Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="redrick" data-source="post: 7300518" data-attributes="member: 6777696">Here are some examples I'd see in my game.The characters are exploring a ruin. Over the course of exploration, they've seen a few different symbols, but no more than a half dozen, carved or painted onto various things. A few rooms back, they saw a particular symbol painted onto a throne. In the current room, they see a tomb, with a symbol carved on it.PLAYER: I look at the symbol to see if I recognize it.DM: It's the same symbol you saw painted onto the throne.I give the characters the benefit of the doubt that they could remember one out of 3 symbols from 20 minutes ago without an Int check. Now, if the player decides to try and recall any background information about this esoteric symbol, that might be a roll.Another example that uses more player skill. Over the course of the campaign, the players have come across dozens of different symbols. One player has taken note of every single one. Moving through an ancient observatory, the characters come across a mural featuring an eye with 3 stars around it. The player recognizes this from their notes.PLAYER: I look to see if this is the same symbol as the one we encountered in the castle two months ago.DM: You recognize the symbol of the eye, though this time, the eyeball is blood-red.A player who wasn't taking notes might not have connected these two and might have needed a check to learn more. Since the player (and by extension, the character) was clearly paying attention to and taking note of all these different symbols, I might give them an extra piece of information. Taking notes is ALWAYS a good thing.Any time that a player is looking to connect two pieces of information that they have obtained over the course of play, they could possibly use a character skill check to help them out. But the player who is paying attention and connecting the dots is not going to need to roll a skill check for their character to do this. Hopefully, if I'm doing my job right, there will be greater challenges that do require them to use those skills they have.</blockquote>

Verification