Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Creativity?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Pedantic" data-source="post: 8931929" data-attributes="member: 6690965"><p>What I'm trying to drive at is that a climb skill in a game with specified DCs maps to a set of discrete abilities. You could rewrite the climb skill as a series of "the player can move at Y speed up vertical surfaces" "the player can move at X speed up horizontal surfaces upside down" utility powers. Instead of the fiction changing over time to ensure the mechanic remains the same, the player will leverage their increased abilities against the environment in new ways. How does my decision making as a player change when I'm climbing a stone wall at level 4, and a sentient wall of teeth at level 22? Assuming I remained specialized in climbing, it doesn't at all, I'm still rolling a climb check against a level-appropriate environmental DC, and the game I'm playing, where I decide to climb some obstacles is exactly the same.</p><p></p><p>If Climb is actually shorthand for a set of abilities, some of which have a percentage chance to activate in the form of a DC the player can't hit automatically, then the game becomes the player taking those discrete packets of mechanics and trying to use them against the environment to best achieve victory.</p><p></p><p>The goals I just described are "get something done" and "survive." I don't know what you're talking about, those are about as broad as you can possibly get. I cannot imagine playing a character that does not want something, and I think it's a pretty reasonable genre convention of heroic fantasy that characters want to survive, up until they find a reason to make a noble sacrifice.</p><p></p><p>The point I was actually making is that you can design your game such that a player trying to optimize their gameplay decisions will, even if they paid no attention to their character's motivations once they had set a goal, end up making choices that their character would reasonable make in the fiction to achieve their goal. This point is nearly tautological, I don't think it's particularly out there. </p><p></p><p>I'm not honestly sure what we're talking about here or how to respond to this point.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Pedantic, post: 8931929, member: 6690965"] What I'm trying to drive at is that a climb skill in a game with specified DCs maps to a set of discrete abilities. You could rewrite the climb skill as a series of "the player can move at Y speed up vertical surfaces" "the player can move at X speed up horizontal surfaces upside down" utility powers. Instead of the fiction changing over time to ensure the mechanic remains the same, the player will leverage their increased abilities against the environment in new ways. How does my decision making as a player change when I'm climbing a stone wall at level 4, and a sentient wall of teeth at level 22? Assuming I remained specialized in climbing, it doesn't at all, I'm still rolling a climb check against a level-appropriate environmental DC, and the game I'm playing, where I decide to climb some obstacles is exactly the same. If Climb is actually shorthand for a set of abilities, some of which have a percentage chance to activate in the form of a DC the player can't hit automatically, then the game becomes the player taking those discrete packets of mechanics and trying to use them against the environment to best achieve victory. The goals I just described are "get something done" and "survive." I don't know what you're talking about, those are about as broad as you can possibly get. I cannot imagine playing a character that does not want something, and I think it's a pretty reasonable genre convention of heroic fantasy that characters want to survive, up until they find a reason to make a noble sacrifice. The point I was actually making is that you can design your game such that a player trying to optimize their gameplay decisions will, even if they paid no attention to their character's motivations once they had set a goal, end up making choices that their character would reasonable make in the fiction to achieve their goal. This point is nearly tautological, I don't think it's particularly out there. I'm not honestly sure what we're talking about here or how to respond to this point. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Creativity?
Top