Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 3360605" data-attributes="member: 32164">Well, not to disparage your abilities as a DM, but a wight burning to death in a sarcophagus just doesn't do anything for me as a "interesting" combat. If anything, it seems kinda dull. I guess it's marginally more imaginative than the players just smacking him with sharp, heavy or pointy things, but it's not exactly a combat out of The Three Musketeers either.The rules tell you what the risk is. The DM just says "no, that's not worth the risk, so you can't do it." Sometimes, I WANT to take the risk, slim as it is. I want to be the player of Han Solo's character who says "never tell me the odds" and tries anyway.I'll come clean and confess my bias is for Iron Heroes over 3e D&D. I can weigh my alternatives or come up with crazy stunts to try. They might be risky, but sometimes, it's worth risking total failure to potentially get that all-important +4 (or whatever) to an attack. It's exciting.And no, I don't trust the DM to make those kinds of calls consistently, without a vast array of houserules at his disposal (which might be entirely in his head). If my options aren't spelled out in the rules, I have to guess whether the DM and I have the same opinion of what's "reasonable." What if we don't?Roleplaying games have rules in place to settle the old 'cowboys and indians' "I shot you" "no, you didn't" arguments. If you argue that Rule X isn't necessary, no rule is necessary.Games have rules for combat so we don't actually have to fight it out. It could be argued that gamers who dislike social interaction rules (favoring "roleplaying over rollplaying" as they put it) just don't like their characters being limited by their stats. If you don't want social interaction rules, don't have stats for personality. A smart player isn't necessarily bound by his character's 6 INT, nor is a personable player hampered by his Half-orc barbarian's 5 charisma. He can choose to be, and if he does, everyone will applaud his "roleplaying." However, a socially inept gamer can't fake playing an 18 CHA bard without those rules.So I think any significant aspect of the game needs rules to back it up. Basic combat does, magic does, social interaction does, and crazy combat stunts should.But that's just my opinion. Obviously, not everyone agrees.</blockquote>

Verification