me being annoying aside, however, I do want to elaborate on the general case of understanding "consequences as a result of RP/following the story" vs. "consequences as result of dice rolls" as vitally important to specifically understanding actual play narrative - and what makes for good GM-ing.
This anon I got actually has a great example of consequences as a result of bad dice rolls being prioritized over RP choices. The players were putting in a lot of great effort for checking in on an NPC and trying to figure out what was going on (good RP). But the dice never hit a set DC to uncover the curse, and so the NPC died (consequence based on bad rolls). RP was never rewarded at all - only the dice rolls (and, per the player who sent it, not even exceptionally bad dice rolls, like, you know, if it were 5 straight nat 1s I might say well the dice tell a story, but I'm assuming it was just run of the mill mid).
However, imagine the reverse scenario. Let's say the party rescued an NPC, hit a die roll that gave them the information of "idk, maybe they're tired but maybe there's something else," said "eh they're probably just tired," left without ever once checking back on them, and then came by two weeks later saying "oh hey maybe this NPC can give us information we need" and then found out that they'd died offscreen. That would be RP based! That one makes sense! Even though the party didn't know any specifics, they also didn't invest any effort in this NPC and so having them taken away is not unreasonable.
Part of why I have such praise for how Obrimus Manor was handled is that everyone in Team Bird Rescue was at the top of their game for playing their characters with profound awareness and honesty - the RP of that party was top-notch - and I think trying to make it Occtis's fault for engaging with the magic of the house, or Julien's fault for deciding to keep his promise to his mother and save his sister, or even Teor deciding to go on a side mission to save Ulbid's daughters, represents a complete abandonment of any comprehension of storytelling and characterization. At the same time, Brennan and Travis both recognize that Teor and Cyd's deaths are painful and abrupt and were certainly on the table, but that it really was the dice in the end (consequence as a result of rolls), and you can see this in the grace with which they both play that scene and especially in how Brennan handles it as GM.
This is also tbh at the heart of the scene with Wick and Yanessa; people wanting a roll for that missed that the consequence of Sam's incredible RP simply should not be failure under any circumstance, and therefore a roll would be a bad idea because if it did fail, it would not make sense to honor it. Essentially, this is about rewarding players for engaging with understanding and effort, while still understanding that the dice element is important. A Teor situation should not arise without multiple failed rolls (which it did!) and a Wick situation should not be something common (which it's not!), but you should also not hand absolute victory to characters who fail to engage meaningfully with the story but happen to roll a lot of crits. It is a delicate balance, and both forms of consequence need to be taken into account, and failure to honor either will make for a worse story. If you don't honor the RP you get players who are disheartened and don't know what you want (see: every post about signaling I've made) and if you don't honor the dice then you're not playing the game and the players know that the stakes are fake and pointless and unrewarding.
