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NPC Ability Checks and Stunting or...Ogre Smash
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<blockquote data-quote="Nagol" data-source="post: 7003936" data-attributes="member: 23935"><p>It just requires experience trying to uproot a tree -- like farmers of all eras have. Replace "multi-hundred horsepower tractor" with "team of horses" and "5 minutes" with "at least an hour" if you want to make the observation tech-appropriate. I have more experience with the former. My grandfather had more experience with the latter.</p><p></p><p>It's not so much the player know how strong the average ogre is relatively speaking --though the magic gauntlets are entitled ogre strength for a reason -- so much as the PCs have a basic understanding of relative strengths - particularly in their area of expertise. A high-strength Fighter may decide to pull off the same stunt especially after seeing it in action. As a DM, there are three possible responses: </p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Sure! it works! </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Here are the hoops you have to jump through</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">No, you can't do that; you're not special enough.</li> </ol><p></p><p>The first has the PCs and the NPCs using the same rulings without regard to rules. The complaint a player might have is they can't really know what their characters are capable of since cool overrides rules. If cool moves become commonplace at the table, their on-sheet abilities lose value.</p><p></p><p>The second has the PCs encumbered in their attempts to be as cool as NPCs that don't need to jump through the hoops -- how encumbered depends on the hoop design. A player may point out it'd be nice if the NPCs had the same chance of failure in their attempts. Deciding the hoops ahead of time and using them for all such attempts (i.e. using rules) negates this complaint.</p><p></p><p>The third has the PCs the least cool personalities on the board since NPCs can throw down a "genre appropriate" cool action at the DM's discretion and similarly stated PCs cannot. A player may have an obvious complaint here. Even if an NPC only ever uses one cool move, there are a lot more NPCs walking through the campaign than PCs.</p><p></p><p>Should NPCs be capable of stunts the PCs cannot? Sure if the NPCs have abilities the PCs do not. If a PC works to acquire the same/similar abilities though, I feel the PC should be treated similarly to the NPCs. So if a high-strength PC gets enlarged, he should drop trees as easily as a Large NPC of similar strength. After all, why would it be genre-appropriate for one but not the other?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nagol, post: 7003936, member: 23935"] It just requires experience trying to uproot a tree -- like farmers of all eras have. Replace "multi-hundred horsepower tractor" with "team of horses" and "5 minutes" with "at least an hour" if you want to make the observation tech-appropriate. I have more experience with the former. My grandfather had more experience with the latter. It's not so much the player know how strong the average ogre is relatively speaking --though the magic gauntlets are entitled ogre strength for a reason -- so much as the PCs have a basic understanding of relative strengths - particularly in their area of expertise. A high-strength Fighter may decide to pull off the same stunt especially after seeing it in action. As a DM, there are three possible responses: [LIST=1] [*]Sure! it works! [*]Here are the hoops you have to jump through [*]No, you can't do that; you're not special enough. [/LIST] The first has the PCs and the NPCs using the same rulings without regard to rules. The complaint a player might have is they can't really know what their characters are capable of since cool overrides rules. If cool moves become commonplace at the table, their on-sheet abilities lose value. The second has the PCs encumbered in their attempts to be as cool as NPCs that don't need to jump through the hoops -- how encumbered depends on the hoop design. A player may point out it'd be nice if the NPCs had the same chance of failure in their attempts. Deciding the hoops ahead of time and using them for all such attempts (i.e. using rules) negates this complaint. The third has the PCs the least cool personalities on the board since NPCs can throw down a "genre appropriate" cool action at the DM's discretion and similarly stated PCs cannot. A player may have an obvious complaint here. Even if an NPC only ever uses one cool move, there are a lot more NPCs walking through the campaign than PCs. Should NPCs be capable of stunts the PCs cannot? Sure if the NPCs have abilities the PCs do not. If a PC works to acquire the same/similar abilities though, I feel the PC should be treated similarly to the NPCs. So if a high-strength PC gets enlarged, he should drop trees as easily as a Large NPC of similar strength. After all, why would it be genre-appropriate for one but not the other? [/QUOTE]
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