Consulting the Sages - a Poll by Edition

[haakon1]

I knew it! The US government is controlled by a secret cabal of Beholders!!!

Right. That why, when Congress passes a bill into law, they always say:

"The eyes have it."

 

[Hussar]

Hrm, interesting. It does come up from time to time in games, but, other than 1e, it's never a default. And the never's are certainly a large group, if not the majority, in every edition.

Next time someone tells me that the "right" way to play D&D is to "consult a sage" I'll have to point to this thread. When pretty much half, if not more, of D&D players never do it, I'd say it's not the "right" way.

 

[Lanefan]

Next time someone tells me that the "right" way to play D&D is to "consult a sage" I'll have to point to this thread. When pretty much half, if not more, of D&D players never do it, I'd say it's not the "right" way.

Depends, I suppose.

If you find that the groups who never consult a sage are also the groups who get routinely annihilated, you might want to re-think.

Lanefan

 

[Hussar]

Depends, I suppose.

If you find that the groups who never consult a sage are also the groups who get routinely annihilated, you might want to re-think.

Lanefan

Or, conversely, I, as DM, could go with what my players want and not punish them into following my narrowly defined path of what is the "right" way to play. Which is an attitude I see a number of times. It's the player's "fault" for not information gathering and knowing that there is monster X in the area. Never mind that the players just don't follow that playstyle, but would much rather emulate action heroes like Conan (did he ever consult a sage?) or whatnot.

But, hey, I know it's a bizarre thing to think that I should tailor my playstyle to match my players, rather than the other way around. *shrug*

 

[airwalkrr]

I am hard-pressed to think of a single campaign I have ever run or played in at which the players did not, at some point, consult the sage. I just started a PBP campaign and by the second page of posts, most of the PCs are already on their way to consult "the sage."

When I ran the Shackled City AP, the PCs must have consulted "the sage" at least twice that I can think of. When I ran the Age of Worms AP the PCs consulted "the sage" practically every other adventure (there were 12 parts). When I ran a Greyhawk campaign of my own design, the PCs consulted "the sage" before they set out into the Underdark. When I ran a campaign set in a world of my own design, the PCs consulted "the sage" before embarking on an expedition to stave off a great war.

Happens all the time.

 

[haakon1]

would much rather emulate action heroes like Conan (did he ever consult a sage?)

Yes.

In the movie "Conan: The Barbarian" he consulted the witch and then the hagga dealer to gather information about the snake cult.

Later, he and then his party members consulted the local wizard/sage/chronicler to learn about Thulsa Doom's mountain of power.

Paraphrasing Valeria: "The old man says the mountain is hollow. Many caves."

In the books, I couldn't tell you, but I'm guessing also yes.

 

[Vaslov]

Every Ravenloft game I ever played in had visits to the Vistani for sage advice. And some fortune telling. In a current game the party is sitting around causing trouble in a big city waiting for a sage to finish some research.

What I have found is players will go to sages as long as they find value in it. Spending their hard won gold on information can sometimes be a tough sell, but as long as they find it valuable they will keep going back.