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*Dungeons & Dragons
The Bard: A missed opportunity.
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<blockquote data-quote="Johnny Angel" data-source="post: 6370382" data-attributes="member: 13334"><p>The players don't have to already know the target numbers. The range of likely target numbers is pretty well constrained by game design. At 1st level you know you're not going to be asked to roll a any checks with DCs less than 10, and few enough beyond 15. If an NPC is described to you as wearing splint mail and carrying a shield, you are supposed to pretend you don't know that adds up to a 19 AC? Even if you didn't, because you play a mage or something and never contemplated the armor table, you'll start ranging in on the target number pretty quickly as you witness hits and misses. You don't have to memorize the Monster Manual or the armor charts to start understanding what numbers you're trying to hit just from not being busy playing Flappy Birds on your phone.</p><p></p><p>Considering all the other things these new rules have loosened up on, it's all the more absurd that they insist on keeping target numbers a secret. You could say that it prevents meta-gaming, but it actually encourages a different kind of meta-gaming which is mathematically more complex -- wrapping your head around the likelihood that a blind expenditure of a limited resource of random value will do you any good. People under those constraints are going to spend a lot more time thinking about numbers than people who just know what number they have to hit. The blind numbers only add an extra layer of meta-gaming where open numbers would call much less attention to themselves. It's not that it's terrible to have the players sweating that gamble not knowing if it'll go to waste. That kind of resource management can make a good game, but that game is further down the spectrum toward meta-gaming than one in which players can see the possibilities more clearly, make a decision and move on.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Johnny Angel, post: 6370382, member: 13334"] The players don't have to already know the target numbers. The range of likely target numbers is pretty well constrained by game design. At 1st level you know you're not going to be asked to roll a any checks with DCs less than 10, and few enough beyond 15. If an NPC is described to you as wearing splint mail and carrying a shield, you are supposed to pretend you don't know that adds up to a 19 AC? Even if you didn't, because you play a mage or something and never contemplated the armor table, you'll start ranging in on the target number pretty quickly as you witness hits and misses. You don't have to memorize the Monster Manual or the armor charts to start understanding what numbers you're trying to hit just from not being busy playing Flappy Birds on your phone. Considering all the other things these new rules have loosened up on, it's all the more absurd that they insist on keeping target numbers a secret. You could say that it prevents meta-gaming, but it actually encourages a different kind of meta-gaming which is mathematically more complex -- wrapping your head around the likelihood that a blind expenditure of a limited resource of random value will do you any good. People under those constraints are going to spend a lot more time thinking about numbers than people who just know what number they have to hit. The blind numbers only add an extra layer of meta-gaming where open numbers would call much less attention to themselves. It's not that it's terrible to have the players sweating that gamble not knowing if it'll go to waste. That kind of resource management can make a good game, but that game is further down the spectrum toward meta-gaming than one in which players can see the possibilities more clearly, make a decision and move on. [/QUOTE]
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The Bard: A missed opportunity.
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