Swen keeps telling us to just trust the dice and that, no matter whether we pass or fail checks, there'll be an interesting story. And even that failing can sometimes be in some ways better than passing. I'm going to take him at his word, and if I fail checks then I'll just find some way of dealing with the consequences.
Of course, I expect I'm probably going to play the game multiple times, so if I fail a check one time then chances are I'll see what happens if I pass another time. So just going with the flow is also my way of helping make my playthroughs feel meaningfully different.
I WANT to trust him, but I also have seen straight up "oh you don't get this roll, well now you just have to fight a crazy hard fight" or "roll 4 times in a row to get SH to share a single thing with you. If you fail a single roll she tells you to eff off."
Personally, I'm fine with some crazy hard fights if I fail to talk my way out of trouble (well, unless I get TPK-ed and then it would be a reload!). And indeed being told to eff off if I keep pestering someone to share something they're not ready to, if I'm not quite charming enough about it! Playing and replaying early access has made me a convert to just going with what happens and that becoming the story of my character, with all its ups and downs, so I do believe Swen that we can feel (relatively) safe in surrendering control to the dice.
Of course, I have yet to prove that will stick once a whole playthrough is at stake, but I hope so. I've found it engages my imagination more, thinking about how the party and my character will feel about and react to failing something they really wanted to succeed on. Something like, for instance, failing to save Arabella, could potentially resonate through the whole game for some characters. I actually think I'd find passing all the checks boring, now.
But of course, there's no right and wrong way to play. But with all the zeal of the converted, I'd just recommend people give rolling with the dice a try to see how it feels once they get past the initial discomfort!
