How much reality do you use?

[JacktheRabbit]

I was thinking about this after a gaming session once. We once killed a foe who has a cloak of the araknid (sp). Immediatly the thief pulled the cloak on. He ran up a way then onto the ceiling. From there he commenced to start firing arrows into melee.

Shall we count the problems here.

1. Fighting upside down has to be very disorienting.
2. All those arrows are going to fall out of your quiver.
3. Your cloak is hanging down behind you and please dont be wearing wizard robes with nothing underneth or I may die of fright.

Spells like spider climb and even fly require careful character preparation or they will cause havoc with gear.

So do you bother with this or is it too much detail to be worth it?

 

[Henry]

I use as much as suits me.

I must admit that I might call foul on the arrow quiver, but the rest of the issues I'm not going to worry about, especially if the bowman in question has several feats that make use of ranged weapons - one would tend to be inclined that he had some skill with the bow in unconventional situations.

But I have RARELY seen a player with the cahones to take a magic item off of a dead enemy and immediately use it in battle. A nasty DM could do an awful lot to... err, with such a bold player...

 

[Xarlen]

I would've called on the Quiver too, but I wouldn't say that it's disorienting.

But, I don't think I would've disquialified him for shooting upside down. There are somethings you need: The coolness factor of that is one.

I had thought of some Modified Slippers of Spider climb. I call 'em Boots of Surface Stepping. The magic of the boots displace gravity around the wearer to ensure that no matter how he's walking, he won't fall over. So, for example, someone could run up the broad side of a tree, and if no brances got in their way, could run around the tree, while staying on the trunk.

 

[Henrix]

If it would look good in a Hong Kong flick I go for it. I don't want any more nitty gritty realism than that.

(But I'd probably ask the rogue for a good Use Magic Device (or Spellcraft) check before letting him know that it was the cloak that gave the Spider Climb effect. The player might know it, but that's a different matter.)

 

[Bavix]

I try to be as realistic as possible (for a fantasy roleplaying game). Common sense and the laws of nature come first when making rules decisions.

In my games, when a character gets a new magic item, spell, or even some mundane gear there's definitely a "trial period" where the character has to get comfortable with their new abilities or items.

If a character gets a fly spell and has never cast it before I usually lower the manueverability and speed for the first few rounds, or at least have them make a few checks to control it.

When one of my player's created Valus's mass missle (which is now in FFG's Spells & Spellcraft) he didn't brace himself the first time he cast it in combat and was knocked prone by the force of the spell. It showed that he was inexperienced with the spell and made for a great scene.

XOOXXO

Rob

 

[Xarlen]

Hm. Nice! I can see that Wand of Lightning Bolt sending a mage sprawling backwards, or the Fly spell malfunctioning, and ending up smackng into a tree.

Of course, this just goes to show that you should test out all magical spells and items OUT of combat.

 

[Macbrea]

Normally, I run a semi-realistic anime style of game. If you feel that your character has been drawn in ink then I have done it correctly.

So, as to the guy hanging upside down, I would probably ask him how his quiver is hooked upto him. And if he said a standard shoulder rig. I would probably let him make a Dex check vs DC 10 to keep his arrows. Why, it sounds cool and makes the game look cinematic.

Now, this brings us to other crazy maneuvers like, "Hey, I have levitate on can I run forward and hop into the air and glide a bit?"
My answer was sure, the distance that you moved prior to jumping into the air. I know thats an incorrect answer but what the heck. It seemed to go with the game perfectly fine at the time.

 

[Chimera]

If this was the first time the player had done such a thing and had not given any indication of preparations, then I would probably stop him the minute he said he was pulling out his bow and give a description about how all his equipment and clothing were now hanging or falling down. Then if he still wanted to take the shots, I'd give him at least a -4 to hit. (and he'd lose a bunch of equipment.)

After the fact, one hopes the player takes it well and reacts the right way; that is, to work on his gear and stuff to make this tactic work in the future. If he's prepared, and has done this more than once, then no penalty. (or maybe just a -1 for being upside down.)

 

[Archer]

I suggest just crouching at the crotch between the wall and the ceiling and brace against that. You don't actually have to be on the ceiling. I doubt there would be any game difference but it might help your reality.

 

[photon1966]

While we run a fairly realistic game, I had never considered a persons equipment and how well attached it was to the person. The Archer may in fact have a +1 to hit as he is firing from above. We tend to not fixate on reality too much as it is a fantasy game, but in this situation I would have awarded some exp to the archer. Though no player in mine would have even touched the items until William had detected Magic, and Eric detected evil. Maybe then they would have asked for some knowledge or similar checks for what the item may/might be. Otherwise the risks are to great as my parties have discovered over time.

But there has been times when reality has been ignored for what the rules/spell description says. Flaming sphere being the one I recall best. Player was upset that people could go past it while it sat there flaming. But as long as he wasn't moving it then sure why not. They had lots of room to get by, but thought they should get a save and maybe if in reality they would get singed by this big burning ball, not as per the spell though so we stuck with the spell.

Of course sometimes those spell descriptions are a tad vague or inpercise, but hey thats what DM's and experience is for.