking for. That is to say, it involves the skills of whole party, it makes party composition matter ... in short, it makes the game closer to actually being a party-based RPG. So that's good.
But from an immersion standpoint, it is convoluted and not convincing. So that's not good.
Let us consider the following two scenes.
- I enter the swamp with Lae'zel leading the way. She fails to notice anything weird, but Gale succeeds at Arcana. Why would he use the tadpole (voluntarily or not), to warn the group of the illusion, when he could most simply tell us "hey, careful gang, there's an illusion spell here".
- I'm talking to Abdirak. My PC fails the Religion check, but Shadowheart recognises the Loviatar symbols on his outfit. Why would she use the tadpole (voluntarily or not), to secretly tell me "he's a Cleric of Loviatar", when she could most simply tell him "hey, you're Cleric of Loviatar, right ?".
In both cases, the second scenario is a lot more convincing. It's not just that Larian made much advertisement about how their game is like a tabletop campaign. It's also how a group of people would naturally behave in the real world.
In my view, there is a simple problem here, which affects both mechanics and immersion. And the mechanical problem is not best solved by adding an extra layer of assumptions which worsens the immersion aspect.
Edit :
Also, er, aren't we well off topic ? The OP meant to discuss something quite different. This would fit better in
this thread on the conversation system, just to name a recent example. The last few posts could easily be migrated there. Or into a new thread, whatever.
