"I invent Greek Fire!" and other PC shenanigans

[Bae'zel]

What level are the PCs doing this???

From my own personal experience (although system doesn't strictly matter in this discussion), we were playing WFRP 2e, starting characters.

But the player in question does this sort of thing in any RPG; he gathers up seemingly innocuous equipment (sacks, ropes, fertilizer etc...) and comes up with elaborate explosives that defy the tech level of the setting.

edit: and no, he's never playing engineers, inventors, Artificers, Alchemists etc, just regular dudes.

Honesly I'd love to be in this guy's party playing OSR games purely based on player skill. We'd have a larger survival rate, for sure.

 

[dragoner]

It's a MacGyver type: MacGyver - Wikipedia

 

[aco175]

Just tell the player that in this campaign, Greek Fire is called Fireball and he can gain 5 levels of wizard to use it.

 

[Duke_]

From my own personal experience (although system doesn't strictly matter in this discussion), we were playing WFRP 2e, starting characters.

But the player in question does this sort of thing in any RPG; he gathers up seemingly innocuous equipment (sacks, ropes, fertilizer etc...) and comes up with elaborate explosives that defy the tech level of the setting.

edit: and no, he's never playing engineers, inventors, Artificers, Alchemists etc, just regular dudes.

Honesly I'd love to be in this guy's party playing OSR games purely based on player skill. We'd have a larger survival rate, for sure.

So, straight-up bad faith gaming, basically?

 

[Umbran]

So, straight-up bad faith gaming, basically?

No. And people are far too quick to slap that label on.

There is a broad spectrum of opinions of just how much player knowledge gets to be applied to a game.

 

[Duke_]

No. And people are far too quick to slap that label on.

There is a broad spectrum of opinions of just how much player knowledge gets to be applied to a game.

When the player doesn't even have (and can't have) said knowledge? Agree to disagree. That's just a player trying to gain advantage by any means, whether or not it makes sense for the setting, their character, or anything. Not part of the social contract at any table I play at.

 

[VashVet]

From my own personal experience (although system doesn't strictly matter in this discussion), we were playing WFRP 2e, starting characters.

But the player in question does this sort of thing in any RPG; he gathers up seemingly innocuous equipment (sacks, ropes, fertilizer etc...) and comes up with elaborate explosives that defy the tech level of the setting.

edit: and no, he's never playing engineers, inventors, Artificers, Alchemists etc, just regular dudes.

Honesly I'd love to be in this guy's party playing OSR games purely based on player skill. We'd have a larger survival rate, for sure.

Yeah, OSR was made for his kind of playstyle, and he’d excel at it.

 

[Umbran]

That's just a player trying to gain advantage by any means whether or not it makes sense for the setting, their character, or anything.

In some people's play, that's okay. "Making sense" (for some value of that - we won't even all agree on what makes sense), is not a high priority for all tables.

And that's okay.

Not part of the social contract at any table I play at.

And there are tens of thousands of tables you don't play at. So, by all means speak for what would be unacceptable at your table(s), but recognize that whether something is in "bad faith" depends not on your or my opinion, but on that table's agreement.

 

[Duke_]

In some people's play, that's okay. "Making sense" (for some value of that - we won't even all agree on what makes sense), is not a high priority for all tables.

And that's okay.



And there are tens of thousands of tables you don't play at. So, by all means speak for what would be unacceptable at your table(s), but recognize that whether something is in "bad faith" depends not on your or my opinion, but on that table's agreement.

Nope, sorry. A person with a pattern of pretending to knowledge they don't have in order to gain advantage is absolutely "bad faith". Your table's tolerance for it, or lack thereof, doesn't really change that.

 

[Umbran]

Nope, sorry. A person with a pattern of pretending to knowledge they don't have in order to gain advantage is absolutely "bad faith". Your table's tolerance for it, or lack thereof, doesn't really change that.

If the table is fine with it, then there is no deception or breaking from agreements made, and thus no bad faith. If that's the playstyle they like, there is no lack of faithfulness.

Next, will you be telling us that following agreed-upon house rules is "cheating"?