Let's Talk About Metacurrency

[Lanefan]

That's not what Gygax says in his PHB, if the attack hits but the saving throw succeeds, then there is no need to narrate the hit point loss as actual injury.

Sure. But our lot have never quite bought into this.

Thing is, we've always visualized the making of a save vs poison as either the victim's body rejecting or ignoring the poison or the victim quickly being able to do something about it, rather than the poison never having been delivered in the first place. Doing it this way for attack-delivered poisons makes it more consistent with ingested poisons and other types of delivery.

 

[Lanefan]

It just means you can have a mid-level warrior look like Boromir at the end of Fellowship, have the arrows pop out and the bleeding stop, and keep on adventuring. I'm OK with that!

Given that Boromir keels over dead at the end of Fellowship, that's mighty generous!

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Sure. But our lot have never quite bought into this.

Thing is, we've always visualized the making of a save vs poison as either the victim's body rejecting or ignoring the poison or the victim quickly being able to do something about it, rather than the poison never having been delivered in the first place. Doing it this way for attack-delivered poisons makes it more consistent with ingested poisons and other types of delivery.

Also, in 5e a lot of things still do half the damage on successful save, so the poison must have contacted.

 

[MichaelSomething]

where does that fiction that dictates what the DM does in prep come from?

From the rules
From what the players done
From your previous rulings
Extrapolation from pre existing things
A setting Bible
Making sure NPC (factions) act in a logical matter
ETC

 

[Fenris-77]

OMG, we're parsing the actual text of LOTR like it's an RPG. Shark. Us. Lots of awkward jumping.

 

[TwoSix]

OMG, we're parsing the actual text of LOTR like it's an RPG. Shark. Us. Lots of awkward jumping.

Don’t look at me, I made the Rambo joke. Doing my part to keep things not painfully nerdy.

 

[Fenris-77]

Don’t look at me, I made the Rambo joke. Doing my part to keep things not painfully nerdy.

We all float like nerds down here.

 

[Staffan]

And yes, Aragorn has magic blood, and Boromir in theory a bit, but Boromir really is not exceptional because of it; he is specifically contrasted to Aragorn who is. Boromir is one of those "lesser men" to whom the governance of Gondor was given to, so not special.

In Rolemaster, which is rather heavily influenced by Tolkien, you have three "ranks" of Men: High, Mixed, and Common. High Men are basically Dunedain, and have a specific culture as well. Mixed and Common men have different stat bonuses, but both have the same variety of cultures available (e.g. City, Plains, Woods, Mariner) (which determine starting skills). So under that paradigm, Gondorian nobility would be Mixed Men, and most other Men in Middle-Earth would be Common.

 

[Fenris-77]

Rolemaster has entered the chat.

 

[Thomas Shey]

as I said, pick a different low magic setting then. That Boromir and Aragorn are from some older lineages does not give them abilities beyond that of other humans. It gives them standing in the setting, but as far as abilities go he is not special and comfortably fits into the equality we were discussing

Think I have to take the other side here. As stated, the men of Numenor are not just a higher social class; the originals are just about literally Homo Superior, and even the diluted descendents are not on the level of normal men, to the degree if you were to write them up in a game system, they'd have more attribute points (certainly Aragorn and probably Boromir and his family too).