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<blockquote data-quote="epithet" data-source="post: 7564919" data-attributes="member: 6796566"><p>In every role playing game, whether on the tabletop or a video game, there is a conflict between the rule system and the fiction it is modeling. To create a rule system that was a realistic simulation wouldn't just be difficult, it would be a waste of time--no one wants that kind of granularity--but a complete abstraction is very unsatisfying. The happy medium is somewhere in the realm of having the player free to state what his character will do in a scenario, and for the most part how the character will do it, and then use the rule system to abstract that into something that can be resolved with a die roll.</p><p></p><p>Obviously, your game rules must have a lot of constraints built into them. Constraints are necessary for a number of reasons, including making sure everyone gets a turn and that the game flows along, and also so that your character has limitations that can be overcome as it gains power. In broad terms, then, when your character can't do something the limit should be either in service to the gameplay or to the fiction. Arbitrary limitations and restrictions on what your character can do in the game are a disservice to both causes, mucking up the gameplay while you figure it out and bringing your awareness back to the books and character sheets instead of the monsters and magic your character is dealing with. There's not much you can do about it when your RPG is a video game, you just deal with the arbitrary limitations and watch your cooldown timer. It is what it is. When you're playing on a tabletop (physical or virtual) with a live Dungeon Master, though, everything changes. The player is liberated to come up with the zaniest free-form swing-from-the-chandelier Jackie Chan sequence he can imagine, and the Dungeon Master will parse it into one or more rolls of the dice and tell him how it turned out.</p><p></p><p>So, when you maintain that an action in combat must be resolved in accordance with strict timing requirements which are implied rather than expressly enumerated, and that a character's turn should be resolved according to rigid procedure such that an action must be completed in its entirety before you can consider a bonus action it enables, I disagree. There is no difference between the shove you get as a bonus action and a shove you can make as part of the Attack Action, and making a timing distinction serves neither the gameplay nor the fantasy. Only if you adhere to an inflexible, procedural, meta-gamist approach to a character's turn in combat will you gain any benefit from using Jeremy's new restrictive approach to timing, and I do not.</p><p></p><p>To put it another way, the Dungeon Master can interpret the Shield Master feat in a couple of different ways. The first, which I'll call the Hriston approach, emphasises role-play by giving the DM the flexibility to adjudicate the entire sequence of a character's turn as a whole. The second, which I'll call the Crawford approach, emphasizes most emphatically roll-playing by demanding an iterative procedural resolution of the turn without regard for fantasy verisimilitude. Your position doesn't sway me because you favor the roll-play of the Crawford approach, while I strongly prefer the role-play of the Hriston approach. I will, almost every time, choose role-play over roll-play.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="epithet, post: 7564919, member: 6796566"] In every role playing game, whether on the tabletop or a video game, there is a conflict between the rule system and the fiction it is modeling. To create a rule system that was a realistic simulation wouldn't just be difficult, it would be a waste of time--no one wants that kind of granularity--but a complete abstraction is very unsatisfying. The happy medium is somewhere in the realm of having the player free to state what his character will do in a scenario, and for the most part how the character will do it, and then use the rule system to abstract that into something that can be resolved with a die roll. Obviously, your game rules must have a lot of constraints built into them. Constraints are necessary for a number of reasons, including making sure everyone gets a turn and that the game flows along, and also so that your character has limitations that can be overcome as it gains power. In broad terms, then, when your character can't do something the limit should be either in service to the gameplay or to the fiction. Arbitrary limitations and restrictions on what your character can do in the game are a disservice to both causes, mucking up the gameplay while you figure it out and bringing your awareness back to the books and character sheets instead of the monsters and magic your character is dealing with. There's not much you can do about it when your RPG is a video game, you just deal with the arbitrary limitations and watch your cooldown timer. It is what it is. When you're playing on a tabletop (physical or virtual) with a live Dungeon Master, though, everything changes. The player is liberated to come up with the zaniest free-form swing-from-the-chandelier Jackie Chan sequence he can imagine, and the Dungeon Master will parse it into one or more rolls of the dice and tell him how it turned out. So, when you maintain that an action in combat must be resolved in accordance with strict timing requirements which are implied rather than expressly enumerated, and that a character's turn should be resolved according to rigid procedure such that an action must be completed in its entirety before you can consider a bonus action it enables, I disagree. There is no difference between the shove you get as a bonus action and a shove you can make as part of the Attack Action, and making a timing distinction serves neither the gameplay nor the fantasy. Only if you adhere to an inflexible, procedural, meta-gamist approach to a character's turn in combat will you gain any benefit from using Jeremy's new restrictive approach to timing, and I do not. To put it another way, the Dungeon Master can interpret the Shield Master feat in a couple of different ways. The first, which I'll call the Hriston approach, emphasises role-play by giving the DM the flexibility to adjudicate the entire sequence of a character's turn as a whole. The second, which I'll call the Crawford approach, emphasizes most emphatically roll-playing by demanding an iterative procedural resolution of the turn without regard for fantasy verisimilitude. Your position doesn't sway me because you favor the roll-play of the Crawford approach, while I strongly prefer the role-play of the Hriston approach. I will, almost every time, choose role-play over roll-play. [/QUOTE]
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