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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 2551484" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>Point the first, about there being a lot of rules to look up?</p><p></p><p>That's in the DM's hands. Obviously if you're using the core alone, there's no more rules than the core to look up. That's still a lot of rules, but you only really need to know the ones that the PC's and NPC's are likely to use. If you're using tentacle demons with improved grab, know grapple. If you're using NPC's, know gear-wealth amounts. And if you are allowing more (knowing that at least WotC has a pretty rigorous process for balance), yeah, it's your job to learn them as much as your players use them. If you don't want to use them, if it's not fun for you to grapple, ditch it. The rules are only there to help you have fun, and if they don't help you have fun, they ain't doin' their job. </p><p></p><p>Point the second, about the minutae in Jumping over that wall?</p><p></p><p>It comes down to how the character gets over the wall. In a game situation, there would be context. If he's hurdling it, Jump check. If he's standing next to it, crawling up it to the other side? Climb check. Any average person can climb over a four foot wall (it's only a DC of 10 -- out of the heat of battle, you can take 10. In the heat of battle, there's not time to, say, look for handholds, so the roll needs to be made.) Most people would have trouble hurdling it (it's a DC of 16, but this is a wall that goes up to you chest). If you're bigger than Medium, you can use the "hop up" DC 10 Jump check.</p><p></p><p>All that took about 1 minute looking it up in the PHB. And I addressed it exactly as I would have if one of my own players did it. There are rules for this situation, and I used them because when I'm trying to have fun, I don't want to bugger around thinking about what numbers I should assign, compared to what I have assigned, compared to the educational examples given in some manual of how to adjudicate justly.</p><p></p><p>I want the book to tell me what to do. It did. Assuming my players wanted to have fun and not debate rules with me (which really isn't much fun for most people in the middle of a combat), it makes sense and it acceptable.</p><p></p><p>If I care to refine it further than that, I have the option. Large-size hop-up? Tumble check? Sure. But I don't need to consider all the options spur of the moment. I just need one that works and makes sense - enough to maintain verisimilitude, not so much that I'm quoting rules and not playing. If it is important enough to know, </p><p></p><p>Are there lots o'rules and stuff? Sure. But they are there to serve the game. Creating rules on the fly isn't something that should have to happen very often. It'll happen inevitably, but the basic work should already be done for you, so when you do have to do it, there's hundreds of examples to work from already, to keep it standardized and to make sure that if two different module designers put in four foot walls that they use basically the same rules for it.</p><p></p><p>Looking up a similar rule is as easy as turning to the index and glancing at some italicized text. I shouldn't have to go through the effort of creating a rule on the spot. What am I paying the developers for, in that case? Creating a rule is more difficult, more time-consuming, and ultimately less satisfactory for me in the middle of play than using a rule. </p><p></p><p>Either way, simplicity is something that I do believe is under-vlaued in current D&D. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> But it is a trade off for realism.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 2551484, member: 2067"] Point the first, about there being a lot of rules to look up? That's in the DM's hands. Obviously if you're using the core alone, there's no more rules than the core to look up. That's still a lot of rules, but you only really need to know the ones that the PC's and NPC's are likely to use. If you're using tentacle demons with improved grab, know grapple. If you're using NPC's, know gear-wealth amounts. And if you are allowing more (knowing that at least WotC has a pretty rigorous process for balance), yeah, it's your job to learn them as much as your players use them. If you don't want to use them, if it's not fun for you to grapple, ditch it. The rules are only there to help you have fun, and if they don't help you have fun, they ain't doin' their job. Point the second, about the minutae in Jumping over that wall? It comes down to how the character gets over the wall. In a game situation, there would be context. If he's hurdling it, Jump check. If he's standing next to it, crawling up it to the other side? Climb check. Any average person can climb over a four foot wall (it's only a DC of 10 -- out of the heat of battle, you can take 10. In the heat of battle, there's not time to, say, look for handholds, so the roll needs to be made.) Most people would have trouble hurdling it (it's a DC of 16, but this is a wall that goes up to you chest). If you're bigger than Medium, you can use the "hop up" DC 10 Jump check. All that took about 1 minute looking it up in the PHB. And I addressed it exactly as I would have if one of my own players did it. There are rules for this situation, and I used them because when I'm trying to have fun, I don't want to bugger around thinking about what numbers I should assign, compared to what I have assigned, compared to the educational examples given in some manual of how to adjudicate justly. I want the book to tell me what to do. It did. Assuming my players wanted to have fun and not debate rules with me (which really isn't much fun for most people in the middle of a combat), it makes sense and it acceptable. If I care to refine it further than that, I have the option. Large-size hop-up? Tumble check? Sure. But I don't need to consider all the options spur of the moment. I just need one that works and makes sense - enough to maintain verisimilitude, not so much that I'm quoting rules and not playing. If it is important enough to know, Are there lots o'rules and stuff? Sure. But they are there to serve the game. Creating rules on the fly isn't something that should have to happen very often. It'll happen inevitably, but the basic work should already be done for you, so when you do have to do it, there's hundreds of examples to work from already, to keep it standardized and to make sure that if two different module designers put in four foot walls that they use basically the same rules for it. Looking up a similar rule is as easy as turning to the index and glancing at some italicized text. I shouldn't have to go through the effort of creating a rule on the spot. What am I paying the developers for, in that case? Creating a rule is more difficult, more time-consuming, and ultimately less satisfactory for me in the middle of play than using a rule. Either way, simplicity is something that I do believe is under-vlaued in current D&D. :) But it is a trade off for realism. [/QUOTE]
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