Bad House Rules

[Dagger75]

Sorry for the Dork thing. I will try to never ever let it happen again. Posting to much on EQ boards and it filtered over here.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Merric got the right of it.

Darkvision isn't magical because the 'magi-atoms' that work with it...let's call 'em...I dunno...Thaumatrons....they aren't disrupted by Anti-Magic or Dispelling because they have ingrained into the character's cellular structure, and those anti-magic things only work on external magi-crap....thaumatrons....whatever.

Honestly, I can't believe I'm debating this, myself...I've never needed a reason why magic worked or why dragons can fly or why insects can exist that are huger than would be realistically possible....

D&D doesn't mimic the 'real world.' There's fantastic things, more than magic, that violate and break the laws of physics on a daily basis.

Heck, the immunity of elves to Sleep spells is extraordinary...I'd hate to have to come up with some sort of pseudo-science for that little trick!

 

[Felon]

Heck, the immunity of elves to Sleep spells is extraordinary...I'd hate to have to come up with some sort of pseudo-science for that little trick!

They don't sleep. Scientific enough?

I didn't really expect that little darkvision comment to culminate in a thread hijack. This thread was more fun when it was about bonehead house rules.

 

[MerricB]

Thaumatrons... I like the sound of that.

I've just come up with a new house rule:

If your character dies during the campaign, you have to buy me (the DM) another rulebook in compensation for the time I wasted setting up plot threads for your PC that now have to be canned.

So, any takers for my next campaign?

One of the "house rules" that really bothered me in the past might actually be fair: in an AD&D 1E campaign, the DM wanted to use the D&D Master Set weapon mastery rules to bump up the fighters. I, of course, being the player of Meliander the Mage complained bitterly about this. Why don't I get something?

Cheers!

 

[mmu1]

Then Darkvision is the same thing as infravision, in which case it should have no distance limits and should have all the qualities associated with infravision, such as seeing footprints where beings have recently stepped.

No it isn't. Infravision works by allowing creatures to see heat radiated by various things - in effect, you see how hot various things are. "My" Darkvision (which I didn't say explained the fantasy D&D Darkvision, I was just answering a question about "radiation in dark caves") relies on IR light reflected from objects in the environment, with things that generate a lot of heat looking bright and shiny, just as the sun or a flashlight look bright in normal vision. With infravision, you can see the heat of footprints but can't read a book - with Darkvision based on reflected and radiated heat, you could do both.

And now I think it really is the time to stop overanalyzing this, fun though it was...

 

[Tiefling]

Other than maybe polarization, what's the difference between electromagnetic waves that have been reflected off an object and those that have radiated from it?

 

[mmu1]

Other than maybe polarization, what's the difference between electromagnetic waves that have been reflected off an object and those that have radiated from it?

The difference is mainly in terms of intensity and the level of detail you can perceive as a result... When can you get a better look at a lightbulb filament, when it's on and radiating light, or when the bulb is off and light from some other source is reflecting from it?

 

[Tiefling]

The difference is mainly in terms of intensity and the level of detail you can perceive as a result... When can you get a better look at a lightbulb filament, when it's on and radiating light, or when the bulb is off and light from some other source is reflecting from it?

So your Darkvision allows the character to see less intense light sources but not more intense ones?

Edit: I feel like we're arguing different topics. You suggested an interpretation of Darkvision whereby the character can see light radiated from his body and reflected off other objects. I suggested that such light is in the infrared spectrum, thus to see it the character must be able to see that spectrum, and therefore the character should be able to see all other infrared light. You then said that your system relied on reflected light, not radiated light. I then asked what the difference was. My intent was to establish why the character's eyes could pick up the one but not the other, but I think you interpreted me literally and explained the actual difference, which had no bearing on whether or not the character should be able to see it. So my real question is, why would the character be able to see dimmer light but not more intense light, regardless of the detail that either would convey?

 

[ced1106]

Lessee...

* PHB: The spells in the PHB are the spells available to **your** PCs. Other NPCs and critters may have something different.

* MM & DMG: This is the possible information **your** PCs have heard of. The actual monsters and treasure you may encounter may be... different. (;

* Magic items: If you find a magic item (other than one-use ones) it will have three properties: Something good (unless it's cursed) it does, some background history, and some quirk / something unusual about it. No, you don't get to find out exactly what it is by just casting a spell!

* If it has anything to do with magical items or levelling up, you have to roleplay your way to find the contacts you need to help you out! Yes, you can ask your patron for help.

* EQ RPG: Yay, knowledge rolls.


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[s/LaSH]

Originally posted by Saeviomagy:
I'd love to join your campaign. First session I'd invent gunpowder and guns, and you'd have to invent spurious rules to prove that I couldn't. Spells which cause nuclear fusion wouldn't be too far off. (come to think of it, polymorph any object into a nuclear bomb would be pretty sweet).

The gameworld is not the real world. Chemistry, physics etc. do not work normally there. Explaining how things work merely gives way to long, interminably boring discussions of what does and does not work.
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See, there's the problem- as a PC, you would have no idea how to invent gunpowder, guns, nuclear fission, etc- because the technology for it simply doesn't exist. You have to separate player from character knowledge- the ONLY time I ever docked someone XPs was when someone attempted this very thing. And if you'd rather take your chances with a primitive blackpowder weapon than a conventional weapon, well- they'd be calling you "no fingers" in short order! My point is, gravity, fire, freezing, disease, etc work on the same assumptions in fantasy worlds as they do in the real world- otherwise there is no point of reference between the two.

Well, you MIGHT - but I'd houserule a natural skill check with a DC around 30 to isolate each component (with success invisible behind DM screen; you can check, but the DC is equally as hard); additional skill checks to realise you're doing something dangerous; yet more checks at DCs 40 or 50 to mix it together and store it safely; even harder checks to develop steel milling technology, metallurgy checks to create a proper barrel, etc etc, until the odds are truly gargantuan against anyone doing it. It'd give a good reason to take Craft (Alchemy), but nobody thinks to take Craft (Metallurgy), and by the time they can make the powder it'll be too late to pick up enough ranks to build a proper firing barrel anyway.

Strangely, none of my players have even brought up the topic, despite playing in medieval Europe itself.

Hm. I stopped playing with one group years ago when they started casting spells like 'nuclear apocalypse'. Those probably count as houserules, especially since they were level 2 at the time.