Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Is this fair? -- your personal opinion
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 3027300" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>I have this friend, here. She's got a real keen eye, a real sense for detail, a ginger touch. See, she's spent her life robbing the rich and famous of every coin they've got, so she's really familiar with security measures. She knows how traps are made, she can dismantle them. She's done so before. She, barring an unfortunate fate, will continue to do so for the forseeable future. You see, that's why she's even with us on this little lark. Because we know there's probably security measures down there guarding the McGuffin, and this bird knows security measures from a thousand years ago and from today. Pit her against any locksmith or trapmaker in the town, she'll get at what you're protecting before you even know she's there. She's robbed the houses of some wizards and priests, too, so we know a bit of runes and hexes aren't any scarier to her than a bell on a string.</p><p></p><p>Now, maybe she won't know everything down there. This is new territory for her, after all. She's good, best in the world, maybe, but she's not perfect. </p><p></p><p>Deep in this thing, we see a suspicious stick, and we send her to check it out. She's the best eye we got and the best eye maybe in the world. She checks it, takes her time, goes over it real good, feeling in cracks and looking for holes, and trying to pick up runes, even licking the thing. I'm not sure what that tells her, but she says she can't find anything on the lever, but she did find this mechanism behind one of the stones in the wall. I was astonished. I mean, I'm a dwarf, I know stonework, but this little doorway could be hidden from even ME. She once stole an archmage's wand from his bedroom while he slept. We've sent her at a few doors down here where she told us the same stuff, and we walked through, no problems. Why should this be any different?</p><p></p><p>Still, it's a stick in the middle of the room, so I'm going to play it safe. This is a new environment for her, and she did take a nasty blow to the face from a spider a few rooms back. Good thing I have Chuck Norris here, too....</p><p></p><p>How is this, by any definition of the word, metagame thinking? Your basing your character's knowledge on your character's experience. Your characters know the rogue is good at finding traps and usually does so. That's not simply because of "level-appropriateness", that's because, over the course of any given adventure, <em>the rogue is good at finding traps and usually does so</em>. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Now Chuck Norris is a crazy kind of half orc. I don't know where, exactly he's from, but it ain't these parts. He doesn't trust an axe, but I've seen his bare hands break brick, I've seen him sprint accross town in less than half a minute, and I've seen mages lob fireballs at him, and he never seems to get scathed. In fact, we picked him up because of a fight we saw him in with a few wizards. There were fireworks like you wouldn't believe, but this kid got out. My sorceress for this journey, Mathilda, she said he resisted charm spells, disintigration spells, energy spells....almost any magic that could be dodged, this kid dodged it, and without even breaking a sweat he grabbed one of the wizards and forced them all to flee. He ain't clever or pretty, but he's a survivor, that's for sure. Once, we were caught by surprise when we forgot to have our halfling burgaler check a door. Kid removed the poison needle from his arm and, laughing, jammed it into the next green-skinned critter we saw -- the critter's skin almost boiled off his bones, that poison was so harsh. And this half-orc treated it like it was nothin'. </p><p></p><p>So, yeah, our burgaler says there's nothing there. So this guy, who's survived longer than most fullblood orcs I know, pulls the lever, just in case. Get this, the kid could survive a disintegration spell, but he gets disintegrated right there. Don't know how it happened, really. Must've missed something on the lever. </p><p></p><p>.....that's not knowing you're playing a game, that's using the evidence in the world to make your descisions. The world's evidence is -- this guy can take a mystical beating.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And I'm pointing out that viewing a character as good at finding traps or surviving disaster isn't metagame knowledge. It's character knowledge. So at least as far as my position is concerned, you're wrong.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 3027300, member: 2067"] I have this friend, here. She's got a real keen eye, a real sense for detail, a ginger touch. See, she's spent her life robbing the rich and famous of every coin they've got, so she's really familiar with security measures. She knows how traps are made, she can dismantle them. She's done so before. She, barring an unfortunate fate, will continue to do so for the forseeable future. You see, that's why she's even with us on this little lark. Because we know there's probably security measures down there guarding the McGuffin, and this bird knows security measures from a thousand years ago and from today. Pit her against any locksmith or trapmaker in the town, she'll get at what you're protecting before you even know she's there. She's robbed the houses of some wizards and priests, too, so we know a bit of runes and hexes aren't any scarier to her than a bell on a string. Now, maybe she won't know everything down there. This is new territory for her, after all. She's good, best in the world, maybe, but she's not perfect. Deep in this thing, we see a suspicious stick, and we send her to check it out. She's the best eye we got and the best eye maybe in the world. She checks it, takes her time, goes over it real good, feeling in cracks and looking for holes, and trying to pick up runes, even licking the thing. I'm not sure what that tells her, but she says she can't find anything on the lever, but she did find this mechanism behind one of the stones in the wall. I was astonished. I mean, I'm a dwarf, I know stonework, but this little doorway could be hidden from even ME. She once stole an archmage's wand from his bedroom while he slept. We've sent her at a few doors down here where she told us the same stuff, and we walked through, no problems. Why should this be any different? Still, it's a stick in the middle of the room, so I'm going to play it safe. This is a new environment for her, and she did take a nasty blow to the face from a spider a few rooms back. Good thing I have Chuck Norris here, too.... How is this, by any definition of the word, metagame thinking? Your basing your character's knowledge on your character's experience. Your characters know the rogue is good at finding traps and usually does so. That's not simply because of "level-appropriateness", that's because, over the course of any given adventure, [I]the rogue is good at finding traps and usually does so[/I]. Now Chuck Norris is a crazy kind of half orc. I don't know where, exactly he's from, but it ain't these parts. He doesn't trust an axe, but I've seen his bare hands break brick, I've seen him sprint accross town in less than half a minute, and I've seen mages lob fireballs at him, and he never seems to get scathed. In fact, we picked him up because of a fight we saw him in with a few wizards. There were fireworks like you wouldn't believe, but this kid got out. My sorceress for this journey, Mathilda, she said he resisted charm spells, disintigration spells, energy spells....almost any magic that could be dodged, this kid dodged it, and without even breaking a sweat he grabbed one of the wizards and forced them all to flee. He ain't clever or pretty, but he's a survivor, that's for sure. Once, we were caught by surprise when we forgot to have our halfling burgaler check a door. Kid removed the poison needle from his arm and, laughing, jammed it into the next green-skinned critter we saw -- the critter's skin almost boiled off his bones, that poison was so harsh. And this half-orc treated it like it was nothin'. So, yeah, our burgaler says there's nothing there. So this guy, who's survived longer than most fullblood orcs I know, pulls the lever, just in case. Get this, the kid could survive a disintegration spell, but he gets disintegrated right there. Don't know how it happened, really. Must've missed something on the lever. .....that's not knowing you're playing a game, that's using the evidence in the world to make your descisions. The world's evidence is -- this guy can take a mystical beating. And I'm pointing out that viewing a character as good at finding traps or surviving disaster isn't metagame knowledge. It's character knowledge. So at least as far as my position is concerned, you're wrong. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Is this fair? -- your personal opinion
Top