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With Respect to the Door and Expectations....The REAL Reason 5e Can't Unite the Base
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<blockquote data-quote="Neonchameleon" data-source="post: 5977886" data-attributes="member: 87792"><p>Yup.</p><p> </p><p></p><p></p><p>It isn't really. What it is to me is an excellent pacing and behind the scenes framing mechanic. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>WotC adventures ignored the WotC DM's advice? This is, regrettably, not news. Most WotC 4e adventures should be burned.</p><p> </p><p></p><p></p><p>What skill checks did for me was allowed me to frame and pace complex off the wall PC plans with the assurance and system mastery of a DM with years of experience despite it being my third session DMing. If you are a DM with years of experience you probably don't need them (although may find them useful the way @pmerton does).</p><p></p><p>To this day if my PCs come up with a complex plan I don't know what the @#&% to do with because the parameters are well outside those of anything calculated in any book I know of (let alone have bothered to remember) I mentally frame it as a skill challenge. This gives me stab in the dark DCs (which are all I am ever going to get) that aren't either too easy or impossible, and a scene that is going to be long enough for the PCs to enjoy and not so long everyone gets bored. And I know roughly how far to let PCs through their plan with each skill roll.</p><p></p><p>For a challenge for you, the PCs want to distract a group of Troglodytes by having three of them (a Tiefling, a Revenant, and a Gnome) dress up as emissaries of Blibbloppool, God of Troglodytes while the fourth tries to sneak in the back to rescue the kidnapped children. Taking the stealth part as a given, how do you handle the emissaries and the accuracy of their disguise mechanically, or the pacing of the scene?</p><p></p><p>(Actual play example - not the one in my third session.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Neonchameleon, post: 5977886, member: 87792"] Yup. It isn't really. What it is to me is an excellent pacing and behind the scenes framing mechanic. WotC adventures ignored the WotC DM's advice? This is, regrettably, not news. Most WotC 4e adventures should be burned. What skill checks did for me was allowed me to frame and pace complex off the wall PC plans with the assurance and system mastery of a DM with years of experience despite it being my third session DMing. If you are a DM with years of experience you probably don't need them (although may find them useful the way @pmerton does). To this day if my PCs come up with a complex plan I don't know what the @#&% to do with because the parameters are well outside those of anything calculated in any book I know of (let alone have bothered to remember) I mentally frame it as a skill challenge. This gives me stab in the dark DCs (which are all I am ever going to get) that aren't either too easy or impossible, and a scene that is going to be long enough for the PCs to enjoy and not so long everyone gets bored. And I know roughly how far to let PCs through their plan with each skill roll. For a challenge for you, the PCs want to distract a group of Troglodytes by having three of them (a Tiefling, a Revenant, and a Gnome) dress up as emissaries of Blibbloppool, God of Troglodytes while the fourth tries to sneak in the back to rescue the kidnapped children. Taking the stealth part as a given, how do you handle the emissaries and the accuracy of their disguise mechanically, or the pacing of the scene? (Actual play example - not the one in my third session.) [/QUOTE]
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