Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon 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 Next
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
*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!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
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
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
How do you handle a skill check if needed.
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="iserith" data-source="post: 7791197" data-attributes="member: 97077"><p>My argument for using the words the specific game uses is so that DMs and players don't conflate the mechanics and processes of one game and a different game and thereby risk the game not working as intended, potentially leading to an undesirable play experience. I like to keep a nice strong firewall between how different games handle things unless I <em>purposefully </em>make changes to have one game be more like the other. I learned to do this years ago when I realized my D&D 4e game wasn't going as well as my D&D 3.Xe games were going, and that was because I was running the game as if it was a different game. A lot of DMs do this in my experience to the detriments of their campaigns.</p><p></p><p>"Skill checks" exist in D&D 4e, for example. In D&D 4e, the game comes right out and says players often initiate a skill check by asking the DM if he or she can make one. <em>Almost always</em>, the D&D 4e rules say, the DM says "Yes." Contrast that with D&D 5e which says nothing of the sort when it comes to ability checks, except that the player may ask if a particular skill proficiency applies to the ability check.</p><p></p><p>If I come from a background of running and playing D&D 4e (as I do), I might be tempted to think of ability checks in D&D 5e the same way as skill checks in D&D 4e - players ask to make checks and the DM says "Yes." As a result, I'm going to end up with a different game experience than what may be intended.</p><p></p><p>Will my game be terrible if that happens? No, probably not. But it definitely won't look like a D&D 5e game where players describe what they want to do without asking to make ability checks. Or what I would consider the smart play of <em>trying to avoid ability checks as often as possible</em>. You won't <em>ever</em> catch a regular player in my game asking to make a check. It's just not the smart play to <em>want </em>to roll a fickle d20. Working to remove uncertainty as to the outcome and/or the meaningful consequence of failure is the way to go. Sometimes you can't, but you damn sure try. And that game is going to look different than a game where players ask to make checks.</p><p></p><p>So, when I'm engaged in a discussion on the forums about these things, I make the effort to be reasonably specific and consistent in the language I use, especially if I'm referencing game terms that have a specific meaning in the given game's rules. It's not about being pedantic, but rather being accurate and trying to make sure I'm not conflating one game with another game or leading others to do the same. [USER=6921763]@DM Dave1[/USER] and [USER=6801328]@Elfcrusher[/USER] had it absolutely right when they asked upthread which game the OP was referring to. Without a tag to identify this as a D&D 5e thread, we could well have been talking about D&D 3.Xe or D&D 4e, and how those games handle these issues can be different.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="iserith, post: 7791197, member: 97077"] My argument for using the words the specific game uses is so that DMs and players don't conflate the mechanics and processes of one game and a different game and thereby risk the game not working as intended, potentially leading to an undesirable play experience. I like to keep a nice strong firewall between how different games handle things unless I [I]purposefully [/I]make changes to have one game be more like the other. I learned to do this years ago when I realized my D&D 4e game wasn't going as well as my D&D 3.Xe games were going, and that was because I was running the game as if it was a different game. A lot of DMs do this in my experience to the detriments of their campaigns. "Skill checks" exist in D&D 4e, for example. In D&D 4e, the game comes right out and says players often initiate a skill check by asking the DM if he or she can make one. [I]Almost always[/I], the D&D 4e rules say, the DM says "Yes." Contrast that with D&D 5e which says nothing of the sort when it comes to ability checks, except that the player may ask if a particular skill proficiency applies to the ability check. If I come from a background of running and playing D&D 4e (as I do), I might be tempted to think of ability checks in D&D 5e the same way as skill checks in D&D 4e - players ask to make checks and the DM says "Yes." As a result, I'm going to end up with a different game experience than what may be intended. Will my game be terrible if that happens? No, probably not. But it definitely won't look like a D&D 5e game where players describe what they want to do without asking to make ability checks. Or what I would consider the smart play of [I]trying to avoid ability checks as often as possible[/I]. You won't [I]ever[/I] catch a regular player in my game asking to make a check. It's just not the smart play to [I]want [/I]to roll a fickle d20. Working to remove uncertainty as to the outcome and/or the meaningful consequence of failure is the way to go. Sometimes you can't, but you damn sure try. And that game is going to look different than a game where players ask to make checks. So, when I'm engaged in a discussion on the forums about these things, I make the effort to be reasonably specific and consistent in the language I use, especially if I'm referencing game terms that have a specific meaning in the given game's rules. It's not about being pedantic, but rather being accurate and trying to make sure I'm not conflating one game with another game or leading others to do the same. [USER=6921763]@DM Dave1[/USER] and [USER=6801328]@Elfcrusher[/USER] had it absolutely right when they asked upthread which game the OP was referring to. Without a tag to identify this as a D&D 5e thread, we could well have been talking about D&D 3.Xe or D&D 4e, and how those games handle these issues can be different. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
How do you handle a skill check if needed.
Top