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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 5734623" data-attributes="member: 22779">One of the basic problems of "out of bounds" play is that it ignores the character sheet in front of you.  In either direction really.  Whether it's the smart/charismatic guy overplaying his 8 Int 6 Cha character, or the other way around where the character is that much smarter/more whatever than the player.I played in a 3e campaign some years ago where the DM insisted we make 15 point buy characters.  In his mind, anything higher than that was superhuman.  Ok.  Fair enough.  I rolled with it.  Made my character a "face" character.  Yet, I was being consistently over played by the more talkative players in the group.  It was always, "Let RP trump mechanics", and, basically, my character sheet was so much toilet paper.IMO, why on earth would you play D&D if you were going that direction?  There's all sorts of games out there that do that SO much better.  3e D&D is a pretty rules heavy (and 4e is no different in this regard) system where your character sheet is supposed to matter in the game world.  Now, I've no problem with a problem that is not solvable right now (directing this at Bill91's comment that there seems to be an idea that all problems must be resolvable right now).  There's nothing wrong with a challenge that you have to come back to.  That's great.  But, again, this is only my opinion, that should be the exception and, when it does occur, don't let your group piss about for an hour banging their head on the wall.  Heck, there's nothing wrong with summing up.  "You try everything you can think of and a few other things as well, and nothing works.  You realize that you need something that you don't have right now." is how I would handle something like that.  But, for the vast majority of challenges, the PC's should be resolving them based on what's in front of them.  It might be they have to go find a MacGuffin, but, then, engage the character sheet - Knowledge checks to learn hints of the MacGuffin, social skills to hear rumours, that sort of thing.Whatever you do, don't just leave the players hanging.</blockquote>

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