A GMing telling the players about the gameworld is not like real life

[Maxperson]

Sure. Not usually hits, I know that... nonetheless a veteran Pc knows he can stand a lot of rounds, enemies, fights, before receiving harm. Or do the players pretend their Pc to be afraid as if they could die instantly?

Just because he has done so in the past, does not mean he will always do so in the future. Let me ask you this. If you described an NPC as going to stab a PC with 100 hit points and the player announced he was just going to stand still and let the NPC stab him in the throat with a longsword, would you just do a d8 damage or a 2d8 crit? Or would you knock the PC to 0 as described above for a direct hit?

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Actor stance would be based on what one's character knows and wants. If the established fiction doesn't tell me whether or not my character knows about trolls, then actor stance in a troll encounter won't be possible.

Well, as a player, you could conjecture what your PC would do in the face of an almost unstoppable humanoid opponent of this type. Sure, you are not referencing information which you, the player, possess, but you could still at least try to imagine what the PC would do.

Not that I disagree with you, but maybe there are some shades here. I would refer that back to your statement about the limited utility of stance-based analysis. Surely there is something going on which is indistinguishable in one sense with meta-gaming, yet in another sense it might also be compliant with what the player would choose the character to do even if he didn't know about trolls. The problem is, we can never know. Its like a quantum superposition of stances! We can only point out that the player is perforce considering his own knowledge in that case, but we can conclude little about the impact of this fact on the game.

 

[Numidius]

Just because he has done so in the past, does not mean he will always do so in the future. Let me ask you this. If you described an NPC as going to stab a PC with 100 hit points and the player announced he was just going to stand still and let the NPC stab him in the throat with a longsword, would you just do a d8 damage or a 2d8 crit? Or would you knock the PC to 0 as described above for a direct hit?

I don't know... if an Npc wants to kill a Pc, and the latter is ok... Pc dies.

You didn't answer, btw. You really mean veteran Pc are not aware of their increased and increasing capability of sustain more and more heavy combats? I don't think you mean that.

 

[Maxperson]

I don't know... if an Npc wants to kill a Pc, and the latter is ok... Pc dies.

You didn't answer, btw. You really mean veteran Pc are not aware of their increased and increasing capability of sustain more and more heavy combats? I don't think you mean that.

They know they are getting better in a fight, but have no way to translate that into "hits" or even rounds. Consider that 1 enemy might do 1d8 damage and another 5d8 and attack twice. The PC isn't going to know if a miss was a miss doing 0 damage or a hit. He might last 1 round in the first fight if he gets unlucky, 10 rounds the next fight, and 5 round in the third fight. He is going to have to worry about going down in the first few second of every fight if he makes a mistake or gets unlucky, and that holds true from 1st level to 20th, though it is less frequent the higher in level he goes.

 

[Numidius]

They know they are getting better in a fight, but have no way to translate that into "hits" or even rounds. Consider that 1 enemy might do 1d8 damage and another 5d8 and attack twice. The PC isn't going to know if a miss was a miss doing 0 damage or a hit. He might last 1 round in the first fight if he gets unlucky, 10 rounds the next fight, and 5 round in the third fight. He is going to have to worry about going down in the first few second of every fight if he makes a mistake or gets unlucky, and that holds true from 1st level to 20th, though it is less frequent the higher in level he goes.

Got it. Thanks for the explanation

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

He did author more books, just not for D&D. He created Mythus Dangerous Journeys in 1992. It bought it and it was interesting, but very complex.

It had no impact in the gaming world and was apparently purchased by a small number of people, probably mostly out of curiosity to see what THE EGG might do next. I never met anyone who has read it or owned, except yourself now. From what I understand of that game it was basically a reprise of D&D, without really moving on into new ground in an overall game design sense (but I could be wrong, I only know what a few reviews said).

Gygax established many foundational aspects of RPGs. He certainly took the amorphous concept and loose practice of Dave Arneson and turned it into a workable game system. Beyond that, I think AD&D pretty much represents the limit of where he was able to go. Every pioneer has his territory he explores, and narrativistic RPG design was outside that for Gary, IMHO.

 

[Maxperson]

It had no impact in the gaming world and was apparently purchased by a small number of people, probably mostly out of curiosity to see what THE EGG might do next. I never met anyone who has read it or owned, except yourself now. From what I understand of that game it was basically a reprise of D&D, without really moving on into new ground in an overall game design sense (but I could be wrong, I only know what a few reviews said).

Gygax established many foundational aspects of RPGs. He certainly took the amorphous concept and loose practice of Dave Arneson and turned it into a workable game system. Beyond that, I think AD&D pretty much represents the limit of where he was able to go. Every pioneer has his territory he explores, and narrativistic RPG design was outside that for Gary, IMHO.

It wasn't just D&D all over again. It was more complicated and there wasn't really a class structure. Magic happened if you had high enough stats(not 3-18 system) and you made a lucky roll. Even then it was minor magic unless you got like a 5% or 3% or lower on the die roll(or maybe it was 95% or higher. I can't remember exactly). If you did that, you were not only a mercenary, rogue or whatever with your skills, but you were also basically Merlin or Gandalf. You were insanely powerful. Holy magic was similarly hard to get.

You're right that it wasn't very popular, though. I think the terms Gygax made up had something to do with it. Instead of mana, power or something normal, magical power was called Heka or something like that. I found it hard to get behind the silly made up names for some of his ideas.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Just because he has done so in the past, does not mean he will always do so in the future. Let me ask you this. If you described an NPC as going to stab a PC with 100 hit points and the player announced he was just going to stand still and let the NPC stab him in the throat with a longsword, would you just do a d8 damage or a 2d8 crit? Or would you knock the PC to 0 as described above for a direct hit?

Let me ask you this. Why is Cure Light Wounds not titled Cure Near Misses?

 

[Maxperson]

Let me ask you this. Why is Cure Light Wounds not titled Cure Near Misses?

It sounds better. Plain and simple.

 

[Sadras]

Posters should just use [insert metagame example you're comfortable with] otherwise the conversation changes to challenging possible metagame scenarios.