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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 4876246" data-attributes="member: 386">I think Lizard brings up a lot of good points; I remember the "guy falling off his horse" thread from a year or whenever ago and I think I have a different view of things now.But first, what happened (is happening) in my game:The players decided that their PCs had connections to a gang leader in a nearby town.  They went to town and tried to lay low; he made a Streetwise check and found them.  So he sent a couple of thugs to beat them up and bring them back to him.Things didn't go so well for the thugs.  The PCs decided to let them go with their lives, however.The PCs have been messing around in the dungeons under the town for a while now.  Every so often they come up and rest (and recruit new PCs to replace all the dead ones).  The gang leader hasn't struck back.  Why not?Because his NPC thugs are in the heroic tier; they only have 1 healing surge, so it takes them at least 4 days to heal up.  That's a little fast for my tastes but whatever.  It's cool.How do I deal with PC healing?  I just handwave it.  No one in my group really cares, so we don't worry about it.If I did care, I'd probably put some thought into it.  Use a skill challenge, disease track, or something like that to deal with it.  Okay, so the guy who falls off his horse:He has to be able to break his neck no matter what level he is or how many HP he has.  If he's high level it should be very improbable but still possible.Why?  Because if not players can't assume that the game world operates on the same assumptions the real world does.  They have to look at everything through the lens of the rules and not just common sense, and I don't think any rule system can do that well.The DM should make this clear, though.  "He can't die, he's 7th level!"  "Well, no, he could die, it's just really unlikely.  It might be worth some investigation.  It's a good bet that it's from some kind of outside force but that's not a given."Gagging Wizards:Per the rules there's nothing that says, "This is how you keep someone from casting spells."In my campaign setting I've decided that magic is cast by speaking words in Primordial (Arcane) or Supernal (Divine) and empowering them with your force of will.  (I have no idea what this means for characters - NPCs and PCs alike - who can speak Supernal.)  So a Wizard who has been hog tied can still cast spells, but if he's been gagged he cannot.When the PCs were tangling with a Lich one of them jammed an Immovable Rod (or whatever it's called in 4E) into his mouth to keep him from sustaining a spell.  Going with my setting fluff, which I had decided upon before that session, that works.Which points to something important: the fluff matters.  It's what makes the game transcend the limits of the "crunch"; those moments of judgement, where players add their creative input to what's occuring in the game world, take the game to a different level.</blockquote>

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