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Do you prefer rolling dice for a sure thing? For the impossible?
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<blockquote data-quote="CleverNickName" data-source="post: 8508872" data-attributes="member: 50987"><p>I know it's not what you meant, but whenever players say this, what I inevitably end up hearing is "If I roll a 20 on a search check, the DM needs to invent something for me to find." It calls up an old, old argument I had with a player, years ago...</p><p></p><p>This player interrupted me while I was trying to describe the contents of a room, declared he was rolling a Perception check to search the first thing I mentioned, and rolled really low...like a 3 or something. So he quickly declared he was using a Luck point, and rolled <em>again...</em>and this time he rolled pretty high, like a 19. When I told him that he found nothing interesting (because there was nothing interesting for him to find), he got mad at me for "making him" waste a Luck point. To his mind, good rolls should always be rewarded--and in this case it should have been doubly rewarded because that good roll had come at the cost of a limited resource. He honestly believed that I should have modified the map on the fly and placed a secret door, a trap, or a treasure in the room, <em>just because</em> he rolled high.</p><p></p><p>It turned into a massive argument, and I had to stop the game so everyone could cool down. (Seriously. This, of all things.) And ever since then, the convention is that players do not announce their rolls...ever. They describe their character's actions, and then I will call for the dice roll that is needed. And I made it clear that I will always call for a dice roll, even if the rolls won't matter, because rolling the die completes the action. That d20 rolling across the table simulates the characters' eyes moving across the room, or their fingers across the padlock.</p><p></p><p>Anyway. I know that this isn't <em>at all </em>what you were talking about in your comment, [USER=1210]@the Jester[/USER] . I just can't help but remember that terrible argument every time someone talks about pointless dice rolls. It was a bad time.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CleverNickName, post: 8508872, member: 50987"] I know it's not what you meant, but whenever players say this, what I inevitably end up hearing is "If I roll a 20 on a search check, the DM needs to invent something for me to find." It calls up an old, old argument I had with a player, years ago... This player interrupted me while I was trying to describe the contents of a room, declared he was rolling a Perception check to search the first thing I mentioned, and rolled really low...like a 3 or something. So he quickly declared he was using a Luck point, and rolled [I]again...[/I]and this time he rolled pretty high, like a 19. When I told him that he found nothing interesting (because there was nothing interesting for him to find), he got mad at me for "making him" waste a Luck point. To his mind, good rolls should always be rewarded--and in this case it should have been doubly rewarded because that good roll had come at the cost of a limited resource. He honestly believed that I should have modified the map on the fly and placed a secret door, a trap, or a treasure in the room, [I]just because[/I] he rolled high. It turned into a massive argument, and I had to stop the game so everyone could cool down. (Seriously. This, of all things.) And ever since then, the convention is that players do not announce their rolls...ever. They describe their character's actions, and then I will call for the dice roll that is needed. And I made it clear that I will always call for a dice roll, even if the rolls won't matter, because rolling the die completes the action. That d20 rolling across the table simulates the characters' eyes moving across the room, or their fingers across the padlock. Anyway. I know that this isn't [I]at all [/I]what you were talking about in your comment, [USER=1210]@the Jester[/USER] . I just can't help but remember that terrible argument every time someone talks about pointless dice rolls. It was a bad time. [/QUOTE]
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