Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
What are the Roles now?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6520512" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Yes it did. That's the point of the example.</p><p></p><p>The game rules stipulate that, at the end of the NPC's next turn, the Baleful Polymorph ends. The rules do not stipulate why this occurs. (Thus, the mechanic is similar to the War Devil's mechanic that The Alexandrian lambasts in his essay.)</p><p></p><p>In the fiction, why did the curse on the paladin end? The answer - because the Raven Queen turned him back. And that answer was authored by the player.</p><p></p><p>EDITED TO ADD:</p><p></p><p>There is a more general issue for playing religious characters, if you interpret those sorts of player remarks as reflecting nothing more than the conjecture of the PC.</p><p></p><p>The actual resolution mechanics of D&D generally involve either deterministic rules - "This effect ends after 1 turn" - or dice-rolling rules - "This effect ends if the player rolls a successful save for his/her PC".</p><p></p><p>If the player is not allowed to narrate <em>in the fiction</em> the role of the divinity in brining about the mechanical effect, then the PC's religious conviction is in fact shown, by the mechanics, to be irrational - because no good outcome is ever, in fact, a result of divine providence but rather is the result of the impersonal mechanics (whether deterministic or random) of the cosmos.</p><p></p><p>This is suitable for playing a Conan-esque game, in which a belief in providence is either delusional or charlatanry, but is not at all suitable for a romantic or Tolkien-esque game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6520512, member: 42582"] Yes it did. That's the point of the example. The game rules stipulate that, at the end of the NPC's next turn, the Baleful Polymorph ends. The rules do not stipulate why this occurs. (Thus, the mechanic is similar to the War Devil's mechanic that The Alexandrian lambasts in his essay.) In the fiction, why did the curse on the paladin end? The answer - because the Raven Queen turned him back. And that answer was authored by the player. EDITED TO ADD: There is a more general issue for playing religious characters, if you interpret those sorts of player remarks as reflecting nothing more than the conjecture of the PC. The actual resolution mechanics of D&D generally involve either deterministic rules - "This effect ends after 1 turn" - or dice-rolling rules - "This effect ends if the player rolls a successful save for his/her PC". If the player is not allowed to narrate [I]in the fiction[/I] the role of the divinity in brining about the mechanical effect, then the PC's religious conviction is in fact shown, by the mechanics, to be irrational - because no good outcome is ever, in fact, a result of divine providence but rather is the result of the impersonal mechanics (whether deterministic or random) of the cosmos. This is suitable for playing a Conan-esque game, in which a belief in providence is either delusional or charlatanry, but is not at all suitable for a romantic or Tolkien-esque game. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
What are the Roles now?
Top