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One of the things we roll for during character creation is past profession, which can (on a very lucky roll) include nobility; and if you hit that then by sheer luck you could very well have resources etc. to draw on that the other characters don't. Nobody has any problems with this, though it...

Hearkens back to 1e where you had to play to your stated alignment and harsh mechanical penalties followed if the DM determined you'd drifted. Not one of 1e's better ideas.

We use 30-second rounds, still not perfect but it's an OK middle-ground between 1-minute rounds and the much shorter WotC-edition rounds. Thinking about it, though, I can't remember the last time (if ever!) someone tried picking a lock during combat; so this isn't something I've had to give any...

While 5e might have it that way by RAW, 5e rules are far from perfect and this is a good example. Picking a lock really shouldn't be do-able while in initiative (i.e. combat) as it'll simply take too long given 5e's very short combat rounds. (this is one of the rare instances where 1e's...

If there doesn't seem to be any time pressure I'll sometimes ask how long they intend to spend trying, before they start. (more often for secret-door searching that could go on all day than locks, where it's usually fairly clear fairly soon* whether or not you're going to get it - if you spend...

Most of the time IME the main considerations against taking prisoners in any numbers are one or more of: --- we're standing into further danger and if they stay with us, they'll die; but we can't spare anyone to stay behind and guard them if we leave them here where it's safe(r) --- even if we...

Oh, I am. The roll represents your best attempt over however long you're willing to give it, as an abstraction of whether you're up to this particular challenge on this particular day/time/opportunity. The only way to get another roll is if-when something materially changes in the fiction: a...

Where to me that's the GM just passing his duties off to the player. Regardless of system, a GM asking me that would get the response " <shrug> You tell me. I'm not big enough in the slave traders' union to make those decisions - way above my pay grade". Also, does the player's answer here...

Hey, flat-earthers gonna flat-earth. :) A PC can believe whatever its player likes; but if that belief's not accurate then so be it, despite anyone's protestations to the contrary.

It's a simple principle: if you don't want me to fire the last shot, don't fire the first one. :)

I got the impression from some, way upthread, that the point of non-traditional play in their view was that either the GM wasn't supposed to have an agenda in the first place or, perhaps, that the GM's ability to have an agenda was to be taken away or overwritten by the players' agenda. In...

Randomly generating the dungeon as the PCs reach it doesn't work for much the same reason: if nobody knows what's in the next room it can't be foreshadowed, telegraphed, or in any other way made to usefully interact with what the PCs can already observe ahead of time. Hypothetical example...

In fairness, maybe he does. I think it was @Manbearcat (is he even still around?) who repeatedly put it as something like aiming a firehose of [adversity? conflict? - can't remember his exact term] at the characters. If done right, this would I suppose lead more or less to sustaining conflict...

I'm kind of the other way around: disparage what I do if you like, but keep in mind I'll happily give back what I get, maybe with a bit of compounding interest attached. :)

The problem is not with appearing or even being childish. Hell, I've always held that being grown-up is vastly overrated. The problem comes when one type of RPG is held up as childish in order to make another type appear more adult.

In a no-retries paradigm, the consequence of failure is that the lock avenue is now closed to you and you have to find another way. No-retries is very sim - sometimes you've got your A-game on and sometimes you don't, which is part of what the roll abstracts.

Unfortunately, oftentimes people who are "serious" about something (doesn't matter what) tend to both know more about it than the average person and know they know more about it than the average person. This can (and often does) lead to a sense of "I know more than you" that comes across in...

IME when "something else happens", resolving it invariably takes up more (sometimes much more) time than "nothing happens" would have*. * - assuming the players are reasonably quick thinkers and-or already have a plan B in mind if plan A fails. If on a "nothing happens" they just sit there...

You've many times gone on about how rolling for the runes and rolling to kill an Orc are the same thing. So explain me this difference: When I roll to kill an Orc, you-as-DM already know things like the Orc's AC and how many hit points it has. Its specific characteristics are pre-established...

Which points out what might be a difference here. When I think of what happens in the fiction due to a roll, I'm thinking of the immediate stakes on which the roll is made. Do I climb the cliff or fall. Can I open the lock or am I stuck here. Can I sneak past the guards or do they notice me...