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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FireLance" data-source="post: 3765844" data-attributes="member: 3424">Me too.I think it's possible to have a balance between the player telling the DM what happens, and the DM saying no or adjudicating the result in a way that feels arbitrary to the player. Some time ago, I read a thread (either here or on CircvsMaximvs) about a player offering the DM a bet that if he successfully made an Intimidate check, he could grant temporary hit points and morale bonuses to the men his PC was leading. At the time, I wasn't keen on the idea, as I generally prefer to implement the rules as written.However, thinking about it in the context of this thread, I think I'm going to change my stand slightly. I don't want the players in my game to change the basic rules of the game too often, but I don't mind giving them the option to bend the rules every once in a while. This might be a good alternative use for action/fate/hero points: to alllow the player the chance to make a "bet" with the DM that changes the way the rules normally work. With a limited pool of action points, the players won't be able to change the rules often, and because the use of an action point already marks it as an exceptional case, players won't expect the rules to work this way normally. The player and the DM should also work out the specific details of the "bet": the stakes, the payoff or consequences (if losing the stakes is not enough), and the success condition/probability of success before the dice are rolled, so that both sides are aware of the potential upsides and downsides.So, if a player wanted to blind an opponent with a 0-level light spell, I might offer him the following bet: spend an action point, cast the spell, and if the opponent fails a Fortitude save, he is blinded for 1 round. I think that the basic rules of the game should require as little creative interpretation as possible, possibly to the extent that a computer could run a game of D&D. However, I also think that some limited scope to creatively bend the rules of the game should be made available to the player, and the possibility of doing this is one thing that will distinguish a game with a human DM from one run by a computer.</blockquote>

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