Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon 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 Next
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
*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!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
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
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
L&L December 16th Can you feel it?
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="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 6234255" data-attributes="member: 5143"><p>That's fine, but it prevents some perfectly valid and fun scenarios.</p><p></p><p>I almost always refer back to what I think as the atypical D&D adventure: An ancient tomb created by a powerful wizard forgotten by time. The wizard was so greedy that even in death he wanted to make sure no one took his wealth, so he created a dungeon filled with powerful magic traps and creatures who would guard his treasure for all eternity. There is but one record left of the tomb's existence and it happens to come across the PCs path. Will the PCs go and find the ancient wizards fortune? Can they beat the traps, monsters, puzzles, and obstacles put into their way to get to the end?</p><p></p><p>Of course they do, they are the heroes of the story, and like all heroes they will be the first people to defeat the traps and get to the end because they have the skills necessary to do so, far beyond that of normal people. They are all good fighters, they are all skilled in navigating hazards like the kind they'll come upon in the dungeon.</p><p></p><p>The ancient wizard was tricky and hid the treasure beyond many secret doors and traps. Success requires finding all the secret doors and avoiding or disabling all the traps. Which they will, eventually, by persistence and skill. Because otherwise, the story is about a bunch of bumbling idiots who found their way into an ancient tomb and FAILED to get past the traps to find the treasure. That's what happens in real life, not in fantasy stories.</p><p></p><p>The last person in couldn't have left the secret door open because there has never been another person in here. There is no hidden map of the place because that would defeat the point of making an almost impossible to navigate tomb to protect your treasure. There are no people who you can ask who will give you hints as there's no one left alive who knows the inside. There's just not a good story reason to leave the door open. It makes a better story for there to be a secret door and the PCs to find it than to not have a secret door or have it mysteriously open.</p><p></p><p></p><p>That's not heroic. That's dumb luck. Marvel at the prowess of the great wizard who, though completely inept at combat, stood in front of the enemies and hoped that the DM miraculously rolled poorly enough for him to survive.</p><p></p><p>That scenario conjures images of a frail elf in robes walking up to a line of goblins and closing his eyes and holding a staff out in front of him while the goblins tripped over their own feet repeatedly just as they were about to swing.</p><p></p><p>I'd prefer heroes like Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings movies who kills a number of Orcs in a couple of seconds with his sword than the above scenario.</p><p></p><p>There's a reason that everyone in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings eventually learns to fight. They wouldn't be decent adventurers if they didn't.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Majoru Oakheart, post: 6234255, member: 5143"] That's fine, but it prevents some perfectly valid and fun scenarios. I almost always refer back to what I think as the atypical D&D adventure: An ancient tomb created by a powerful wizard forgotten by time. The wizard was so greedy that even in death he wanted to make sure no one took his wealth, so he created a dungeon filled with powerful magic traps and creatures who would guard his treasure for all eternity. There is but one record left of the tomb's existence and it happens to come across the PCs path. Will the PCs go and find the ancient wizards fortune? Can they beat the traps, monsters, puzzles, and obstacles put into their way to get to the end? Of course they do, they are the heroes of the story, and like all heroes they will be the first people to defeat the traps and get to the end because they have the skills necessary to do so, far beyond that of normal people. They are all good fighters, they are all skilled in navigating hazards like the kind they'll come upon in the dungeon. The ancient wizard was tricky and hid the treasure beyond many secret doors and traps. Success requires finding all the secret doors and avoiding or disabling all the traps. Which they will, eventually, by persistence and skill. Because otherwise, the story is about a bunch of bumbling idiots who found their way into an ancient tomb and FAILED to get past the traps to find the treasure. That's what happens in real life, not in fantasy stories. The last person in couldn't have left the secret door open because there has never been another person in here. There is no hidden map of the place because that would defeat the point of making an almost impossible to navigate tomb to protect your treasure. There are no people who you can ask who will give you hints as there's no one left alive who knows the inside. There's just not a good story reason to leave the door open. It makes a better story for there to be a secret door and the PCs to find it than to not have a secret door or have it mysteriously open. That's not heroic. That's dumb luck. Marvel at the prowess of the great wizard who, though completely inept at combat, stood in front of the enemies and hoped that the DM miraculously rolled poorly enough for him to survive. That scenario conjures images of a frail elf in robes walking up to a line of goblins and closing his eyes and holding a staff out in front of him while the goblins tripped over their own feet repeatedly just as they were about to swing. I'd prefer heroes like Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings movies who kills a number of Orcs in a couple of seconds with his sword than the above scenario. There's a reason that everyone in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings eventually learns to fight. They wouldn't be decent adventurers if they didn't. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
L&L December 16th Can you feel it?
Top