Misfortune Mitigation
The possibility for players to take actions that lower the risk of misfortune for them.
Many games put players in situations where results affecting them are depending on randomness. Such games provide Misfortune Mitigation if they allow players to do actions that specifically counter these results or let them minimize the risk through how they perform the actions or in which order they perform them.
Contents
Examples
In Bloodbowl players can choose which order to perform the actions of their team members. This supports Misfortune Mitigation since several types of results cause turns to end and skillful players can perform all safe actions first and then take actions according to their potential risks.
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay let player characters start with a number of Fate Points. These can be used let players survive situations - often caused by unlucky rolls - which would otherwise kill them. Some versions of the game also provides Fortune Points which players can used to reroll dice rolls, providing another lay of Misfortune Mitigation.
Weaker examples of the pattern can be found in Yahtzee and most Poker-based games. This since players can either have additional chances to produce favorable results or can know which odds they have of future actions being in their favor. However, these are weak examples since they depend of players perceiving initial results as "unlucky" and the Misfortune Mitigation may mostly be about not risking worse results in the future.
Using the pattern
There are three main ways of letting players perform Misfortune Mitigation in a game. One is through providing Fixed Distributions since then players can have better knowledge of the risks of performing actions as the results occur during gameplay. A second way is through providing them with ways of having Extra Chances,
Can Be Instantiated By
Freedom of Choice Fudged Results
Consequences
Can Instantiate
Gameplay Mastery, Predictable Consequences
Can Modulate
Potentially Conflicting With
Relations
Gameplay Mastery, Predictable Consequences
Can Instantiate
Gameplay Mastery, Predictable Consequences
Can Modulate
Can Be Instantiated By
Extra Chances, Fixed Distributions, Freedom of Choice, Fudged Results
Can Be Modulated By
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Possible Closure Effects
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Potentially Conflicting With
History
New pattern created in this wiki.
References
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Acknowledgements
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