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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
If an NPC is telling the truth, what's the Insight DC to know they're telling the truth?
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<blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 7586631" data-attributes="member: 6801845"><p>I have a confession. I generally only throw in traps if someone in the party has invested skills (particularly expertise) into disarming traps. Then I throw in traps because I want them to feel like their investment is being rewarded.</p><p></p><p>In general, I avoid puzzles that can only be solved by the players and traps are frequently implemented as a type of puzzle. In the same way that if I've set up a mystery, I'll give people an investigation or insight check if they seem stuck or are getting frustrated and give them a gentle push in the right direction. Occasionally it's a hard shove because my clues weren't as obvious as I thought they would be.<img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/blush.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":blush:" title="Blush :blush:" data-shortname=":blush:" /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I can't imagine how tedious it would be to have a high level fighter describe every blow in detail.</p><p></p><p>Like I said, sometimes "flair" is fine, encouraged even. But every single swing of the weapon? Repetitive boring snooze-o-rama.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I had flashbacks to this conversation the other day. I'm a developer and without going into nitty-gritty details another developer kept stating that we should follow pattern "X" because it had been around a long time and it was "the best way to do something".</p><p></p><p>I kept trying to get him to show me (on our whiteboard) a simple example of his implementation because I didn't see what value it added in the specific scenario we were discussing.</p><p></p><p>I'm not saying you are saying your way is "best", but I keep asking for examples and I keep getting "what" and "why" but not "how". What would a real world scenario look like? Because I can see every once in a while the witch throws the bones and intones "beware the door with the carving depicting a smashed fey", but the majority of times that would be overkill. If the owner of a chest is paranoid that his stuff will be stolen it may make logical sense for them to trap it.</p><p></p><p>So if my party is looting the room of a known rogue, they're going to be rightfully paranoid and searching for traps. But there's nothing special about the closet door vs the chest vs the bureau vs that loose floorboard.</p><p></p><p>For me it's enough for them to say "we cautiously look for traps as we search the room". I'll let them know it's going to take a while and then call for trap checks as appropriate. But I didn't broadcast that it was the jewelry box that was trapped and I don't know how I would. Or even if I did how I would handle it differently.</p><p></p><p>If I only used traps when it was so important to the story that I effectively told the party about it beforehand, I would almost never throw traps. Why would anyone invest skills (much less expertise) in a game like that?</p><p></p><p>EDIT: In case it wasn't clear - an example or two of real-life scenario would be appreciated. From anyone actually.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Oofta, post: 7586631, member: 6801845"] I have a confession. I generally only throw in traps if someone in the party has invested skills (particularly expertise) into disarming traps. Then I throw in traps because I want them to feel like their investment is being rewarded. In general, I avoid puzzles that can only be solved by the players and traps are frequently implemented as a type of puzzle. In the same way that if I've set up a mystery, I'll give people an investigation or insight check if they seem stuck or are getting frustrated and give them a gentle push in the right direction. Occasionally it's a hard shove because my clues weren't as obvious as I thought they would be.:blush: I can't imagine how tedious it would be to have a high level fighter describe every blow in detail. Like I said, sometimes "flair" is fine, encouraged even. But every single swing of the weapon? Repetitive boring snooze-o-rama. I had flashbacks to this conversation the other day. I'm a developer and without going into nitty-gritty details another developer kept stating that we should follow pattern "X" because it had been around a long time and it was "the best way to do something". I kept trying to get him to show me (on our whiteboard) a simple example of his implementation because I didn't see what value it added in the specific scenario we were discussing. I'm not saying you are saying your way is "best", but I keep asking for examples and I keep getting "what" and "why" but not "how". What would a real world scenario look like? Because I can see every once in a while the witch throws the bones and intones "beware the door with the carving depicting a smashed fey", but the majority of times that would be overkill. If the owner of a chest is paranoid that his stuff will be stolen it may make logical sense for them to trap it. So if my party is looting the room of a known rogue, they're going to be rightfully paranoid and searching for traps. But there's nothing special about the closet door vs the chest vs the bureau vs that loose floorboard. For me it's enough for them to say "we cautiously look for traps as we search the room". I'll let them know it's going to take a while and then call for trap checks as appropriate. But I didn't broadcast that it was the jewelry box that was trapped and I don't know how I would. Or even if I did how I would handle it differently. If I only used traps when it was so important to the story that I effectively told the party about it beforehand, I would almost never throw traps. Why would anyone invest skills (much less expertise) in a game like that? EDIT: In case it wasn't clear - an example or two of real-life scenario would be appreciated. From anyone actually. [/QUOTE]
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If an NPC is telling the truth, what's the Insight DC to know they're telling the truth?
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