Jemals school of hard knocks

[Jemal]

I try not to 'bump' the dice unless I think letting them sit will be bad for the campaign as a whole. IE "Um... so the badguy kills you all on the first turn by rolling 20 crits... oops."

I believe that if a PC dies, it should have some meaning to it, not just a random fluke in a random encounter.

The primary reason I hide NPC/badguy dice rolls for the first few turns is, as flesh said, so that the PC's don't know the badguys stats and do the number-crunching "if i do this i have a 57% chance of success, whereas if I do THIS i have a 59% chance of success.. but if you flank him and then i power attack...".

I've had RL games that devolved into hours of math instead of gaming. Granted a little math and working strategically is a good thing, but.. I've seen the far end of that road, and it's not very fun.

 

[Rhun]

The primary reason I hide NPC/badguy dice rolls for the first few turns is, as flesh said, so that the PC's don't know the badguys stats and do the number-crunching "if i do this i have a 57% chance of success, whereas if I do THIS i have a 59% chance of success.. but if you flank him and then i power attack...".

I generally hide my NPC rolls as well. It is too easy to do a little basic math and figure out things like Attack Bonus and such.

 

[Andor]

Hey Jemal, Any chance you could vet my character proposal? I see a good way to work him into the current conversation at the arena, but it's going to pass soon.

 

[Rhun]

Hey Jemal, Any chance you could vet my character proposal? I see a good way to work him into the current conversation at the arena, but it's going to pass soon.

Woot! The more the merrier. So I hear.


So I take it when in the Arena, we will have to break into two teams of PCs?

 

[Jemal]

So I take it when in the Arena, we will have to break into two teams of PCs?

At least. The 'teams' are up to you. You can go solo or in teams of up to five members, each week that you sign up you would have to decide who you're signing up with.

Andor - Sorry, been a bit busy lately. Will try to look over it soon.
I have glanced over it, and after checking the stats, I AM going to have to ask you to pick a mount that isn't the equivalent of an extra party member. That 'carver' is an example of a likely challenge you guys would face in the arena, so having one in addition to the entire party is a bit unbalanced.

 

[Rhun]

At least. The 'teams' are up to you. You can go solo or in teams of up to five members, each week that you sign up you would have to decide who you're signing up with.

Okay, good deal. Just seems it would be easier on the DM if we go in groups.

 

[Andor]

Andor - Sorry, been a bit busy lately. Will try to look over it soon.
I have glanced over it, and after checking the stats, I AM going to have to ask you to pick a mount that isn't the equivalent of an extra party member. That 'carver' is an example of a likely challenge you guys would face in the arena, so having one in addition to the entire party is a bit unbalanced.

No problem, he'll have just left it behind then. Probably out of concern for how to feed a thousand pound carnivore at school. I forgot to give him a lance anyway. I'll edit it out.

 

[Myth and Legend]

The school would feed it for you but that's not the main issue. And regarding dice and math.. I'm so bad at math there's no chance i'll be bothered figuring percentages out of some rolls But yes i can see now that in the name of fun and avoiding absurd TPK it's worth it. The DM is sort of like the overdeity isn't he

 

[Theroc]

The school would feed it for you but that's not the main issue. And regarding dice and math.. I'm so bad at math there's no chance i'll be bothered figuring percentages out of some rolls But yes i can see now that in the name of fun and avoiding absurd TPK it's worth it. The DM is sort of like the overdeity isn't he

Yep. DM is the realms Unnamed, unknown Overlord. UNless of course, the DM somehow integrates himself into the game world...

But yeah, DM's job is to promote everyone having fun(usually without making things too easy) regardless of whether it follows every rule all the time. (Sometimes waving a roll or 'forgetting' a rule may make for more fun for everyone, sometimes not.)

 

[Andor]

The school would feed it for you but that's not the main issue.

Sure, I know that and you know that but does Lionel know that? The point being I don't want to just switch it out to a horse, it wouldn't match the background I constructed.