Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf 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 Nest
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, OSR, & D&D Variants
*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!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
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, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Dungeon Mastering as a Fine Art
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="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 6308233" data-attributes="member: 18"><p>That's a good analogy.</p><p></p><p>However, I wouldn't say you necessarily couldn't do that in all D&D settings - how common Teleport is, how real a threat it is relative to other threats, and how worthwhile protecting against, it is, matters. If a handful of Wizards in the world can cast it, banks probably rate protecting against it similarly to protecting against tunnelling or the like IRL - which is to say it's low on the priority list - but if the bank is big enough, they will have it.</p><p></p><p>Further, banks in medieval settings are typically protected more by reputation than defences - after all, no bank can stop a few dozen soldiers getting together and robbing it - but if it's owned by the crown and it's known that vengeance will follow, they will likely be discouraged.</p><p></p><p>That said, if it's just a straightforward and reasonably-priced spell or ritual to ward an area against teleportation or similar magic, then that'll be done.</p><p></p><p>I totally disagree with your suggestion that the rationale doesn't matter though - on the contrary, the rationale is more important than preventing a PC getting a lot of cash/ Which, let's be real, he won't even be easily able to spend - you need to think about the consequences of actions, not just preventing actions with DM fiat - all that stolen money will have to be spent very carefully if he doesn't want literally hundred of angry assassins, curses, dragons and so on descending upon him - so carefully, in fact, that's probably his life's work.</p><p></p><p>So I would suggest two things:</p><p></p><p>1) Just using DM fiat to block things is very short-sighted DMing. When the player or PCs comes up with a terrible plan like this, just spend some time thinking through the consequences, and, if you want, hint at those consequences (as in reality, the PC would have hours or days to think about it, not the minutes they likely do at the table), and if they go through with it, inflict those consequences. And smile. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></p><p></p><p>2) If you do need to use DM fiat (I know you hate this term, but that's what it is, and sometimes it's right to use it!) to block something on the fly, stop and think through the consequences for the setting. You don't want to have a setting that is a godawful mess like Star Trek, where nonsense-particles are used by terrible, shamefully bad script-writers to arbitrarily inflict scenarios which make no sense on the characters. Do not emulate that, I say. That's like seeing the original 90210 as the level of story you want to emulate or something. I love Star Trek, but sometimes TNG and Voyager (and ENT and even rarely DS9) needed a good spanking for needless use of nonsense-particles, just because the writers were too lazy/dim-witted to come up with a story that actually USED the technology in that world.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, I'm getting off topic - if you do use fiat to block something, think about what you are doing. For example, if you say the vault has a magical ward against teleportation, that's fine, but then you need to think about how the ward was created, how easy it is to create others, who did it, and so on - these might not be questions for during the game (but they might), but they are questions for you and your setting, post-game.</p><p></p><p>I speak from experience here, specific experience, too, as I run a 4E game which has a lot of heists, and I use a mixture of making-stuff-up and consequences to direct the PCs. I don't suddenly introduce fiat elements unless it would be truly stupid not to (which is once in a blue moon). Instead, I'm more likely to say, allow this bank to be robbed, but ensure future/other bank designs defeat that (not in a fiat "on the spot", way, but in a prepared "in my notes" way).</p><p></p><p>Still, you may need to use fiat to block something like that, and that's okay - but DO consider the consequences for the world - your advice that the rationale doesn't matter is bad.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ruin Explorer, post: 6308233, member: 18"] That's a good analogy. However, I wouldn't say you necessarily couldn't do that in all D&D settings - how common Teleport is, how real a threat it is relative to other threats, and how worthwhile protecting against, it is, matters. If a handful of Wizards in the world can cast it, banks probably rate protecting against it similarly to protecting against tunnelling or the like IRL - which is to say it's low on the priority list - but if the bank is big enough, they will have it. Further, banks in medieval settings are typically protected more by reputation than defences - after all, no bank can stop a few dozen soldiers getting together and robbing it - but if it's owned by the crown and it's known that vengeance will follow, they will likely be discouraged. That said, if it's just a straightforward and reasonably-priced spell or ritual to ward an area against teleportation or similar magic, then that'll be done. I totally disagree with your suggestion that the rationale doesn't matter though - on the contrary, the rationale is more important than preventing a PC getting a lot of cash/ Which, let's be real, he won't even be easily able to spend - you need to think about the consequences of actions, not just preventing actions with DM fiat - all that stolen money will have to be spent very carefully if he doesn't want literally hundred of angry assassins, curses, dragons and so on descending upon him - so carefully, in fact, that's probably his life's work. So I would suggest two things: 1) Just using DM fiat to block things is very short-sighted DMing. When the player or PCs comes up with a terrible plan like this, just spend some time thinking through the consequences, and, if you want, hint at those consequences (as in reality, the PC would have hours or days to think about it, not the minutes they likely do at the table), and if they go through with it, inflict those consequences. And smile. :D 2) If you do need to use DM fiat (I know you hate this term, but that's what it is, and sometimes it's right to use it!) to block something on the fly, stop and think through the consequences for the setting. You don't want to have a setting that is a godawful mess like Star Trek, where nonsense-particles are used by terrible, shamefully bad script-writers to arbitrarily inflict scenarios which make no sense on the characters. Do not emulate that, I say. That's like seeing the original 90210 as the level of story you want to emulate or something. I love Star Trek, but sometimes TNG and Voyager (and ENT and even rarely DS9) needed a good spanking for needless use of nonsense-particles, just because the writers were too lazy/dim-witted to come up with a story that actually USED the technology in that world. Anyway, I'm getting off topic - if you do use fiat to block something, think about what you are doing. For example, if you say the vault has a magical ward against teleportation, that's fine, but then you need to think about how the ward was created, how easy it is to create others, who did it, and so on - these might not be questions for during the game (but they might), but they are questions for you and your setting, post-game. I speak from experience here, specific experience, too, as I run a 4E game which has a lot of heists, and I use a mixture of making-stuff-up and consequences to direct the PCs. I don't suddenly introduce fiat elements unless it would be truly stupid not to (which is once in a blue moon). Instead, I'm more likely to say, allow this bank to be robbed, but ensure future/other bank designs defeat that (not in a fiat "on the spot", way, but in a prepared "in my notes" way). Still, you may need to use fiat to block something like that, and that's okay - but DO consider the consequences for the world - your advice that the rationale doesn't matter is bad. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Dungeon Mastering as a Fine Art
Top