Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Zaruthustran" data-source="post: 4125892" data-attributes="member: 1457">Okay, let's use those examples, and imagine 4E had a subsystem for craft skills, and skills like Use Rope and Navigation. You have, say, the ability to choose 2 such skills from a list of 10. So what if, in the Pulley example, no one happened to take the right skill? Plot grinds to a halt? I think it would. By adding increasing granularity and specificity, you wind up being able to do *less*. Sure you could just use DM fiat, but such a thing would be (technically) cheating. If 4E didn't have a specific system to cover such skills, then the players and DMs could just decide together if the party could pull off the challenge. DM fiat is just fiat--it's not breaking the rules if there are no rules to break! &quot;Oh, didn't you say Bob used to be a sailor before taking up Wizardry? Sure, he could probably figure something out. Make an Int check.&quot; Or, &quot;Wasn't Johan a carpenter? He could maybe lash something together.&quot;Look at it from the publisher's point of view. Does D&amp;D need a system on such skills? Are such skills part of the fundamental D&amp;D experience? Or are they of niche interest, and better suited to a later supplement or web article?For me it boils down to keeping the focus on the fun. Focus on the reason why my friends and I get together at the D&amp;D table: to create interesting characters, go on amazing adventures, kill horrible monsters, and take their wondrous treasures. If one of us wants his character to be good at something (be it armorsmithing, or singing, or whatever) then sure, he's good at it. Done. We're all friends, and reasonable people, but even if someone were to get a little cheesy and start claiming that his character is a master in 10 different disciplines the rest of us would just say &quot;come on man, that's cheesy... just settle on one or two hobbies&quot; and that'd be it. But that situation wouldn't come up. After all, we don't get together to bother with rules on how well Sir Jaradai, Knight of the Shining Citadel, can weave baskets. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Zaruthustran, post: 4125892, member: 1457"] Okay, let's use those examples, and imagine 4E had a subsystem for craft skills, and skills like Use Rope and Navigation. You have, say, the ability to choose 2 such skills from a list of 10. So what if, in the Pulley example, no one happened to take the right skill? Plot grinds to a halt? I think it would. By adding increasing granularity and specificity, you wind up being able to do *less*. Sure you could just use DM fiat, but such a thing would be (technically) cheating. If 4E didn't have a specific system to cover such skills, then the players and DMs could just decide together if the party could pull off the challenge. DM fiat is just fiat--it's not breaking the rules if there are no rules to break! "Oh, didn't you say Bob used to be a sailor before taking up Wizardry? Sure, he could probably figure something out. Make an Int check." Or, "Wasn't Johan a carpenter? He could maybe lash something together." Look at it from the publisher's point of view. Does D&D [i][b]need[/b][/i] a system on such skills? Are such skills part of the [u]fundamental[/u] D&D experience? Or are they of niche interest, and better suited to a later supplement or web article? For me it boils down to keeping the focus on the fun. Focus on the reason why my friends and I get together at the D&D table: to create interesting characters, go on amazing adventures, kill horrible monsters, and take their wondrous treasures. If one of us wants his character to be good at something (be it armorsmithing, or singing, or whatever) then sure, he's good at it. Done. We're all friends, and reasonable people, but even if someone were to get a little cheesy and start claiming that his character is a master in 10 different disciplines the rest of us would just say "come on man, that's cheesy... just settle on one or two hobbies" and that'd be it. But that situation wouldn't come up. After all, we don't get together to bother with rules on how well Sir Jaradai, Knight of the Shining Citadel, can weave baskets. :) [/QUOTE]

Verification