Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 7796400" data-attributes="member: 6801845">Personally I like to give examples.&nbsp; But I do find that trying to nail down people is nearly impossible.&nbsp; Give an example of how &quot;I grapple the orc&quot; is acceptable?&nbsp; Suddenly it becomes 8 orcs ... and the DM is suddenly incapable of uttering the words &quot;Which one?&quot;&nbsp; Carefully exploring and using passive perception to spot traps becomes &quot;Taking all the time in the world to examine every trap&quot;.&nbsp; If an initial example was hasty, spend a minute or five and come up with a real example.But I get the same thing at work sometimes (I'm a software developer).&nbsp; I like to draw things out on a whiteboard, test things out, work through pros and cons, discuss alternatives.&nbsp; Other people come along and it's like &quot;Well, Bob's blog says to do it this way and his blog is really well written so he must be right.&nbsp; No further thought or examples are needed.&quot;I don't have a problem with people using different approaches.&nbsp; GAO may work for them, but like you I dislike the fact that it's the players resolving problems, not the PCs.&nbsp; I use it sometimes in my games, but 100%?&nbsp; Nope.&nbsp; If someone invested a lot of resources into being really good at spotting traps, I'm going to reward that.&nbsp; To use a geeky software design term, I want to discuss use cases.&nbsp; Pick common sample scenarios, what are the different actors going to do and what's the result?&nbsp; What are the options and their pros and cons?&nbsp;&nbsp; Discuss specifics, not generalities, and stay on one story at a time.&nbsp; Discussing using a skill to disarm traps?&nbsp; Don't bring in that one time when you had a &quot;gotcha&quot; DM that had your PC walking off the edge of a cliff because you didn't specifically state that you stopped at the edge.Oh well.&nbsp; If wishes were horses and all that.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Oofta, post: 7796400, member: 6801845"] Personally I like to give examples. But I do find that trying to nail down people is nearly impossible. Give an example of how "I grapple the orc" is acceptable? Suddenly it becomes 8 orcs ... and the DM is suddenly incapable of uttering the words "Which one?" Carefully exploring and using passive perception to spot traps becomes "Taking all the time in the world to examine every trap". If an initial example was hasty, spend a minute or five and come up with a real example. But I get the same thing at work sometimes (I'm a software developer). I like to draw things out on a whiteboard, test things out, work through pros and cons, discuss alternatives. Other people come along and it's like "Well, Bob's blog says to do it this way and his blog is really well written so he must be right. No further thought or examples are needed." I don't have a problem with people using different approaches. GAO may work for them, but like you I dislike the fact that it's the players resolving problems, not the PCs. I use it sometimes in my games, but 100%? Nope. If someone invested a lot of resources into being really good at spotting traps, I'm going to reward that. To use a geeky software design term, I want to discuss use cases. Pick common sample scenarios, what are the different actors going to do and what's the result? What are the options and their pros and cons? Discuss specifics, not generalities, and stay on one story at a time. Discussing using a skill to disarm traps? Don't bring in that one time when you had a "gotcha" DM that had your PC walking off the edge of a cliff because you didn't specifically state that you stopped at the edge. Oh well. If wishes were horses and all that. [/QUOTE]

Verification