ThirdWizard
First Post
mtgrogan said:
Rules as Written. The rules as they are written in the books as opposed to House Rules.
Common sense
- Thread starter Mishihari Lord
- Start date
Rules as Written. The rules as they are written in the books as opposed to House Rules.
Ranger REG
Explorer
Rules As Written.mtgrogan said:
They're simply asking if you follow the letter of the game rules strictly, or do occasionally let common sense, plausibility, reasonable judgment override what is written.
Storyteller01
First Post
Sejs said:
Ditto
FireLance
Legend
I think RAW vs common sense is a false dichotomy. Many things in the RAW go against common sense, but are accepted for the sake of simplicity. Is there a chance that you will hit your friend when you fire a ranged weapon past him to hit the opponent he is fighting in melee? Common sense says yes, but the RAW says that your friend provides the opponent with a +4 cover bonus to AC and you just take a -4 penalty for firing into melee. It isn't as realistic, but it requires less dice rolls and keeps the game going more smoothly.
"Common sense" is also a somewhat loaded term, in the sense that most people think they possess it.
Unfortunately, most of the time, "common sense" is just shorthand for "this looks logical to me" or "this is my preference" or "this is my opinion", and all these things can be heavily influenced by our background and experiences. As a very simple example, I watched many Chinese wuxia television shows as a child, and so I find nothing strange about the idea of highly skilled individuals being able to fly around, blast energy beams from their hands, and wield strange weapons that decapitate their opponents at a distance. It has probably also influenced my tolerance for high-powered, fantastic settings and games. Someone else whose main fantasy influence is the books about Conan the Barbarian might have a very different idea of what is logical, possible and preferable.
So instead of saying, "This is common sense," try using, "This seems more in line with the games I like to play," or "This is more likely to create the effect, mood, atmosphere or style of play that I want."
Instead of going strictly by the RAW or by common sense, I prefer to go on the basis of what seems like it's going to be more fun (and this usually means more balanced) for myself and my players. Maybe that's a special application of common sense, but I'd prefer not to call it that.
EDIT: Mis-spelled Conan the Barbarain. Please don't attack me, or I'll be forced to use my Five Point Exploding Palm Technique.
"Common sense" is also a somewhat loaded term, in the sense that most people think they possess it.
Unfortunately, most of the time, "common sense" is just shorthand for "this looks logical to me" or "this is my preference" or "this is my opinion", and all these things can be heavily influenced by our background and experiences. As a very simple example, I watched many Chinese wuxia television shows as a child, and so I find nothing strange about the idea of highly skilled individuals being able to fly around, blast energy beams from their hands, and wield strange weapons that decapitate their opponents at a distance. It has probably also influenced my tolerance for high-powered, fantastic settings and games. Someone else whose main fantasy influence is the books about Conan the Barbarian might have a very different idea of what is logical, possible and preferable.So instead of saying, "This is common sense," try using, "This seems more in line with the games I like to play," or "This is more likely to create the effect, mood, atmosphere or style of play that I want."
Instead of going strictly by the RAW or by common sense, I prefer to go on the basis of what seems like it's going to be more fun (and this usually means more balanced) for myself and my players. Maybe that's a special application of common sense, but I'd prefer not to call it that.
EDIT: Mis-spelled Conan the Barbarain. Please don't attack me, or I'll be forced to use my Five Point Exploding Palm Technique.
Lord Pendragon
First Post
You misspelled Conan the Barbarian, in a post about the fact that you needed to fix the spelling.FireLance said:
I'm not attackin' ya. Just struck me as humorous.
Regarding your post, I agree. Except for all the references to "logical." 95% of the people who use that word to justify their opinions have no idea what it actually means.
lukelightning
First Post
I use uncommon sense. Basically this is common sense, however it is specifically adapted for a fantasy/magical world, so decisions aren't that firmly based on real-world science or behavior.
An example: Invisibility. Common Sense (and, I believe, an official explanation) states that an invisible creature sibmerged in water is seen as a creature-shaped bubble of no water. However, in my Uncommon Sense ruling, it is invisible just as if it in the air. The movement of the creature would be seen on the surface of the water, but the magic of the invisibility effect would still work.
An example: Invisibility. Common Sense (and, I believe, an official explanation) states that an invisible creature sibmerged in water is seen as a creature-shaped bubble of no water. However, in my Uncommon Sense ruling, it is invisible just as if it in the air. The movement of the creature would be seen on the surface of the water, but the magic of the invisibility effect would still work.
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Henry
Autoexreginated
9 times out of 10, the rules make sense, and my players don't try really inane things like "mighty cleaving buckets of snails" or taking advantage of "only jumping up to your move rate", etc. In cases where there are no rules to cover it I use common sense or basic physics or math. Recently I was asked how far away someone was when the players were shooting from 50 ft. high up on a cliff down into a valley; I just estimated the hypoteneuseto figure it out; I was probably somewhere from 5 to 15 feet short, but for the game it was perfect enough.
EDIT: I just checked, and darned if I wasn't off by 10 feet! (50 feet up and 75 feet over = 90 feet away, and I said 80 feet.)
EDIT: I just checked, and darned if I wasn't off by 10 feet! (50 feet up and 75 feet over = 90 feet away, and I said 80 feet.)
Lord Pendragon said:
I voted common sense but frankly Pendragon's approach is a close match to my own approach. RAW is the baseline but common sense trumps it. "Cringeworthiness" is a good way to describe the threshold I use. If the RAW hinder verisimilitude (not realism but the "feeling of realism" that allows players to suspend their disbelief) then I'll use an ad hoc ruling or a house rule to deal with it. I prefer a well thought out house rule to constant ad hoc solutions but I see no point in house ruling the oddball situations. Just improvise and move on.
Psion
Adventurer
Use the rules; don't let the rules use you.
The rules attempt to cover a wide variety of common situations in a satisfactory manner, but they leave some gaps. A principle duty of the GM is to make judgement calls to handle these corner cases. Letting the rules reshape the game world is the tail wagging the dog. The rules should serve the game, not vice versa.
The rules attempt to cover a wide variety of common situations in a satisfactory manner, but they leave some gaps. A principle duty of the GM is to make judgement calls to handle these corner cases. Letting the rules reshape the game world is the tail wagging the dog. The rules should serve the game, not vice versa.
