Legends & Lore: A Few Rules Updates

[Ratskinner]

My general thought is...meh.

The one thing that I truly think is important and beneficial is the changes in the action rules. Multiple actions in D&D is, I think, a place ripe for generating both massive inequities and long laborious turns. Keeping that contained is a very good idea, IMO. IME with Fate, things like multiple attacks/weapons/actions are very effectively handled with simple flavor adjustments and perhaps a small mechanical adjustment/feature. As [MENTION=20307]Jan van Leyden[/MENTION] noted upthread: "don't simulate, subsume".

 

[Cadence]

Whenever long-distance travel is calculated... it's always based upon the slowest member of the party. Which means that in probably 75% or more groups... because invariably a dwarf, gnome, or halfling will be in it...

So in the LotR movies when Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn are running cross country... wasn't Gimli falling behind in just about every shot? So did the others have to rest once in a while and he just kept running, did they slow down and wait, or was the cinematographer just mean to him with the way angles were used?

 

[Morrus]

So in the LotR movies when Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn are running cross country... wasn't Gimli falling behind in just about every shot? So did the others have to rest once in a while and he just kept running, did they slow down and wait, or was the cinematographer just mean to him with the way angles were used?

I don't think Peter Jackson was consulting Mike Mearls on the issue!

 

[Lalato]

So in the LotR movies when Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn are running cross country... wasn't Gimli falling behind in just about every shot? So did the others have to rest once in a while and he just kept running, did they slow down and wait, or was the cinematographer just mean to him with the way angles were used?

Dwarves have high endurance which means that they can run for hours beyond what other races can run. The others stopped to rest for the night, the dwarf would keep running and eventually catch up. Because of his high endurance, he also needs less sleep. In the end, the group is still going at a 30 pace.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

as of last year my four year old niece is so small if you stacked three of her she would not be as tall as me...

(as of this year and just after her 5th birthday she shot up like a weed so no longer true)

However if she wants to go to the toy isel, she will get ahead of me and my long legs... I often have to say "Lily wait for me." she has more energy and is way more likely to be moveing fast...

so smaller races are fast because they are fast... works for me...

 

[Ratskinner]

So in the LotR movies when Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn are running cross country... wasn't Gimli falling behind in just about every shot? So did the others have to rest once in a while and he just kept running, did they slow down and wait, or was the cinematographer just mean to him with the way angles were used?

I think the implication is that Aragorn and Legolas are running around tracking and scouting, while Gimli is giving it his all just to keep up. Additionally, I'm not sure how much of it is a dig at Gimli wearing heavier Dwarven armor/boots, rather than the lighter elf-make stuff that the others are wearing.

 

[SkidAce]

I dislike the passive perception in exploration, it takes us back to the days when DMs knew the passive perception scores of their players and while stocking their dungeons had to decide if the PCs will find the trap/hazard or not.

I wouldn't mind if coupled with passive perception, the traps/hazards would roll for their "hide" check against the PCs passive perception, that way you still got a measure of randomness in the game so it wouldn't be predetermined.

I would also want the passive perception to work at full efficiency on the slow pace, anything above and you got a small penalty.

Warder

That's how I built my dungeons. I rolled the stealth of ambushers so there I could determine how well the monsters had set up their ambush. And use the player's passive if just strolling.

And I rolled the stealth of traps to see how well the creator had done it. (Of course for well built previously existing traps the creator had taken 10).

 

[DEFCON 1]

That's how I built my dungeons. I rolled the stealth of ambushers so there I could determine how well the monsters had set up their ambush. And use the player's passive if just strolling.

And I rolled the stealth of traps to see how well the creator had done it. (Of course for well built previously existing traps the creator had taken 10).

I also roll checks to determine just how well-hidden traps are, rather than assigning DCs. So passive perception I'm good with too. Makes looking for traps a bit more of a surprise. It also allows me to have some fun describing the dungeons when some traps are so blatantly obvious (because I rolled horribly on its stealth check). Invariably the party thinks something's wrong or there's something even more devilish around when there's a tripwire in plain sight, or pressure plates carved with skulls and crossbones sitting directly in front of exceedingly-lifelike statues.

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

With the rules about exploration tasks, I was under the impression that if you're sneaking you're not able to do anything else. I don't know if this was really how they intended the rules to work, but now it seems clear that you can be stealthy and still take other actions. If they actually changed the rules about that, that was a good change. Otherwise, things are just much clearer to me now.

Cheers,

 

[DMZ2112]

Aw, crap, passive perception.

It might work better in a bounded accuracy system, but I always found the passive perception values in D&D4 way too high.

I also rankle at the idea that anyone is ever "automatically" observant of his surroundings, but that might just be my Gygaxian influences talking.

Certainly, Splinter Cell has taught us that no one ever looks up.