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New Legends & Lore: Player vs. Character
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<blockquote data-quote="Jhaelen" data-source="post: 5670727" data-attributes="member: 46713"><p>Okay, I see. This is quite similar to the feedback you get in (good) text adventure games when you examine something - except those work without skill checks. Considering I'm an adventure game fan, that would be fine with me.</p><p></p><p>Maybe, a real example of the kind of thing I don't like in a game is in order:</p><p>In our Earthdawn game my thief character after searching every square foot of a room's floor and walls managed to find a kind of ancient, rusty safe behind a secret panel (after making a bunch of Perception checks). I told the DM I tried to open the safe, which unsurprisingly didn't work.</p><p>I then told him I wanted to try to unlock it with my Open Lock talent, getting an exceptional result on my check. I tried to open it again and was told that it still didn't open.</p><p></p><p>At this point I gave up (suspecting some kind of magical protection being at work).</p><p></p><p>The DM later told me the safe was only rusted shut and I should have simply continued trying to open it with more force, or trying to get it unstuck with a blade or something.</p><p></p><p>This was when I had a wtf moment. I refuse to believe that a Thief character wouldn't have realized what the problem was, particularly after an exceptional check result.</p><p></p><p>I can see that this might have developed differently, had you been the DM, but it shows why I don't like this approach in general:</p><p>If the DM doesn't give you sufficient hints or you don't get the hints of your DM (although your DM is absolutely certain the hints were totally obvious!) you're screwed, regardless of your character's abilities.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jhaelen, post: 5670727, member: 46713"] Okay, I see. This is quite similar to the feedback you get in (good) text adventure games when you examine something - except those work without skill checks. Considering I'm an adventure game fan, that would be fine with me. Maybe, a real example of the kind of thing I don't like in a game is in order: In our Earthdawn game my thief character after searching every square foot of a room's floor and walls managed to find a kind of ancient, rusty safe behind a secret panel (after making a bunch of Perception checks). I told the DM I tried to open the safe, which unsurprisingly didn't work. I then told him I wanted to try to unlock it with my Open Lock talent, getting an exceptional result on my check. I tried to open it again and was told that it still didn't open. At this point I gave up (suspecting some kind of magical protection being at work). The DM later told me the safe was only rusted shut and I should have simply continued trying to open it with more force, or trying to get it unstuck with a blade or something. This was when I had a wtf moment. I refuse to believe that a Thief character wouldn't have realized what the problem was, particularly after an exceptional check result. I can see that this might have developed differently, had you been the DM, but it shows why I don't like this approach in general: If the DM doesn't give you sufficient hints or you don't get the hints of your DM (although your DM is absolutely certain the hints were totally obvious!) you're screwed, regardless of your character's abilities. [/QUOTE]
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