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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8749756" data-attributes="member: 6790260">Er...I've been DMing actively for over four years now. Haven't once had that happen. The absolute closest thing is, one time I quickly belted off a new benefit for a player's abilities, and it turned out that I did the numbers slightly wrong, causing it to be too powerful. I had a chat with the player, voiced my concerns, and we toned it down slightly (upped the cost and reduced its snowball rate, more or less.) Hasn't caused a problem since.And my game absolutely uses the Rule of Cool (or Rule of Interesting) very heavily.I really don't think they are--or, at least, you're going to have to defend them, rather than just allege their existence and presume you have my agreement.The only thing my game is "simulating" is the One Thousand And One Nights. Which are absolutely full of some of the most ridiculous crap you'll ever read about in myth and legend. Now, I myself do place a priority on having a world that is well-grounded and makes sense, but that's far from the same thing.For example, I have (as I've mentioned many times around here) heavily reworked the behavior of Devils (and, to a lesser extent, Demons) because the way D&D devils are written is idiotic. Mine are scary, and yet "less" evil, or at least less blatantly evil. Their evil is cunning, shrewd, and (most importantly) genuinely concerned more about success and significance than about rapaciousness or screwing over mortals. I have, as a result, made devils in my game significantly more grounded, even though the delightful consequence of doing so is that (at least in my opinion) this also happens to make them much cooler (or at least more interesting) than they were before. My devils actually have a chance to tempt the party into calling on their aid....just this once....when they really need it....it can't hurt, right? Not that badly... <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="😉" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" title="Winking face    :wink:" data-shortname=":wink:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />This has nothing to do with the Rule of Cool though. It's the result of giving a general benefit with no limitations, rather than addressing a specific scene and tailoring the response to fit. So, for example, in that parallel thread about whether a Fighter could pray for divine aid, my process might look like this:[SPOILER="Spoilered for length"]DM (me): "Paladin, the behir has you under one of its far-too-many legs. Its scales are surprisingly pretty up close, but it's hard to appreciate them when you know a blast of lightning is about to strike you in the face. What do you do?"Paladin: "I'm stuck under one of its feet? Damn...not that I have much chance to dodge out of the way. This really isn't good. Can I wrestle my way out of the pin, throwing all I have into it?"DM: Sure, that sounds like a Defy Danger with Strength. Roll that beautiful dice footage.Paladin: (rolls snake eyes) "Oof. That's a miss."DM: "Unfortunately, you take that blast of lightning straight to the face, as you wriggle helplessly under its claws. That's..." (rolls damage--high!) "...12 damage. And being lightning, it ignores armor, I'm afraid."Paladin: "Crap. I'm at zero. Guess it's Last Breath time..."Fighter: "I shout a big dramatic 'no! Surely this is not how it ends!' Isn't there something I can do, DM? Could I like...pray to his god, try to save him?"DM: "Hmm. You've not really shown much piety up to this point. Or any piety, really. How do you intend to do that?"Fighter: "Yeah...you're right, I haven't. But...I really have come to respect Paladin and his faith, even if I've sucked at telling him that. He's, he's always been there for me, and he didn't just judge me when he found out about my past and some of the unsavory things I'd done. He's shown me there's real strength to be found in Bahamut's teachings. It never really hit me before, but...I really wasn't just being dramatic, I genuinely can't believe this is how it ends. All that faithful service, for nothing."DM: "Alright--that's a pretty fervent prayer, sounds like it's genuine to me. Are you willing to accept the possible consequences of doing this? Calling out to the divine with no training and no experience can be...well, very dangerous. To you...and maybe to Paladin too."Fighter: "Yeah, this is absolutely a 'Hail Mary' play. Or, I guess, a 'Hail Bahamut' play, hah. I'm desperate."Paladin: "If you end up beseeching Asmodeus to help me I'm gonna be SO MAD." (Said while grinning like an idiot.)Fighter: "Guess we'll have to find out just how bothersome the gods can be for a god-botherer, eh?"DM: "Alright. Give me a Charisma roll. Normally I might let you choose to use Wisdom instead, but between lack of training and how desperate you are, this sounds like praying from the heart, not from the head."Fighter: "Here goes nothing..." (Roll: Partial success.) "Hey, that's an 8, not half bad."DM: "You hear a strange voice in your mind. It is powerful, even terrifying, and yet at the same time comforting and nurturing, like a stern but loving father. 'Iꜰ ᴛʜᴏᴜ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅsᴛ ᴩʀᴇsᴇʀᴠᴇ ᴛʜɪs ɴᴏʙʟᴇ sᴏᴜʟ, ᴡʜᴏᴍ I ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʟᴏᴠᴇᴅ ᴀɴᴅ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴡᴇʟᴄᴏᴍᴇ ʜᴏᴍᴇ, ᴛʜɪɴᴇ ᴏᴡɴ ᴍᴜsᴛ ʙᴇ ʀᴇɴᴅᴇʀᴇᴅ ᴜᴩ ɪɴ sᴇʀᴠɪᴄᴇ. Wɪʟᴛ ᴛʜᴏᴜ sᴜʀʀᴇɴᴅᴇʀ ᴛʜʏ ʙᴇʟᴏᴠᴇᴅ ʙᴇᴅʟᴀᴍ, ᴛʜʏ ʟɪʙᴇʀᴀᴛᴇᴅ ʟɪᴄᴇɴsᴇ? I ᴍᴀʀᴋ ᴡᴇʟʟ ᴛʜᴏsᴇ ᴡʜᴏ sᴀᴄʀɪꜰɪᴄᴇ ꜰᴏʀ ᴀɴᴏᴛʜᴇʀ.' It's clear you're being offered a deal, but the terms are...pretty open-ended, and not necessarily favorable to you. What do you do?"Fighter: (long pause) "It's tough, I agonize about it for a long moment...but I accept."DM: "You can feel that something has changed, Fighter. But the promise is fulfilled: Paladin, a surge of divine light bursts forth from your prone body. You throw off the behir's claw that was keeping you down, and you are filled with vigor and vitality, ready to show this jerk what Bahamut's wrath is like. What will you do?"[/SPOILER]Note that the specific context matters here. Calling on a deity is not safe, and even here it comes with serious strings attached. It also needed to be a genuine, heartfelt prayer, which isn't something that you can just belt out any time you like. I can't see this becoming a Standard Operating Procedure. And if the players clearly start pulling stunts where the Paladin intentionally gets splattered so an ally can call on divine aid...well, the gods don't like being used. They will not be conveniences. Absolutely a scene powered by the Rule of Cool, and yet not one that leads to a "use it literally every time, all the time, forever" tactic.There's your problem. You're assuming that "Rule of Cool" means "low-risk, high-reward tactic(s.)" It doesn't. It means, at least to me, appropriate-risk, appropriate-reward tactics, with an eye toward high-flying action, competence over ineptitude, and enabling things that enrich the experience. Letting players create "I Win" buttons is not something that enriches the experience....what on earth? You can always validate your players without bowing to their every whim. Don't conflate being a supportive DM with being a completely permissive doormat.I have no interest in doing this. My favorite edition is 4e, an edition where skillful play is extremely important to success--because the system will not hold your hand, and absolutely will punish you for failing to be a team player.These two things are totally orthogonal. I'm honestly deeply confused why you would think there's any relation between them at all.</blockquote>

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