D&D General Playstyle vs Mechanics

[prabe]

I assume you're thinking that, say, caravan masters have access to communication magic? Stuff like that?

I don't think it's implausible, or breaks the game or anything. I don't know that it's a given, either (and I don't understand you to be saying it is). I do have good reliable mail service in my setting, especially in the big cities.

 

[prabe]

I don't agree re physics. D&D worlds permit perpetual motion (via "magic"), and there's no reason to think that universal gravitation (as opposed to the local phenomenon of objects falling to earth) is true.

I figure the game world follows real-world physics as much as it has to so the players can make sense of it and make decisions based on it. While my setting's primary game-world is slowly awakening to sentience, it exists in a solar system a lot like our own (because I made it so). I personally don't see any conflict, so long as it makes enough sense to be playable, if that makes sense.

 

[Maxperson]

That right there is the difference.

My position, the ability is a minor benefit that should mostly work, even if the DM has to bend to make it so. That scenario where the PC is in a strange town, so what, the PC can figure it out

Your position (and presumably @mamba 's) the ability works only if, according to the DM, it makes sense for it to do so. Meaning the DM will not accommodate it or try to make it or
fit. Much less permissive.

Slightly less permissive, since those situations don't come up very often.

 

[Mort]

Slightly less permissive, since those situations don't come up very often.

Strangers in a strange land is an extraordinarily commonly used scenario.

From the responses I'm seeing, that alone would make the ability "not make sense" to quite a few of the posters. Same goes for the Noble background, strange land - no chance of it working.

I don't find it that limiting.

 

[mamba]

Your position (and presumably @mamba 's) the ability works only if, according to the DM, it makes sense for it to do so. Meaning the DM will not accommodate it or try to make it or fit. Much less permissive.

I already said how I handle it. You know messengers in some region defined by the player (not the size, but which region), not beyond it. You could get lucky and run into one of those messengers traveling with the caravans if you are along their route. Outside of that you are out of luck, if there is no messenger then there is no messenger.

What you can do instead, and your background helps with that, is establish contacts to the seedy parts of town where you are.

 

[hawkeyefan]

There's a difference between "influence" and you specifically being outraged for not enjoying the expectation of successfully completing an uninterrupted long rest before fleeing town thanks to random barn owner villagers choosing to hide the party from the duke's guards who were actively searching for them. I linked to that 195 page thread over that very bit of outrage in order to avoid rehashing this very sort of wedge over a rules subsystem that even wotc saw fit to cut.

Who was outraged? No one that I know was outraged.

 

[Maxperson]

Strangers in a strange land is an extraordinarily commonly used scenario.

Not generally for all or most of a campaign. It happens for a bit, and then they usually go home. And it's also very common for it not to happen at all.

 

[prabe]

Strangers in a strange land is an extraordinarily commonly used scenario.

From the responses I'm seeing, that alone would make the ability "not make sense" to quite a few of the posters. Same goes for the Noble background, strange land - no chance of it working.

I don't find it that limiting.

I'm not a big fan, mostly for reasons having to do with my own experiences, but it is a trope. If I were to run something in that direction, I, like you, wouldn't want to negate people's background/backstory choices right out of the gate.

 

[Mort]

I already said how I handle it. You know messengers in some region defined by the player (not the size, but which region), not beyond it. You could get lucky and run into one of those messengers traveling with the caravans if you are along their route. Outside of that you are out of luck, if there is no messenger then there is no messenger.

What you can do instead, and your background helps with that, is establish contacts to the seedy parts of town where you are.

I, on the other hand, would also allow the PC to be good at recognizing messenger networks and methods. For example, Is the town far from the PCs usual area but there is a messenger pigeon network in the town? The PC could find it to send a message. Minor but useful.

 

[Maxperson]

I'm not a big fan, mostly for reasons having to do with my own experiences, but it is a trope. If I were to run something in that direction, I, like you, wouldn't want to negate people's background/backstory choices right out of the gate.

If I were to run that sort of game for most or all of a campaign, the Criminal would probably not start with the ability, but would quickly make allies in the underworld that would kickstart the ability. Tell them who to contact, give them secret codewords, etc.