Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="AeroDm" data-source="post: 5647956" data-attributes="member: 13650">The easiest solution is for the GM to just be forthcoming with the DC before the player decides the character attempts the action. Many people are opposed to this, but I think that is a mistake. If I want to leap across a 20-foot chasm and the GM is describing the wind slick ice that has formed at either side and the ongoing gusts littering the air with cyclones of snow and ice, that is all great. My character can feel the wind and ice but I, the player, cannot. The GM can help the player understand the character's experience by being transparent about the DC.I think that nuance is best represented by a general DC. I think the specific modifiers Sammael has been discussing are a mistake to put in place as hard rules, but useful in summing to a general DC. The reason is that they often do absurd things. Something almost impossible to climb suddenly becomes easy (reduce DC by 10) if there are handholds. There is ambiguity in the term "handholds" so we have just as much fiat and variance as any other system with the added problem of an "authority" telling us the way it has to be. I think Mearls' little system (and many systems) moves towards abstraction for this very reason.</blockquote>