Daggerheart General Thread [+]

[Aldarc]

Different strokes and all. Getting an unexpected and consequential result is a significant part of the fun for me, as both a player and a GM, so games that don't allow me that pleasure are not something I am interested in.

Sure, but that also happens when players make all the rolls. If I roll, I'm surprised by the players. If I don't roll, I'm surprised by the players. Most of my greatest surprises as a GM happened in games like PbtA or FitD, games that informed the underlying design philosophy of DH.

 

[zakael19]

Sure, but that also happens when players make all the rolls. If I roll, I'm surprised by the players. If I don't roll, I'm surprised by the players. Most of my greatest surprises as a GM happened in games like PbtA or FitD, games that informed the underlying design philosophy of DH.

This is tangental to the thread of discussion here, but this is one of my favorite things about games that have rolls when there's stakes that have specified tiers of outcomes. Not only do you get to be delighted by the direction the players decide to go when posed with situations (the sort of thing that can happen in any game), but the dice themselves careen you off places. It's a delightful thing.

 

[zakael19]

Thinking about how I can stop rolling the d20. The Evasion math seems pretty easy to turn into a "roll under" Evasion roll, I can simply say "add +whatever" to meet or beat their evasion, and then I can encourage the players to say how they try to evade before rolling the dice. I miss that sort of "say how you try to avoid the bad" that PBTAs demand before a dice roll happens.

I tried this last night and while there was a little confusion as we all got the math around right it was definitely more cinematic and let the narrative of the combat flow (plus led to smoother spotlight transitions). I may start giving them advantage off a “critical evade” / natural 1 when they say how they take advantage…

 

[Reynard]

I tried this last night and while there was a little confusion as we all got the math around right it was definitely more cinematic and let the narrative of the combat flow (plus led to smoother spotlight transitions). I may start giving them advantage off a “critical evade” / natural 1 when they say how they take advantage…

I am legitimately curious what makes the players doing all the rolling "more cinematic" or allows the narrative of the combat to flow better.

 

[HatWearingFool]

Different strokes and all. Getting an unexpected and consequential result is a significant part of the fun for me, as both a player and a GM, so games that don't allow me that pleasure are not something I am interested in.

Most games where the dm doesn’t roll have the players make all rolls. So a roll randomized still happens it’s just the player rolling instead of the gm.

So the player rolls to defend rather than having the gm roll to attack. In my experience it keeps the players invested.

 

[zakael19]

I am legitimately curious what makes the players doing all the rolling "more cinematic" or allows the narrative of the combat to flow better.

Conversational flow and having the player say how they defend themselves.

I say "Balhorn, the elf gestures in your direction and a crackling bolt of sickly green energy flies towards you, how do you try to evade?" "oh, I try to throw myself to the side, like a barrel roll...and that's a 20 so not so much" "yeah, I think you misjudge the strange wavering flight of it and it smacks right into your chest, your nerve endings flare with incredible agony - 63 damage."

Or, "Grywyn, as you're ground fighting with the cultist you see him whip his wicked dagger around to try and drive into your side, how do you evade?" "Oh, easy, I just roll with the momentum so it's going to strike the ground instead...and, 7 so I do!" "yeah! it hits the ground with a 'ting' as you roll away, and you have an opening to strike back - what do you do?"

I should note that as usual DH is waking the line here, in a PBTA things flow even faster because we're doing the entire player + opponent's action with a single roll instead of the back and forth.

 

[Vael]

I have GMed a full session without touching the dice, but that was because no combat occurred. It was still a tense, fun session, as the party was escaping to the woods to dodge a bounty hunter and his cadre of trained animals.

But this is why I'm not looking to modify rules to go completely diceless ... I also want to roll the shiny dice, I have to roll them for damage anyway ... and those d20s will get complacent and out of shape if I don't roll them occasionally.