Apropos Reskinning

[Tuft]

Reading the threads about reskinning Clerics into Warlords, magical spells into nonmagical talents, and more, the following little scene just popped into my head.

Posting it separately, so that it does not interfer with the serious(?) discussions.



DM: ... Suddenly you see the red glow of a Fireball further ahead in the forest, and you suspect your friend, Malex the Magnificent, is in trouble.

Player 1: Blue.

DM: What?

Player 1: I reskinned my Fireballs to be blue last week, remember.

DM: Oh, right. You see the blue glow, and you *know* it is your friend Malex who is in trouble. What do you do?

Player 2: I ride towards the fire.

DM: Right, Sir Bedrev wheels his trusty warhorse around, and...

Player 2: Dragon!

DM: What?! No, it was a fireball...

Player 2: No, I decided to reskin my warhorse as a dragon. It's more cool to ride a dragon than a stupid old horse.

Player 1: You cannot be riding a dragon, we are not high enough level for that.

Player 2: Look, if *she* can reskin that war-axe we found into a mace because it fits her miniature better, then I can reskin my horse into a dragon. It's just a dragon with the same stats as a horse.

Player 1: Look, a dragon can fly and breathe for damage...

Player 2: Oh, but Binky is a good boy, he won't do any of those things, I promise.

DM: (Sighs) Look, we'll talk about this later - you have a magician to rescue.

Player 2: Right!
Player 1: ( Reluctantly) Right.

DM: Az'tor, I guess you start teleporting towards the fire too?

Player 3: No, I fly.

DM: (Sighs deeper.) Don't tell me, you've reskinned your teleport move as flight?

Player 3: No, I merely use the Boots of Flying I just bought for our last reward... hey, why are you looking so funnily at me?

 

[DEFCON 1]

UnfortunateLy, you're a little late to the party on this kind of scene. The Dead Alewives already did it.

"He's got a brown tunic, and blue eyes."

"No, no, I've got grey eyes!"

"Let me take a look at that sheet."

"Well, it said I had blue eyes, but I decided I wanted grey eyes!"

"Whatever."


-I'M ATTACKING THE DARKNESS!!!

 

[Starfox]

Who's on first?

 

[Deset Gled]

UnfortunateLy, you're a little late to the party on this kind of scene. The Dead Alewives already did it.

In the original, it was a silly player making tedious revisions that had no bearing on actual gameplay.

In the case presented, it's the core rules making sweeping mechanical revisions with overarching effects on rules and the feel of the game world, under the guise that they're just tedious revisions with no bearing on actual gameplay.

That's the joke.

Isn't it?

 

[Starfox]

DM: ... Suddenly you see the red glow of a Fireball further ahead in the forest, and you suspect your friend, Malex the Magnificent, is in trouble.

Player 1: Blue.

DM: What?

Player 1: I reskinned my Fireballs to be blue last week, remember.?

Mmmm, City of Heroes vibes. Power customization FTW. Good times!

 

[Tuft]

In the original, it was a silly player making tedious revisions that had no bearing on actual gameplay.

In the case presented, it's the core rules making sweeping mechanical revisions with overarching effects on rules and the feel of the game world, under the guise that they're just tedious revisions with no bearing on actual gameplay.

That's the joke.

Isn't it?

Well, if a character's riding beast has *all* the stats of a warhorse, (including an inability to fly or breathe fire "because it is so well-behaved"), but the player claims it is a dragon, what would you do? Go with it, or consider the character to be far off in Don Quixote-land?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My vote goes for DQ-land.






Mmmmmmm...Dairy-Queen.