Search results

I agree that taking the game world seriously is a primary reason for the DM/players/adventure-writer/designers to be thinking out-of-bounds. I re-read the article looking for Monte's ultimate point and found "Breaking the rules, circumventing the rules, or ignoring the rules does not take you...

And a great specimen of irony would be a user on a reality TV forum announcing the banality of rpg debates.

Then I guess that a banal/trivial/stale/uninteresting article can still generate 159+ comments on the WoTC webpage and 3 pages of comments on this thread (and related Enworld threads) and one person taking the time to voice that it's banal :) and another person with too much time to voice that...

He made a ruling that a lot of people disagreed with it as per that Enworld thread. If it happens all the time, implies it's not a niche issue. A widespread controversial debatable topic like that is always worth discussion IMO, why not?

I think all those points and the out-of-bounds article tie in to a lot of other debates about what roleplaying is: - codifying of PC actions/powers ("boardgame-y") - insulating players against bad choices vs broken mechanics (game balance, everyone "the same", etc.) - immersion vs metagame-y -...

I looked up the darkfire thread and it came up in Feb 2010. 4E had already been played for a while. The very existence of this incident, and that it happened with Chris Perkins no less, reinforces for me that Monte has raised a very valid question -- what is the purpose of the rules, how are...

Trying a generic edition-neutral example: A passage is blocked by 10' of ice (non-magical; it's winter, dungeon air is below freezing, so ice doesn't melt). The official solution is to cause x points of damage. In-bounds-thinking: hack with weapons/powers for x minutes until ice is all broken...

Isn't the implication analagous to having a "Page 42" that is more pervasive, and that game design could factor in more for "Page 42", and maybe even encourage its use, instead of keeping it mostly harmless or leaving it on the sidelines to gather dust? The title is "out of bounds" which I...

I love the idea, although what is the mechanical consequences that models the shoulder injury (to add weight to the role-playing with roll-playing). Hit points/healing surges is conflating 2 different narrative and/or simultationist goals: 1) the dramatic ebb and flow of heroic potential (alas...

I think many people assumed that elves, dwarves, etc were good (or at least neutral, but not evil), because of: - fans growing up on Tolkein tales of elves and dwarves that were civilized - anthropomorphism implies that human-like beings are more likely to be on "our side" whereas non-human-like...

Perhaps a "true" god is one that sits on an Astral fountainhead of the divine spell delivery system. They don't create the flow of divine power per se, but they can bestow it amongst those who are worthy. In Eberron, the aloof, distant gods may be less micromanaging and direct the flow of...

I don't want to assume any conclusions on your end, but I don't think characters usually think like that. If you think from the character's perspective, I think most heroes would appreciate the strength of numbers, rather than some sort of machiavellian cost-benefit analysis like let's kick out...

I agree with you but I feel that the point was taken out of context, and that we're talking about 2 different issues. To get back on track, if cultists worshipped Orcus but didn't actually receive any or much divine spells, and instead had to rely on rituals or arcane magic, then this would...

Another way to make magic mysterious is not to be so formulaic about types of magic items and codifying what they do. In Tolkein, from one story, you have magic staves, rings, etc but whose to say that Tolkein would have never made a staff of invisibility? D&D set up a de facto standard that...

Sure, there's no right answer. It's just about what story you want to tell. A spaceship chase through the atmosphere suffers when you have easy teleportation, and the urgent "beam me up" getaway suffers without it. If I was playing a gritty fantasy RPG, it's a different story, maybe with very...

"I know the spell to solve the problem" assumes that the problem is static and absolute. Yes, you can eliminate the spell. But you can also change the problem or adapt to it. This is exactly the same dilemma as real-life "magic" (ie., technology) changing the way stories are told in film and...

I was thinking that: - priests of no specific deity can still access the same divine spells - priests and cultists of inferior entities and even dead gods can still access divine spells - in Eberron, priests of the 'wrong' alignment can still access divine spells - gods are credited for...

A secret memo from an unnamed bishop was intercepted and rumours say it describes a group of heretics. Apparently, these Atheists of the Alpha claim that an Alpha Soul was born out of nothing and grew and unfolded and transmuted to become the universe itself. Parts of the Alpha Soul...

I used to write movie scripts for Hollywood. My favourite plot device was to time urgent phonecalls to happen just after the intended recipient left his/her house. Then came the cell phone. Now people can talk at any time, inside or outside the house. It goes without saying that I no longer...

I've been so used to the knock spell that I never thought of it before, but I think that Gandalf didn't have a knock spell because it doesn't make as much narrative sense... does he have a kindred connection with all doors that he can speak to doors, get on their good side and convince them to...