D&D General Has the meaning of "roleplaying" changed since 1e?

[Oofta]

Yeah, it's true he wastes too many words with his particular brand of humor, which I honestly don't find all that humorous.

But he absolutely nails it on metagaming.

I've never been able to get through their posts long enough to get much out of them. It's one thing to have a schtick, but it's just layered on so thick that it makes it hard to read.

As far as metagaming, I'm not fond of it, but I also make some allowances/adjustments. For example, trolls are common enough that people know you have to kill them with fire. Same with lycanthropes and silver.

In other cases I just switch things around or change the fluff so that people don't know what they're dealing with. But this is way off topic.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Can I play a character who's Uncle Bob told him all about trolls, or is this a no-no? Do I need to write down everything Uncle Bob told me prior to play, or am I allow to extemporize on my character during play?

And the question this raises is why not? If it really is all about inhabiting your own character then nobody should have a problem with how others imagine theirs.

But if they think you are playing a character who knows too much, they’re not really just inhabiting their own character, they are trying to inhabit yours, too, and think they have a better idea of who your character is.

 

[Bill Zebub]

In other cases I just switch things around or change the fluff so that people don't know what they're dealing with. But this is way off topic.

And this is exactly what you would have read had you waded through the profanity.

 

[jgsugden]

Can I play a character who's Uncle Bob told him all about trolls, or is this a no-no? Do I need to write down everything Uncle Bob told me prior to play, or am I allow to extemporize on my character during play?

See 37% of the threads on Enworld for a discussion of this concept.

In my book, the Uncle Bob would be a story you improvise to explain why the dice told you that you knew something or did not know something. Knowledge is part of the intrinsic attribute of Intelligence, so if your PC knowledge about a topic is not established, rolling to determine if they know it makes sense.

 

[Mallus]

Like I said, it has become religion.

There is the whiff of dogma around it, isn’t there?

 

[Oofta]

And this is exactly what you would have read had you waded through the profanity.

Maybe. There have been times when I waded through the language and finally got to what his point was and he had some okay advice.

 

[Bill Zebub]

There is the whiff of dogma around it, isn’t there?

Yes. And religious practices start with “I observe this ritual because it makes me feel good” but eventual becomes “people who don’t observe this ritual need to be put on a path to righteousness.”

 

[Garthanos]

See 37% of the threads on Enworld for a discussion of this concept.

In my book, the Uncle Bob would be a story you improvise to explain why the dice told you that you knew something or did not know something. Knowledge is part of the intrinsic attribute of Intelligence, so if your PC knowledge about a topic is not established, rolling to determine if they know it makes sense.

And if the story is memorable we might modify a future roll with advantage about uncle bobs trolls which could even have been exaggerated fibs some times.

 

[LordEntrails]

Yes. And religious practices start with “I observe this ritual because it makes me feel good” but eventual becomes “people who don’t observe this ritual need to be put on a path to righteousness.”

"Burn the heretics!"

 

[Jack Daniel]

The point is that the character you’re playing doesn’t have 40+ years of gaming experience and doesn’t know to burn the trolls. That’s literally the point of the game. To take on the role of someone who’s not you. To separate player from character knowledge.

Not possible, not practical, and not even desirable in my view.

If inexperienced characters encounter trolls, and their first instinct is to break out flaming oil and acid, good on 'em—if they just so happen to have encountered Andersonean trolls. Less so if they've encountered Tolkienian trolls. Tough luck indeed if these trolls are the fire-loving sort from Muspelheim.

All's fair, provided the DM has honestly thought up and placed the twist or challenge ahead of time and isn't just pulling it out of his arse on the fly to thwart the players' decisions in the moment.