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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 7598769" data-attributes="member: 6801228">Funny thing, you seem to be making the assumption that I don't consider the entire PHB, DMG and MM advice. Didn't you notice in my first response including the rogue's sneak attack as something that I could completely change? I could rebuild all the classes in the PHB, and I can still say I am running a DnD 5e game. Might be a stretch, might be way more work than is worth doing, but I could do it. So, how about instead of arbitrarily deciding all the things written in the books must be acknowledge on some level, we drop this point of you trying to back me into a corner by agreeing with something I clearly do not agree with. The books are full of advice, sometimes really good advice that works really well, sometimes advice I see no reason to change, but none of it is more binding than any other part.I'm glad you decided to skip down to the part you wanted to hear and got enjoyment from it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />Edit: I'm trying to be funny, but alas, I am not funny. I've seen the technique many times. You agree with this point right?And you agree with this point right? Well, if you agree with those two points isn't it unreasonable/inconsistent for you not to agree with this point, since it clearly follows from the first two? However, I think your Dischord buddies are too pessimistic. Betting we hit the limit of post count for the thread, whatever that happens to be on ENWorld. You do realize one of those is so vague as to be useless, since we have no idea what [consequence] is, and the other includes you adding an element of spent time that they were likely not expecting since generally actions take very little time to accomplish. And before this gets conversation spins too far off, I rarely utilize precise times in my games. We generally don't need to track ten minutes. I also rarely use random encounters, because I find they generally are just a waste of time (if they are going to be random) and I much prefer to simply have encounters planned out depending on the location and the current plot. (Gangs of goons under the sway of the vampires the party angered might ambush them on the streets for example, but I'm not rolling a percentile at ten minute intervals to see if that happens.) Wasn't kidding about having to look them up. I've been out of the video game scene for a few years, so while "From Software" tickled the back of my mind I wasn't certain what you meant. I only even know Sekiro exists because I follow Gajin Goomba and he did a video on the main character. If I hadn't watched that a week or two ago I'd have no idea what you were talking about there. Does nothing to dispute what I said. Sometimes it is just pure luck, seeing something through a window because you went right instead of left and realize you'll be going through that room later. But if you'd gone left... well then you fall into the ambush. I think you missed my point that Dark Souls frustrates me because every uses it as an example, that was as far as I was thinking that would go. And sure, it can work occasionally, heck maybe it can even work all the time if you really want it to. But, that doesn't mean you have to use it for every trap, for every plot point, for every mystery. Most people don't only play Dark Souls, they play other games as well that give them other thrills. I'm not going to telegraph everything, sometimes it doesn't make sense, sometimes it just doesn't fit to telegraph the what is coming. Sure most traps work that way, but does the Lich who can simply teleport into his inner sanctum really need traps like that, it is meant to be a gauntlet of death no one can get through. Not a gauntlet of death his nonexistent living minions can get through. And plot wise, I once had a game where one of the major powers was an Elven merchant woman, richest and most influential person in the area. Also a secret Drow spy hiding under an illusion and had been for 100 years. What clues should I give the players who don't even have a reason to suspect her? What slip ups make sense for someone like that. Heck, her necklace which hid her illusion had a second setting which revealed horrible burns, a vain and powerful woman hiding her disfigurements under an illusion explains why she is constantly under an illusion spell I'm not saying the players could have never figured it out. She did have a few shadow organizations they might have traced back to her and gotten suspicious about, but the entire point is how well she covered her tracks. It should be nearly impossible to break her cover, how do you telegraph that without breaking the fiction of it? Sure, maybe if I was a better DM I could "find a way" but, if the entire point is how hard it is, then there shouldn't be a reason to make it easier. So their action is only a mistake if they lack information, but the only information you are giving are the obvious consequences that they should have known. Nothing else. And the only thing that determines if they succeed or fail is the die roll, or if they back down and come up with a plan that doesn't require a die roll. So, is it a mistake to come up with a plan that comes down to a die roll? I'm not trying to attack your style, but your language is showing a bias and your defense of what you are saying seems inconsistent.</blockquote>

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