Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7741981" data-attributes="member: 996">Still about what the character thinks.&nbsp; On failed perception he hears an owl, thinks, &quot;oh, that might be important&quot; looks over in that direction, and misses the stealthy enemy's movement; on the same roll but with a higher perception bonus such that he succeeds, he hears the owl (because success doesn't make you deaf anymore than failure makes you blind), thinks &quot;that's just an owl,&quot; ignores the distraction and spots the enemy.&nbsp; It's skill checks &quot;telling&quot; you how your character thinks &amp; reacts.&nbsp; &nbsp;Still a railroad.&nbsp; Whether the DM uses a Geas-casting uberwizard or a Diplomancer to send the PCs on a quest whether the players want to go (or feel their characters wouldn't want to go) or not, it's still a pretty heavy-handed 'hook.'And, it's not like the DM can't persuade the party to go on any given quest, without resorting to either, he just presents the quests in terms they'll go for, then switches it once they're committed.&nbsp; So, rather than say &quot;the Duke offers you 100gp to save his daughter&quot; the DM offers them 10,000 gp, then, later, it's revealed that there's 9900 gp in taxes withheld, or it's 10,000 local gold /pennies/ not standard gold pieces, and comes to 100gp, or the written contract says 100.&nbsp; The difference is just whether the group wants tricking the PCs to be based on the abilities of the PCs, or if the DM is just going to arbitrarily decide when tricks succeed, and describe things accordingly.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 7741981, member: 996"] Still about what the character thinks. On failed perception he hears an owl, thinks, "oh, that might be important" looks over in that direction, and misses the stealthy enemy's movement; on the same roll but with a higher perception bonus such that he succeeds, he hears the owl (because success doesn't make you deaf anymore than failure makes you blind), thinks "that's just an owl," ignores the distraction and spots the enemy. It's skill checks "telling" you how your character thinks & reacts. Still a railroad. Whether the DM uses a Geas-casting uberwizard or a Diplomancer to send the PCs on a quest whether the players want to go (or feel their characters wouldn't want to go) or not, it's still a pretty heavy-handed 'hook.' And, it's not like the DM can't persuade the party to go on any given quest, without resorting to either, he just presents the quests in terms they'll go for, then switches it once they're committed. So, rather than say "the Duke offers you 100gp to save his daughter" the DM offers them 10,000 gp, then, later, it's revealed that there's 9900 gp in taxes withheld, or it's 10,000 local gold /pennies/ not standard gold pieces, and comes to 100gp, or the written contract says 100. The difference is just whether the group wants tricking the PCs to be based on the abilities of the PCs, or if the DM is just going to arbitrarily decide when tricks succeed, and describe things accordingly. [/QUOTE]

Verification