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  1. Maxperson

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    That doesn't fix the issue I'm talking about. Skill specialization only increases the chances in one narrow aspect, so the PC in question could be even better at climbing because he is specialized, but he still couldn't be bad at swimming because he has athletics proficiency and a 16 strength.
  2. Maxperson

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    I agree it's more complex that needed and not necessary. However, it does meet the requirements of some people who play the game. For you it isn't necessary and is more complex that needed. For @Lanefan it might be simple to do and required in order to meet his personal standards. My post...
  3. Maxperson

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Close. The players typically roll to determine how the PC affects the fictional world. The PC is the buffer in-between the two. Players don't often roll to affect the fictional world. The narrative method is skipping that buffer at least some of the time.
  4. Maxperson

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Or else it's basic math. :)
  5. Maxperson

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Even if doing that was in the rules(and I'd allow it anyway if a player did that), it still wouldn't matter much unless the PC fell into rapids or something. If he fell into calm and even slowly moving water, the swim DC is going to be very easy, so a DC 5. Since I already specified he has...
  6. Maxperson

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Rough to climb takes crumbling rocks into account. It's not adding in a detail retroactively to have a rock crumble under the climbers weight if he fails the roll. Plus if the player really wanted to, he could have examined the cliff to get more detail.
  7. Maxperson

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    It's not arbitrary. The guard patrols the house at a walking pace. There are X number of rooms and it takes Y time to walk them all. Then it's just math to figure out the approximate likelihood of being in any given room when the PCs arrive. So the DM rolls before they get there and knows...
  8. Maxperson

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Yeah, which I viewed as a fairly big step backwards. Those were really great roleplaying aids, especially for new players. I'm not sure you could take a flaw that did that, though. Flaws didn't have mechanical impact like that, which means that the PC would still be a great swimmer. The flaw...
  9. Maxperson

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    D&D doesn't provide specific details, but it does provide framework in which the DM's details have to fit. When the simulated swordsman swings the simulated longsword at the orc and misses, the DM has to narrate some sort of sword swing and a miss. He can't narrate fairies coming to sing Girls...
  10. Maxperson

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    In actual game play it goes something like this. DM: "You guys have been tracking the goblins for two days now. The tracks lead you to a cliff and stop at the bottom." Player(s): "I will examine the cliff to see if it's safe to climb and try to estimate how high it is." DM: "The cliff rock is...
  11. Maxperson

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    That's been a sticking point with me as well. 5e bundles too much together. My desert nomad who has never been in enough water to swim in is a master swimmer because I picked athletics so he could climb well. I can't have a PC who can't see well, but has other good senses.
  12. Maxperson

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    I'm actually going to be in rare agreement with you. Success with a cost does work in traditional play if the DC is two tiered. DC 15 to fully succeed and DC say 13-14 to succeed with a cost, where the cost directly applies to what is happening. So no cooks showing up in the kitchen if you...
  13. Maxperson

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    No. It also works if you take it in the context that saying is used. It's used in the context of human on human violence, which in D&D translates to person on person violence, since many more races than human. Hunting is outside of that context and so doesn't run afoul of its meaning.
  14. Maxperson

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Yep. The DM will describe the cliff most of the time, and most of the rest of the time the players will examine it to see if it's stable. The rest of the time something big is chasing them and they don't have time to look. ;)
  15. Maxperson

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    He's wrong about that, too. You don't need to spend significant time and effort quantifying, formalizing and then calculating outcomes. Far less complex simulations are still simulations.
  16. Maxperson

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Look at the rules! Swords are made of metal and have edges that slash for physical damage. They come in longswords short swords, rapiers and other real world varieties. You use them in combat to try and kill things. That's simulation. The rest of arms and armor are also simulating how...
  17. Maxperson

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Holy semantical nonsense Batman! There's no lock picking skill, there's only proficiency with thieves tools whose only purpose is to pick locks and disarm traps!
  18. Maxperson

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    D&D does that in spades. Gravity is simulated. Weapons are simulated. Armor is simulated. Walking is simulated. Ships are simulated. Worlds, which includes trees, grass, berries, and millions of more things are simulated. Skills are simulated. And on and on and on and on. The DM is just...
  19. Maxperson

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    First, even that simulates gravity. The point is that it doesn't matter why DM is narrating with the bounds of the games simulated gravity rules. It only matter that he has to do it or else it's a violation of the social contract and isn't applicable to this discussion. Second, bad DMing...
  20. Maxperson

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Okay, but that's not what I argued. I asked WHY the system has to be the one to the lifting in order for there to be verisimilitude. Also, even with the DM doing the heavy lifting there, it's still simulating gravity. The PC falls purely be the rules mechanics. A fall is caused by gravity...
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