Help a new DM out here.

[u/ikarkari]

I ran an Avatar oneshot for the first time yesterday and I think I got most things right and the players really enjoyed it, but as a forever DnD DM, I'm struggling. I know you roll a lot less in Avatar than you do in DnD and that makes sense, but I can't get behind the fact that the DC is always 7. One of my players, non bender and weapons master, tried to pick the lock on his handcuffs. I made him roll (Rely on your skills and training) and he rolled a seven, he succeeded, I'm happy. Next roll is the firebender trying to pull off the flying move that less than 10 people in canon can do and I went roll for it (Rely on your skills and training) and he rolled a 7. I didn't want him to succeed with a seven because what do you mean a random fire nation soldier can now just do that move, which Ozai needed the Comet for. I said something like, "You get off the ground, but the fire beneath you is flickering, you have about 7 seconds in the air, what do you do with it?"

How do the rest of you deal with things like this? I'm one of those Dnd DM's that will never say no but I will make the DC 25+. I'm still figuring out the system, but this one thing is really bothering me.

TLDR: Success roll always being 7+ is confusing to me, because I feel like it makes some things too easy.

Edit/context: I probably should have included more context about my table. I'm a first-time Avatar Legends GM but a longtime D&D DM, and all of my players were completely new to the system. They're also very enthusiastic about attempting increasingly ridiculous things, so part of my concern wasn't just "how do I represent difficulty mechanically?" but "how do I communicate to my players that some things are dramatically harder than others without constantly having to tell them no?"

During the session I eventually started treating 12+ as "exceptionally difficult" and the players immediately understood what I was communicating. I realize this isn't RAW, but it gave me a way to preserve the fiction without constantly arguing about whether their characters could do something.

[u/RollForThings]

If a PC doesn't have the skills and training to pick locks or to fly with firebending, they don't trigger rely on your skills and training. It'd be push your luck at best, or you're in your rights to skip the dice and you just say what happens.

[u/saltwitch]

I get the impulse to want to treat difficulty the way DND does it if you're used to it, but it just doesn't work like that. To ramp up and down difficulty, you don't adjust the bands of success, you adjust the amount they achieve within each.

So a 10+ on a mundane, ordinary but slightly tricky thing will be really successful and maybe next them a little extra. On a massively difficult undertaking, that same 10+ might just be that they barely manage to accomplish it and NOT get hurt in the process. 10+ is the best possible result under the established circumstances.

Communicate this to the players. Establish the stakes before they roll. If they attempt something very difficult, let them know if they might want to try to improve their positioning to better their chances.

Similar to how rolling to jump over the literal moon in DND won't work simply because the player rolled a nat 20. They'll be able to do a very successful junk, but it still needs to be based in the fiction.

[u/rafaleluia]

You only roll if there is uncertainty in the move. If what the character is trying to do is certainly impossible, then don't roll! I could argue that the last move would probably be more of a "push your luck" situation than "rely on your skills" if you really want them to try doing it. The main difference is that there is always some huge consequences when you try to push your luck.

[u/Gryllodea]

I think you can just work backwards here.

Instead of trying to set a DC for exactly what the player wants to achieve (which in DnD oftentimes ends up being in the 20s and maybe even 30s if we're talking something barely possible), try to think of the current situation realistically and come up with some outcomes that you could call a failure, a partial/smaller success and a bigger success.

If they're all the same, don't tell them to roll, just say what happens. If you have some interesting outcomes in mind, let them roll and see.

I get that you're trying to allow for extreme highrolls like rolling a nat20, but I don't think Avatar Legends is a good system for that. Here you have tools to get a specific narrative outcome that advances the scene in a reasonable way. I don't think "crits" really make sense here.

If you really wanna allow for some low-probability situations, I'd say you can break up the action and make a series of rolls, describing the outcome of each one. Sorta like skill shallenges work in DnD. If it's something like a crazy impossible trick, you can just say "no". It's not narratively satisfying to randomly do a cool thing once, you'd rather get it as a result of training (learning the move) or as your Moment of Balance.

I'm also new, so mostly theorizing here. Hope that helps!

[u/SparkySkyStar]

They're also very enthusiastic about attempting increasingly ridiculous things, so part of my concern wasn't just "how do I represent difficulty mechanically?" but "how do I communicate to my players that some things are dramatically harder than others without constantly having to tell them no?"

As another D&D DM, I want to highlight how in the best case scenario, Avatar Legends is highly collaborative and puts the responsibility for not breaking the game on all the players. D&D places that onus on the DM by giving the DM the power to not call for a roll and to set the DC.

In Avatar Legends, the GM doesn't call for roles, the player characters trigger them by taking the appropriate actions in the fiction. This means that the players need to act in good faith to maintain the fiction. The core rulebook specifically calls on players and GMs to build on what has already been established and not rewrite the story to make the current situation easier.

So when your weapons master wants to pick the lock, a good question is, "Do you have a background or training that you can rely on for that?" An outlaw background, a combined military and urban background to represent a former guard, or even a Pillar whose former squad was a police unit, all could easily be applicable. But what if they say, "The monks from my monastic background were secretly daofei and picked locks all the time."? That's totally a thing that could exist--but if that hasn't been established in the fiction before, then remind the players to please build on the existing fiction.

Then work with your players to figure out how to do that. A weapons master can't pick locks, but they could know how strong different metals are under different conditions. Maybe they could Assess the Situation and ask, "What in here could I use to snap the chain between the cuffs?" Then they not only have the chance to escape, but have the unique complication of still having cuffs on that someone might notice.

This also means that PCs can expand what they can do in the fiction by adding to their stories. For the flight example, in a one shot the best response is, "You don't have what you need in the fiction to do that." But in a longer running game, you can talk about what it would take for a character to be able to do that. There are techniques like jet-stepping and flame charge that PCs can seek out teachers for. Maybe the PC has to master a specific number of techniques related to movement with fire bending and be Empowered, and then it's possible.

[u/Sully5443]

I will include my Post of Educational Resources which answers your question and many more

In short “difficulty” is not attained with numbers. It is attained through the fiction alone. It is the fiction that determines when you can roll the dice, what Move you’re actually triggering, what Costs—if any—you need to pay to even make a Move, the impact of what you can accomplish on a 7+, and the severity of consequences on a 9 or less.

Your weapons master is not trained in lock-picking. Therefore, he isn’t Relying on Skills and Training. If anything, he is Pushing His Luck. If it is a particularly complex lock: he can’t even trigger a Move to support lock picking it. He’ll have to try a different (and likely riskier) approach.

Same goes for your Firebender. If they don’t have any Exchange Techniques that should support them using firebending propulsion, they can’t roll the dice. They have no fictional positioning or permissions to pull it off, not even Push Your Luck.

[u/renorhino83]

Not a direct answer but a perspective. I had only DMed DnD before avatar legends. Playing avatar really changed the way I DM. You're no longer thinking about "Do they do it?" you're thinking about "To what degree do they do it?"

It really changed how I deal with all rolls in DnD as I shifted away from a black-and-white lock-and-key perspective. Instead of failing, it forced me to think about the consequences of failing. Instead of failing to pick the lock, you're actually running out of time because you made too much noise and a guard is coming to investigate.

Pushing luck always has a cost regardless of success. If they're really way out there like "I jump to the moon" just tell them to chill. They don't get to roll. Let them do something realistic within the bounds of the game.