Recent content by Charlaquin

  1. Charlaquin

    Roll for Effect or Intent?

    You’re confused because you’re trying to treat “the task” and “the intent” as two different things that can be resolved independently, but I am not. There is only the action. What you’re calling “the task” (what I usually call the approach) and what you’re calling “the intent” (what I usually...
  2. Charlaquin

    Does Your Game Have Random Encounters?

    This is hard to answer because the options are in terms of proportion of encounters and that’s not really how I do it… I voted for “usually” kind of by process of elimination, because I don’t mostly use random encounters (let alone always), but I do use them, often, and not “just as filler” or...
  3. Charlaquin

    Roll for Effect or Intent?

    I’d say the goal is to know the painting’s age and the approach is by looking at it. But, I agree with your broader point, I’m just proving it by being needlessly pedantic.
  4. Charlaquin

    Roll for Effect or Intent?

    No. Because goal and approach are both essential and inseparable parts of the action. There’s no automatically succeeding on the approach but needing to roll for the goal. There is an action that is composed of both goal and approach, and if the results of that action are uncertain, one roll to...
  5. Charlaquin

    Roll for Effect or Intent?

    Yeah, that’s certainly a way to do it. I prefer keeping the number of possible outcomes to two, three, or four myself, just to keep the decision of whether or not to go through with the roll easier. A binary “on X or higher, you get your goal, on Y or lower, this other thing happens” is easy to...
  6. Charlaquin

    Roll for Effect or Intent?

    Ok. I’m not sure what I said to make you not want to engage, but sorry for whatever it was. Have a good one.
  7. Charlaquin

    Roll for Effect or Intent?

    See, I would rule that hitting the tree with a thrown rock is trivially easy and doesn’t require a roll. The roll is not to determine if the rock hits the tree, but to determine if the rock hitting the tree successfully distracts the guard. And I would probably rule that on a failure, the guard...
  8. Charlaquin

    Roll for Effect or Intent?

    Sure, if you’ve previously established that “cheering someone up” can restore their hit points. That’s not normally possible in D&D. What is “a conflict resolution game”? Isn’t conflict resolution part of every RPG?
  9. Charlaquin

    D&D General D&D weapons vs reality

    Nah, it was That 70s Show that infected my brain with the snark worms.
  10. Charlaquin

    Roll for Effect or Intent?

    Yes, which is why it’s preferable, because something is actually happening in the fiction.
  11. Charlaquin

    Roll for Effect or Intent?

    No. You can describe trying to do so, and the DM, determining the approach has no reasonable chance of achieving the goal, will narrate the results of failure without calling for a roll. Critical… Role…?
  12. Charlaquin

    Roll for Effect or Intent?

    No, the player wants to distract the guard. Explicitly so in the example being discussed.
  13. Charlaquin

    Roll for Effect or Intent?

    Right, which is why there’s a die roll. To resolve the uncertainty in whether or not you accomplish what you wanted to do.
  14. Charlaquin

    Roll for Effect or Intent?

    Yeah, it’s like the jerkass genie trope, where the genie actively looks for ways to (mis)interpret your wish that will result in a negative outcome for you. I’ll admit, in my youth I had a stint of being That GM. It’s frankly embarrassing now, but that was just… what I thought you were supposed...
  15. Charlaquin

    Roll for Effect or Intent?

    Asking questions is actually not described as part of the play loop in either 5e PHB. Both say the DM describes the scenario and the players describe what they want to do. Granted, asking questions to clarify aspects of the description of the environment that might not have been clear is, I...
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