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General Tabletop Discussion
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Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7759753" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>In the game that that rule comes from - Dungeon World - the way we find out whether or not one situation was harder than another is by seeing how the dice come out. (A bit like how, in Moldvay Basic, we learn if <em>these goblins</em> are friendlier than <em>those goblins</em> by finding out how the reaction roll pans out - it's "fortune in the middle" with the fiction being read, in part, off the result of the roll. Gygax uses the same approach for hit points and saving throws in his DMG - we learn if the poison got into the wound or not by seeing how the save comes out; we don't first decide how badly poisoned the PC was and use that to affect the saving throw.)</p><p></p><p>There is one modifier, though: INT. So choosing to play a high-INT PC is choosing to play a PC who is more likely, more of the time, to be able to oblige the GM to tell one interesting and perhaps useful stuff. That's a <em>who</em> decision - <em>I'm playing the person who knows stuff</em> - that manifests itself as a <em>what/how</em> - <em>I do well when I engage the game by trying to learn stuff about the situation and put it to use</em>.</p><p></p><p>I think that 5e could be drifted in that direction, at least in respect of its ability/skill check mechanics (combat not so much); but that is not how it is presented in the published rules, at least as I understand them and as I see them talked about on these forums.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7759753, member: 42582"] In the game that that rule comes from - Dungeon World - the way we find out whether or not one situation was harder than another is by seeing how the dice come out. (A bit like how, in Moldvay Basic, we learn if [I]these goblins[/I] are friendlier than [I]those goblins[/I] by finding out how the reaction roll pans out - it's "fortune in the middle" with the fiction being read, in part, off the result of the roll. Gygax uses the same approach for hit points and saving throws in his DMG - we learn if the poison got into the wound or not by seeing how the save comes out; we don't first decide how badly poisoned the PC was and use that to affect the saving throw.) There is one modifier, though: INT. So choosing to play a high-INT PC is choosing to play a PC who is more likely, more of the time, to be able to oblige the GM to tell one interesting and perhaps useful stuff. That's a [I]who[/I] decision - [I]I'm playing the person who knows stuff[/I] - that manifests itself as a [I]what/how[/I] - [I]I do well when I engage the game by trying to learn stuff about the situation and put it to use[/I]. I think that 5e could be drifted in that direction, at least in respect of its ability/skill check mechanics (combat not so much); but that is not how it is presented in the published rules, at least as I understand them and as I see them talked about on these forums. [/QUOTE]
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