Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
5e* - D&D-now
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Faolyn" data-source="post: 8521552" data-attributes="member: 6915329"><p>Passing Go is a specific action that is is extremely obvious to all players just by looking at the board, dice, and where the pawns are. However...</p><p></p><p></p><p>When combined with <em>this, </em>this rule is extremely unhelpful. It is <em>not obvious </em>what counts as meaningless to the game, scene, or individual. </p><p></p><p>For instance, take this line from the OP:</p><p></p><p>"<em>That off-duty guard is the one you befriended earlier, do you let her spot you or just sneak on by?</em>"</p><p></p><p>Is <em>this</em> [USER=71699]@clearstream[/USER]'s point? Only narrate if your narration gives the PCs a choice to act upon, and then, you the DM must offer that choice to the PCs? Which since he said this:</p><p></p><p></p><p>Might very well be the case.</p><p></p><p>Although these are very different situations, because a failure on a roll, like passing Go in Monopoly, is an obvious event clear to everyone: there is a DC attached to the roll; you either beat it or failed. And I would think that it should <em>also </em>be obvious here what is meant by meaningless: if the failed results require additional rolls or complications.</p><p></p><p>The party is confronted by a locked door! But it's got a really cheap lock that requires like a DC 10 to pick, and the party has a rogue with high Dex and expertise in lockpicking. There's no time crunch here--nobody is around to discover the party and attack, no clock ticking down to a disaster they can only avoid if they get past the lock, no traps, and the lockpicks are of decent enough quality that they're not going to easily break, even on a roll of 1 (assuming you even use critical failures). You <em>could </em>have the rogue roll the dice to pick the lock... but you don't really get anything out of it if you do. The game isn't enhanced in anyway, and by rolling the die, you slow the game down, even if only by a minute. So this, in fact, can be described as a meaningless roll. When <em>I </em>read that section in the DMG, I immediately understood what they meant by meaningless in this situation.</p><p></p><p>But when it comes to narration... well, does [USER=71699]@clearstream[/USER] <em>mean </em>"only narrate if you can give/dicate a choice to the players on how to act?" Does it mean "don't try to flavor text the area the PCs are in, give physical descriptions of NPCs, set the tone for the scene?" [USER=6779196]@Charlaquin[/USER], would <em>you </em>consider it meaningless to provide flavor text, physical descriptions, or scene tones?" <em>I </em>wouldn't.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Faolyn, post: 8521552, member: 6915329"] Passing Go is a specific action that is is extremely obvious to all players just by looking at the board, dice, and where the pawns are. However... When combined with [I]this, [/I]this rule is extremely unhelpful. It is [I]not obvious [/I]what counts as meaningless to the game, scene, or individual. For instance, take this line from the OP: "[I]That off-duty guard is the one you befriended earlier, do you let her spot you or just sneak on by?[/I]" Is [I]this[/I] [USER=71699]@clearstream[/USER]'s point? Only narrate if your narration gives the PCs a choice to act upon, and then, you the DM must offer that choice to the PCs? Which since he said this: Might very well be the case. Although these are very different situations, because a failure on a roll, like passing Go in Monopoly, is an obvious event clear to everyone: there is a DC attached to the roll; you either beat it or failed. And I would think that it should [I]also [/I]be obvious here what is meant by meaningless: if the failed results require additional rolls or complications. The party is confronted by a locked door! But it's got a really cheap lock that requires like a DC 10 to pick, and the party has a rogue with high Dex and expertise in lockpicking. There's no time crunch here--nobody is around to discover the party and attack, no clock ticking down to a disaster they can only avoid if they get past the lock, no traps, and the lockpicks are of decent enough quality that they're not going to easily break, even on a roll of 1 (assuming you even use critical failures). You [I]could [/I]have the rogue roll the dice to pick the lock... but you don't really get anything out of it if you do. The game isn't enhanced in anyway, and by rolling the die, you slow the game down, even if only by a minute. So this, in fact, can be described as a meaningless roll. When [I]I [/I]read that section in the DMG, I immediately understood what they meant by meaningless in this situation. But when it comes to narration... well, does [USER=71699]@clearstream[/USER] [I]mean [/I]"only narrate if you can give/dicate a choice to the players on how to act?" Does it mean "don't try to flavor text the area the PCs are in, give physical descriptions of NPCs, set the tone for the scene?" [USER=6779196]@Charlaquin[/USER], would [I]you [/I]consider it meaningless to provide flavor text, physical descriptions, or scene tones?" [I]I [/I]wouldn't. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
5e* - D&D-now
Top