Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 6014286" data-attributes="member: 6696971">One last bit on this.&nbsp; Take the first example:Let us assume the formerly level 2 PCs are now level 21 and they decide to go back to the same town with the mayor who has the bank vault lock that was Thievery DC 23 to break into (for whatever reason of their own devising).&nbsp; Let us assume that they want to break into the vault of the guy right next door to the former mayor.&nbsp; The PCs have come up with this decision by way of some specific line of thinking detached from the current plot arc.&nbsp; Therefore, this is not something that we, as DM, have contrived for the specific end of plot continuity for level 21 PCs (meaning power players at epic tier play are not involved) nor to challenge the PCs with an &quot;of-level&quot; challenge.&nbsp; This vault is the exact same specifications as the one right next door (where the former mayor lived) that they broke into at level 2 (DC 23 Thievery).&nbsp; This vault lock doesn't all of a sudden become a DC 33 check in order to challenge the PCs.&nbsp; They don't have a &quot;Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead&quot; moment and walk back and forth between the two vaults, &quot;breaking down the 4th wall&quot;, randomly picking the vault locks and noting that &quot;for some odd reason&quot; these two exact same vaults are 10 DC difference in difficulty.&nbsp; They are the same vaults.&nbsp; Same DC.&nbsp; Now, if we want this to be an &quot;of-level&quot; challenge to level 21 PCs...and there are &quot;epic tier power players involved&quot;...then we would make this a different, more potent vault lock system (reinforced magically or of significantly more complex engineering etc) in order for the PCs to be challenged.&nbsp; However, nothing anywhere says we have to meta-game around making this situation an &quot;of-level&quot; challenge for the PCs.&nbsp; It is up to us as DMs to responsibly compose our fiction and maintain our own internal consistency.&nbsp; These are just guidelines to create compelling, challenging fiction.&nbsp; Create the world according to our own interests.&nbsp;&nbsp; Make plot centered &quot;of-level&quot; challenges by way of these DCs and map the fiction (in scope) accordingly so it is internally consistent.&nbsp; Or make it a &quot;below level&quot; challenge or an &quot;open lock whilst juggling chainsaws and eating pastrami sandwich&quot; walk-through.&nbsp; There is no demand that the world is going to uniformly synchronize with our PCs as they move through it.&nbsp; We just have the means to properly meta-game our world-building when we want to challenge our PCs (and the fiction should then map to said challenge...both from an antagonist - Efreet Overlord - and infrastructure - CRAZY CITY OF BRASS VAULT OMG - perspective).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Manbearcat, post: 6014286, member: 6696971"] One last bit on this. Take the first example: Let us assume the formerly level 2 PCs are now level 21 and they decide to go back to the same town with the mayor who has the bank vault lock that was Thievery DC 23 to break into (for whatever reason of their own devising). Let us assume that they want to break into the vault of the guy right next door to the former mayor. The PCs have come up with this decision by way of some specific line of thinking detached from the current plot arc. Therefore, this is not something that we, as DM, have contrived for the specific end of plot continuity for level 21 PCs (meaning power players at epic tier play are not involved) nor to challenge the PCs with an "of-level" challenge. This vault is the exact same specifications as the one right next door (where the former mayor lived) that they broke into at level 2 (DC 23 Thievery). This vault lock doesn't all of a sudden become a DC 33 check in order to challenge the PCs. They don't have a "Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead" moment and walk back and forth between the two vaults, "breaking down the 4th wall", randomly picking the vault locks and noting that "for some odd reason" these two exact same vaults are 10 DC difference in difficulty. They are the same vaults. Same DC. Now, if we want this to be an "of-level" challenge to level 21 PCs...and there are "epic tier power players involved"...then we would make this a different, more potent vault lock system (reinforced magically or of significantly more complex engineering etc) in order for the PCs to be challenged. However, nothing anywhere says we have to meta-game around making this situation an "of-level" challenge for the PCs. It is up to us as DMs to responsibly compose our fiction and maintain our own internal consistency. These are just guidelines to create compelling, challenging fiction. Create the world according to our own interests. Make plot centered "of-level" challenges by way of these DCs and map the fiction (in scope) accordingly so it is internally consistent. Or make it a "below level" challenge or an "open lock whilst juggling chainsaws and eating pastrami sandwich" walk-through. There is no demand that the world is going to uniformly synchronize with our PCs as they move through it. We just have the means to properly meta-game our world-building when we want to challenge our PCs (and the fiction should then map to said challenge...both from an antagonist - Efreet Overlord - and infrastructure - CRAZY CITY OF BRASS VAULT OMG - perspective). [/QUOTE]

Verification