Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 8051462" data-attributes="member: 92305">I am setting up a Conan game for my players. This is a brand new game, and there will be some players new to Conan.I'm using the Conan RPG by Mongoose, which is based on d20 3.5.I'm looking for opinions on how you would describe the situation to a new player who isn't used to the rules.Situation: A Pirate is walking down a path among some ruined buildings. Picture devastated cities in Europe at the end of WWII, but with a fantasy twang to the scene, and you get the idea. There's plenty of places to hide.And, sure, if the player playing the Pirate does something to earn a warning, I'll surely give that to him. But, for this question, let's say he's just walking down the path. It's near dusk. He's wary to a general level--not super alert, but not with his head in the clouds either.A Barbarian steps out from behind a rock 20 feet in front of him.We roll initiative. The Barbarian wins. The Pirate cannot act until the Barbarian's turn is over.  In fact, the Pirate is flatfooted until after the Barbarian has completed his actions.The Barbarian charges the Pirate.How would you explain that to a player, especially if the players says, "As soon as I see the Barbarian, I jump five feet to my left behind a rock, just off the path (assuming there is such a rock--let's say this is possible)."How do you explain to the player that, because of the game rules, the Pirate must wait for the Barbarian to spend the time to cross the 20 feet and charge him. The Pirate can't dodge out of the way, even though the distance to dodge out of the way is just a few feet?Mechanically, the Pirate lost initiative, but he's frozen for a few seconds while the Barbarian runs at him. By the rules, the Pirate can't even draw his weapon until after the Barbarian's charge!Help me explain that logically so that a player would accept it (without just saying, "Whelp! Dem's the rules!")The example is the same (but, I think harder to explain) if the charge distance is 60 feet.Or, what if the Barbarian emerges from behind a rock 60 foot distant.  The Pirate stops in his tracks, stares at the Barbarian, and tries to parley, "Ho there! State your business!"  And, the response from the Barbarian is that he breaks into a run, directly at the Pirate, the Barbarian screaming his head off with a war cry.The Barbarian can cover that 20 yards in a few seconds.  Let's say 3 seconds or so.  Three seconds seems like it is an eternity when you see a bear of  a man running towards you.How do you describe that situation so that it makes sense to a person who has never played the game before?</blockquote>

Verification