D&D 5E Players roll all the dice and Active defenses

[NotAYakk]

I'm still trying to grasp the concept of this;



Over, "Roll for the monster to hit you, it has +5 to hit."
Or, DM rolls and misses the AC by one and says, "You raise your shield at the last minute and the blow slides off." Or, DM rolls and misses by 5 and the says "You sidestep his clumsy attack and prepare to counter."

I guess my big problem is that I do not see where this will make things faster/easier/funner?

The player's choice in how to defend changes what the DM narrates as the situation after in DW.

Fiction driving mechanics instead of mechanics driving fiction.

 

[aco175]

The player's choice in how to defend changes what the DM narrates as the situation after in DW.

Fiction driving mechanics instead of mechanics driving fiction.

Would this just make the players choose the power they have the highest bonus in? My thief will always choose to jump out of the way and I will feel like I need to put any bonuses into that ability. Is this the mechanics over fiction you want.

I think you may need to limit the number of times I can use dex before I need to choose another stat. Maybe an option of 2 choices?

 

[GMMichael]

Over, "Roll for the monster to hit you, it has +5 to hit."
Or, DM rolls and misses the AC by one and says, "You raise your shield at the last minute and the blow slides off." Or, DM rolls and misses by 5 and the says "You sidestep his clumsy attack and prepare to counter."

I guess my big problem is that I do not see where this will make things faster/easier/funner?

"Roll for the monster to hit you" has all of the fun of your big brother grabbing your hand and slapping you with it.

The other two are the DM telling you what your character does. Wouldn't you like to be the one in charge of this?

 

[tetrasodium]

"Roll for the monster to hit you" has all of the fun of your big brother grabbing your hand and slapping you with it.

The other two are the DM telling you what your character does. Wouldn't you like to be the one in charge of this?

I usually play it out more like this,

Alice your sure that great big werebear's* claws are even bigger than they were a minute ago because they are coming at you. Give me three defense rolls

Alice has 20 ac+d20... She rolls 38,(18) 25(5), & 30(10) on her defense rolls & I look at the NotJusAWearbear to see that +10 to hit gives it 32 dc for the save. Alice has no idea that she's about to get smacked hard.

Yep, your sure those claws are even bigger & your pretty sure there's some kinda dark aura surrounding them as those claws pass so close to your face that they move the hair under your helmet for that first attack.

The other set of claws hit you good & latch in through the joints in your shoulder, that $LotsOfDamage really hurts, but the bite for $otherValue crunches right into your armor & mercilessly does awful things to your shoulder while that 12 foot tall werebear shakes you around like a ragdoll

 

[jmartkdr2]

I guess my big problem is that I do not see where this will make things faster/easier/funner?

The added speed comes from players rolling outside of their own turn.

Because they're rolling, they have to actively engage rather than just listen - this keeps them more focused on what's happening. This means they don't follow distractions as much (fewer phones out, etc.) and they need less time to get up to speed when their own turn begins.

This leads to faster turns, which means turns come around faster, which is less time for distractions, which leads to faster turns...

It does mean a sudden change in the battlefield can leave a player (especially a full caster) bewildered because what they had planned is suddenly a bad idea, but not everyone calls that a flaw. Also, players get less time between turns to plan their actions or look up stuff.