Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 6387858" data-attributes="member: 29398">Punitive?&nbsp; Not really, unless you expect in-game knowledge to be handed to you without effort.Adversarial?&nbsp; Probably; given as how most of the PCs existence is occupied with finding something to fight and then fighting it, and sometimes that 'something' to fight is each other.Backstabby?&nbsp; Only when it's not frontstabby.From my experience it's a bigger niche than you might think, at least in old-school circles.Perhaps today, seeing as the more recent editions have (wrongly, IMO) gone further and further toward the notion of giving players-as-characters in-game knowledge like this on a platter.Realistically, you pick up a bell in the middle of what's been a pretty dangerous dungeon.&nbsp; Detect Magic reveals it to be moderately enchanted (and maybe gives a magic school, if you use such things).&nbsp; There's no carvings or command word on it.&nbsp; And you've no idea what it does.Despite what recent editions might have in their rules, in reality simply sitting with an item like this for a while should NOT tell you anything more about its enchantment or purpose UNLESS that passing on of information is part of its enchantment. (and if it is you're probably dealing with an intelligent item, opening up all sorts of other cans of worms)&nbsp; If you want to mess with it, or ring it, that's up to you - you've taken a risk that it doesn't curse you and you might get a reward in learning what it does.&nbsp; Or you could carefully stow it away and worry about it once back in the safety of town.Lan-&quot;there's no fun in solving a mystery if there's no mystery to solve&quot;-efan</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 6387858, member: 29398"] Punitive? Not really, unless you expect in-game knowledge to be handed to you without effort. Adversarial? Probably; given as how most of the PCs existence is occupied with finding something to fight and then fighting it, and sometimes that 'something' to fight is each other. Backstabby? Only when it's not frontstabby. From my experience it's a bigger niche than you might think, at least in old-school circles. Perhaps today, seeing as the more recent editions have (wrongly, IMO) gone further and further toward the notion of giving players-as-characters in-game knowledge like this on a platter. Realistically, you pick up a bell in the middle of what's been a pretty dangerous dungeon. Detect Magic reveals it to be moderately enchanted (and maybe gives a magic school, if you use such things). There's no carvings or command word on it. And you've no idea what it does. Despite what recent editions might have in their rules, in reality simply sitting with an item like this for a while should NOT tell you anything more about its enchantment or purpose UNLESS that passing on of information is part of its enchantment. (and if it is you're probably dealing with an intelligent item, opening up all sorts of other cans of worms) If you want to mess with it, or ring it, that's up to you - you've taken a risk that it doesn't curse you and you might get a reward in learning what it does. Or you could carefully stow it away and worry about it once back in the safety of town. Lan-"there's no fun in solving a mystery if there's no mystery to solve"-efan [/QUOTE]

Verification