Are you playing D&D if there are no dice?

[Korgoth]

Who said 'just anybody'? We're talking about someone with 18 Dex and Str, a secondary skill of Masonry, Eyes of Minute Seeing, and it's a rough-hewn wall. And we're only giving him a 5% chance of success, since he's not a thief.

That's sufficient to warp the paradigm to much that it's no longer recognisable as AD&D, yet people who don't use Weapons vs AC Type, the DMG initiative rules, the grappling/pummelling/overbearing rules, the training rules for levelling, etc, are playing AD&D just fine?

-Hyp.

Even a strong, agile stonemason isn't a ninja. Once you introduce a magic item into the mix... I don't know. That's a call that goes to the individual DM. But I don't think that is what Gary was addressing... you can obviously move silently if you have boots of elvenkind, etc. So if you would rule that the glasses let you see the structure well enough, when combined with the other raw abilities, to allow wall climbing, that seems fine to me. Probably not the call I would make but there's a good case either way. I have no idea what Gary would say about it, though. He'd probably answer it on his thread though.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I have no idea what Gary would say about it, though.

He already said in Sage Advice - giving a non-thief a non-zero chance of climbing a wall makes it no-longer-AD&D.

-Hyp.

 

[Korgoth]

He already said in Sage Advice - giving a non-thief a non-zero chance of climbing a wall makes it no-longer-AD&D.

-Hyp.

I don't think you're reading what he wrote very sympathetically.

 

[hong]

I don't think you're reading what he wrote very sympathetically.

Hey, Gary's allowed to say dumb things, just like everyone else.

 

[Korgoth]

Hey, Gary's allowed to say dumb things, just like everyone else.

That's true. I don't think that "Gary is always right" or "whatever Gary says goes" or anything like that. But I think Gary is making a reasonable point about the amount of specialization required to perform the extraordinary "class abilities" that distinguish each of the archetypes.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Yes.

 

[RFisher]

Replacing the dice with a different but (for all practical purposes) equivalent means of generating random numbers is still playing D&D. I like rolling dice, however, so I take every opportunity to do it. Except when DMing & I can give my players a chance to roll their dice instead.

But I've also had plenty of sessions in which no random numbers were needed. I still consider it playing D&D.

He already said in Sage Advice - giving a non-thief a non-zero chance of climbing a wall makes it no-longer-AD&D.

(O_O) I don't ever remember Gary providing the answers for Sage Advice himself.

 

[Voadam]

I read this in a recent forum and it really made me think


I didn't want to divert from the subject of that thread, but it made me wonder.


I tend to roll some rolls automatically (search for traps, when a trap comes up; Listen checks; spot checks), but it seems that if I or someone else rolled all the rolls in the game the "game" element of d and d would be taken out.

Sure the dice are random, and you'd get just as much a random effect from a computer, but isn't the point of a game you playing it and not someone else. It just seems like it would be like watching someone else play.

I prefer not rolling dice in D&D. I'm perfectly happy with the DM rolling all the dice, doing the math, and telling me the results. Whether I do the rolling or have the DM do it for me is not meaningful to me at all.

My controlling the character is playing the game. How the dice are rolled does not affect that.

In the multi-year email D&D game I've been in the DM has always rolled all the dice. It has not felt like watching someone else play at all.

 

[S'mon]

it seems that if I or someone else rolled all the rolls in the game the "game" element of d and d would be taken out.

Sure the dice are random, and you'd get just as much a random effect from a computer, but isn't the point of a game you playing it and not someone else. It just seems like it would be like watching someone else play.

You play the game through the decisions you make, not the dice you roll - this isn't snakes & ladders.

Personally I like dice, and players rolling dice, at the game table, but in a pbem it's far more efficient that GM does all rolls and I wouldn't want a player who insisted on rolling.

 

[Ozmar]

Are you playing D&D if there are no dice?

No. I don't know what you're doing, but its not D&D.

Heck, its not even gaming, IMB.

-Ozmar the Dice-Lover