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"He's beyond my healing ability..."
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5615759" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I've only read the first page - I hope this post still makes sense in light of the rest of the thread!</p><p></p><p></p><p>There is the cliche issue that Crazy Jerome raises, but my game can handle a few cliches.</p><p></p><p>As to the mechanical issue, I think Quickleaf is right. If you treat the D&D combat/hit-point system not as a model of the gameworld, but as a conflict resolution mechanic, than it doesn't follow automatically that healing that works for PCs in combat will work for an NPC in a "dying words" scene.</p><p></p><p>A parallel is this - I've had NPCs in my game who have been blinded or maimed in combat, and who can't be healed by a healing word spell. It didn't both me that the action resolution mechanics do not themselves permit these sorts of injuries to be inflicted.</p><p></p><p>I <em>did</em> tell my players that Remove Affliction would work on these NPCs, and presumably a similar sort of ability should work for the dying NPC, subject to the "will to live" qualification that Crazy Jerome mentioned.</p><p></p><p>As to the railroading question which seems to be in play here - unlike on the social skill thread, I think I'm on a different side from Hussar on this one. Scene framing can be poor or well done, and the players may or may not be engaged. But it's not railroading. Railroading becomes relevant once the players are engaged with the scene via their PCs.</p><p></p><p>What I see here, then, is not an attempt by the GM to railroad - after all, the GM could just not introduce the dying NPC into the game - but a clash between a common scene-setting trope and a literal/simulationist application of D&D's action resolution mechanics.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 5615759, member: 42582"] I've only read the first page - I hope this post still makes sense in light of the rest of the thread! There is the cliche issue that Crazy Jerome raises, but my game can handle a few cliches. As to the mechanical issue, I think Quickleaf is right. If you treat the D&D combat/hit-point system not as a model of the gameworld, but as a conflict resolution mechanic, than it doesn't follow automatically that healing that works for PCs in combat will work for an NPC in a "dying words" scene. A parallel is this - I've had NPCs in my game who have been blinded or maimed in combat, and who can't be healed by a healing word spell. It didn't both me that the action resolution mechanics do not themselves permit these sorts of injuries to be inflicted. I [I]did[/I] tell my players that Remove Affliction would work on these NPCs, and presumably a similar sort of ability should work for the dying NPC, subject to the "will to live" qualification that Crazy Jerome mentioned. As to the railroading question which seems to be in play here - unlike on the social skill thread, I think I'm on a different side from Hussar on this one. Scene framing can be poor or well done, and the players may or may not be engaged. But it's not railroading. Railroading becomes relevant once the players are engaged with the scene via their PCs. What I see here, then, is not an attempt by the GM to railroad - after all, the GM could just not introduce the dying NPC into the game - but a clash between a common scene-setting trope and a literal/simulationist application of D&D's action resolution mechanics. [/QUOTE]
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