Things your table should do, but doesn't do- The Fun v. Efficiency Thread

Greenfield · Jul 8, 2019

Kurotowa said:
Hit Points as a measure of anything but Meat Points. It makes more sense and is more dramatic for the DM to narrate successful attacks as nicks, close shaves, and momentum shifts until the final blow lands true. But that takes so much more mental effort that everyone quickly slides back into simple "your arrow thuds into the bandit's shoulder" and "the orc's axe blow crashes into your side and sends blood flying" even if it's only a fraction of the target's total HP and everything goes away with a short rest and some healing surges.

I've seen a lot of arguments on this topic. For me, the big one against such things is "additional effects". Poison, for example, wouldn't be delivered if the poisoned weapon never actually touches/cuts the target. Weapons with energy damage the same, though to a lesser extent.

We see hit points as the ability to take a punch, to roll with the blow so as to reduce or minimize the damage.

What I find most effective though, for speed and game clarity, is to ignore the issue and just play as written.

YMMV, of course.

Bupp · Jul 8, 2019

I hand wave shopping so completely that when the party reaches 5th level I've told them "You are all competent, seasoned adventurers now. Whatever standard PHB equipment list item you can have if you want it. If in game you realize you need a hand mirror, your character would have thought ahead and bought one. Other not so standard items can be had with a compelling argument." In exchange, I charge double lifestyle expenses.

robus · Jul 9, 2019

I don’t roll damage for NPCs, I just use the average (unless it’s a critical).

Unwise · Jul 9, 2019

[MENTION=6784990]Bupp[/MENTION] , I do something similar, but ended up borrowing from the One Ring RPG. In that you have an economic status, poor, comfortable, wealthy etc. I simply charge X amount to buy a lifestyle for 6 months. If the item you want fits into your lifestyle, then you have it. An average person cannot pull out a telescope when they want one, but a rich person can. The comfortable person is assumed to have a horse, the poor person is not. The same goes with the quality of all of their gear.

In some groups, we do even further abstraction of wealth and use the One Ring's Treasure Parcels (TP). You raid an ancient crypt and find 3 treasure parcels. You can use one to bribe the kings chamberlain and spend 2 to buy an awesome magic sword etc. Anything that is small enough not to count as a TP is just assumed according to your wealth level, so paying for inns, minor tips/bribes, booze etc. TPs are for doing buying stuff significantly above your standard lifestyle.

TarionzCousin · Jul 11, 2019

lall said:
Checking for traps is lame. We rarely do it. My bard will Conjure Woodland Beings for companionship if other options aren't available.

Aha. The classic "my animal companion checks for traps" maneuver. Bonus: can be used after said companion is dead, too--provided the corpse is still somewhat intact.*

Quote from a campaign I ran: "We throw the dead goat onto the suspect square (of the dungeon). Is there enough blood left in the corpse to run out (and outline that square)?"

*This may not, in fact, be a Lawful Good act. :angel:

Horwath · Jul 11, 2019

TarionzCousin said:
Aha. The classic "my animal companion checks for traps" maneuver. Bonus: can be used after said companion is dead, too--provided the corpse is still somewhat intact.*

Quote from a campaign I ran: "We throw the dead goat onto the suspect square (of the dungeon). Is there enough blood left in the corpse to run out (and outline that square)?"

*This may not, in fact, be a Lawful Good act.

Last time I played a barbarian I was main trapmaster. I just tied a 20ft rope around goblin or similar small creature and threw it down the hall and pull it towards myself. Repeat.

Sometimes, they were still alive just unconcise and cleric used heal skill on them every dozen or so throws. You know, for that smart traps that require living trigger.

doctorbadwolf · Jul 11, 2019

Greenstone.Walker said:
The biggest efficiency choice I've made at my table is, "Circles are squares."

I couldn't be bothered with templates and measuring on the grid so I just decided everything is square. Movement, missile range, spell area of effect - all squares (except for cone effects, which are triangles).

As for pets, I rule that anything that is not a PC uses average damage.

That seems more like increasing fun by increasing efficiency!

As for the OP, my group does the opposite. We don't enjoy average damage, so no matter how many dice have to be rolled to get damage totals, we roll 'em.

We also don't enjoy the overly simplified crafting rules, so we use a custom mix of dmg and xanathar's rules, with tool/arcana checks to help determine how quickly it gets done, whether we waste resources, and how likely complications are to crop up. We also split the cost and time between crafting and R&D.

My character has a familiar, and the Dragon's Breath spell, but I don't use them in combination because I don't want to risk overshadowing the BM Ranger.

We don't hand wave the passage of time in my buddy's campaign, because that campaign has stuff going on behind the scenes that isn't dependent at all on what we are doing, so he tracks days of travel, rest, etc, and keeps it in a notebook calendar. This actually adds some fun because he uses the last year's calendar to determine things like the phase of the moon, weather in certain parts of the world, and thus night time lighting conditions and travel conditions. Normally we'd ignore all of that, but it's more fun for us in this campaign to track it.

edit: I mentioned it in another thread, but we also don't kill enemies automatically when they hit 0hp, no intelligent races (so far) are genetically evil (and thus can't just be slaughtered without a second thought), and we don't leave enemies with no skills proficiency or even race benefits, even though it's much simpler to do so.