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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Judgement calls vs "railroading"
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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7079107" data-attributes="member: 29398"><p>When it's already clear something's at stake, all is good.</p><p></p><p>But when it's not clear; or not known to everyone that something relevant is at stake at all, then rolling dice is a big (too big, IMO) tip-off.</p><p></p><p>Let's use the anxious-guy-in-the-bar example. Guy arrives, eventually beelines for the PCs' table. If at that point I start calling for checks the players OOC are going to suddenly view the scene differently than had I not called for checks, and dollars-to-donuts that'll be reflected in how they react in-character.</p><p></p><p>They didn't previously check the inn for hooks before setting up this signal?? Dummoxes deserve what they get.</p><p></p><p>If they hadn't checked, that's one where I'd go through the motions of secretly rolling dice and then either ignore the roll and just say yes there's hooks (if it makes sense there'd be hooks there) or go by the roll (if it may or may not make sense e.g. rain here is very uncommon). When I'm DMing I'm rolling dice all the time...sometimes for real, sometimes for show. Therefore in this case the players don't know whether I'm rolling for the presence of hooks, whether I'm rolling to see if someone else might catch on to their signal, whether I'm rolling to determine how many people are in the bar, or whether I'm just rolling for the sheer hell of it. Keeps the mystery going.</p><p></p><p>Lanefan</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 7079107, member: 29398"] When it's already clear something's at stake, all is good. But when it's not clear; or not known to everyone that something relevant is at stake at all, then rolling dice is a big (too big, IMO) tip-off. Let's use the anxious-guy-in-the-bar example. Guy arrives, eventually beelines for the PCs' table. If at that point I start calling for checks the players OOC are going to suddenly view the scene differently than had I not called for checks, and dollars-to-donuts that'll be reflected in how they react in-character. They didn't previously check the inn for hooks before setting up this signal?? Dummoxes deserve what they get. If they hadn't checked, that's one where I'd go through the motions of secretly rolling dice and then either ignore the roll and just say yes there's hooks (if it makes sense there'd be hooks there) or go by the roll (if it may or may not make sense e.g. rain here is very uncommon). When I'm DMing I'm rolling dice all the time...sometimes for real, sometimes for show. Therefore in this case the players don't know whether I'm rolling for the presence of hooks, whether I'm rolling to see if someone else might catch on to their signal, whether I'm rolling to determine how many people are in the bar, or whether I'm just rolling for the sheer hell of it. Keeps the mystery going. Lanefan [/QUOTE]
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