Rule of Three: May 22

[Tallifer]

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Rule-of-Three: 05/22/2012)

What do you think about these questions and answers?

I do not see anything either newsworthy or objectionable in these. Automatic success has been part of every game according to each dungeon master's discretion. Adversarial dungeon masters sometimes made us roll to walk out the door or up the stairs without trippping; relaxed dungeon masters often handwaved obviously easy situations.

Likewise a grid was very useful for AD&D and Basic D&D but not required.

The Jester has an excellent post on his blog which details the probably process for the early public playtest and the necessity of pre-generated characters at the outset. the_jester/blog/2012/05/18/Looking at the Playtest Process

 

[Savage Wombat]

Well it's no wonder it's not newsworthy, since it's two months old. (wink for sarcasm)

 

[the Jester]

You may want to edit the title:

Well it's no wonder it's not newsworthy, since it's two months old.

It's actually the May Ro3.

The Jester has an excellent post on his blog which details the probably process for the early public playtest and the necessity of pre-generated characters at the outset. the_jester/blog/2012/05/18/Looking at the Playtest Process

Not me, that guy has an underscore.

 

[nnms]

I don't know what to think about the combat grid.

I've been playing BECMI and running Strands of Fate, neither with a map or miniatures or whatever.

There have been times when one participant or another didn't get the description right and there was confusion as to the relative position. At times I miss the clarity that miniatures and a map give.

I think having it optional or be part of adventure design is probably a good idea.

My question is, given adventure design, what about the playtest adventure?

 

[Tallifer]

Not me, that guy [the other Jester] has an underscore.

How confusing. Anyways, the other Jester has an interesting if opinionated blog about the Fourth and Fifth Editions.

 

[Daztur]

The bit about roll a d20 or take 10 sound good. It gives the thieves an edge without having to deal with modifier inflation or the issue of having things that challenge the thief be so damn hard that nobody else has even a chance at them.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Yeah, s'alright.

The only possible eyebrow-raiser for me is the "we're sometimes going to require a grid," but since it's localized to particular adventures that are designed for that...meh. I can just avoid or adapt those particular adventures.

Everything else sounds pretty OK -- rolling for DC 8 things (even during the heat of battle) always seemed a little pointless to me anyway.

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

Well, the thief ability tells us that skills (which we think are +2 to doing X, right?) aren't added to your ability to determine autosuccess.

This is.. interesting. You're a Fighter, Strength 16, and you have the Break Stuff skill. You can bash down that sturdy wooden door DC 16, but if it's reinforced with iron brackets DC 17 you have to roll a dice, +6+2, so you'll succeed on a 9+ (60%). Quite a drop off. If you're a Rogue instead, same stats and skills for arguments sake, then you effectively do get to add your skill to your auto-success threshold (taking 10 is the same thing) and would only struggle with DC 19 doors (50% success).

I'm not sure, by this method, that skills matter much.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

You can bash down that sturdy wooden door DC 16, but if it's reinforced with iron brackets DC 17 you have to roll a dice, +6+2, so you'll succeed on a 9+ (60%). Quite a drop off. If you're a Rogue instead, same stats and skills for arguments sake, then you effectively do get to add your skill to your auto-success threshold (taking 10 is the same thing) and would only struggle with DC 19 doors (50% success).

Err...why would you think a 16 Strength would give you a +6 modifier? Everything we've been told so far has said modifiers work the same way they do in 3.5/4e. Which means a 16 str is a +3.

That means with a 16 str, you can open DC 16 doors without rolling and a DC 17 needs a 14+ to succeed. If you have +2 to your skill that only brings it up to 12+.

In a lot of the skill articles they've said they wanted a system that was approximately equal in "raw talent" vs "trained". This makes sense if they keep the modifiers the same. Someone with a 14 in a stat and is trained in something gets equal skill from their stat and training. Exceptional people get a bit more from stat.

Though it does bring up an interesting point. If you can auto succeed in a skill by having a stat equal to the DC....then wouldn't that mean that being able to use 10 instead of your die roll wouldn't come in handy for any skill based on a stat that you had 12 or higher in?

Or are there some skills that you aren't allowed to auto succeed in and therefore always have to roll?

 

[Minigiant]

So it looks like the choices for skills are

Use ability score
Roll 1d20 + Ability mod + Skill mod
Take 10 + Ability mod + Skill mod