Weird situation came up the other day that I just don't know the answer to.
A player called out that he was going for a "Great Performance" (DC20) but ended up with a 16 for a result.
What is unclear, is did he completely fail by not hitting his called result, or does his perform check fall down to the next category "Enjoyable" (DC15)?
My search-fu did not come up with an answer here.
I think you're reading it incorrectly. You do not pick the DC in a perform check, you PERFORM then compare your result to the chart.
so it's similar to skills like acrobatics being used to jump. If you are aiming for a 40ft jump, but don't make the DC, you still jump a distance equal to your check.
make sense?
That's the way I was originally thinking too. But after looking at it closer, However, how do we reconcile the "Try Again" aspect of the perform skill?
Retries are allowed, but they don't negate previous failures, and an audience that has been unimpressed in the past is likely to be prejudiced against future performances. (Increase the DC by 2 for each previous failure.)
Did he fail a performance? or did he just not give one as spectacular as he hoped?
maybe it is referring to the crowds expectations as a DC. So if a crowd is only impressed by a DC 20 for example, then it would be a failed performance?
Technically, you're probably supposed to go for a specific level of performance, and the DC is set accordingly (and failures will be possible).
However, I've always run it so the result you get is the level of performance you achieved. So, say, if you got a 14 it would be a routine performance. The +2 DC then applies to all results above the one you achieved for the same audience before (while the same and lower performances would stay at the same DC). So, even if you got a 16 the next day, it would still be a routine performance (as the DC for enjoyable would now be 17).
You chose to do a performance that is harder to complete. If you decide to hold 2 sticks that are balnancing spinning plates and fail, you wouldn't be able to back out and say no wait I really meant to do this magic trick that wouldn't have been as hard to do.
But when you retry the skillcheck and make it look like you failed on purpose to be funny and succeed (like those comedian magicians that mess up their magic tricks on purpose), then you have saved your performance (You add +2 to DC for retrying).