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Little rules changes that still trip you up
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<blockquote data-quote="ad_hoc" data-source="post: 6899794" data-attributes="member: 6748898"><p>Sure, if you don't like how 5e does things then you are free to houserule.</p><p></p><p>5e is all about narrative and I think it handles this problem rather well.</p><p></p><p>We can't play the game in 6 second increments. We wouldn't be able to get anything done. So we need a way to transition from a loose time structure to an acute one.</p><p></p><p>3.x's answer was to have everything regimented in an attempt to stop people from abusing the rules. 5e's answer is to accept that people who want to abuse the rules will find ways to do so and instead give intent and guidelines on how to handle it. I prefer the latter.</p><p></p><p>If you are in a social situation and people want to start fighting (or doing anything else that others might want to have a contest to react to) then you stop and switch to a 6 second increment governed by rounds and initiative.</p><p></p><p>What you don't do is say, 'I draw my sword and attack the delegation' then when initiative is rolled and you get a 1 you say 'okay I haven't acted yet so they don't know that I am hostile. I wait to draw my sword until I get initiative 20'.</p><p></p><p>The game doesn't work like that for good reason. An easy way to see why is to switch it around on the players. Say that during a social encounter with a group of orcs they have decided to act first so they all win initiative and do lots of damage before the PCs can react. Suddenly no one talks anymore, it's just who says what they're going to do first. </p><p></p><p>That is why we have initiative in the first place. It is a randomized contest to see who gets their way. If you want to houserule it so that one side can automatically win the contest you can do so, but I don't recommend it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ad_hoc, post: 6899794, member: 6748898"] Sure, if you don't like how 5e does things then you are free to houserule. 5e is all about narrative and I think it handles this problem rather well. We can't play the game in 6 second increments. We wouldn't be able to get anything done. So we need a way to transition from a loose time structure to an acute one. 3.x's answer was to have everything regimented in an attempt to stop people from abusing the rules. 5e's answer is to accept that people who want to abuse the rules will find ways to do so and instead give intent and guidelines on how to handle it. I prefer the latter. If you are in a social situation and people want to start fighting (or doing anything else that others might want to have a contest to react to) then you stop and switch to a 6 second increment governed by rounds and initiative. What you don't do is say, 'I draw my sword and attack the delegation' then when initiative is rolled and you get a 1 you say 'okay I haven't acted yet so they don't know that I am hostile. I wait to draw my sword until I get initiative 20'. The game doesn't work like that for good reason. An easy way to see why is to switch it around on the players. Say that during a social encounter with a group of orcs they have decided to act first so they all win initiative and do lots of damage before the PCs can react. Suddenly no one talks anymore, it's just who says what they're going to do first. That is why we have initiative in the first place. It is a randomized contest to see who gets their way. If you want to houserule it so that one side can automatically win the contest you can do so, but I don't recommend it. [/QUOTE]
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