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Playing a Game When You Don't Know the Rules
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<blockquote data-quote="SiderisAnon" data-source="post: 5681381" data-attributes="member: 44949"><p>In general, I am not in favor of the players having no knowledge of the rules whatsoever. It makes it very difficult to play the game when you have no idea of what your character can do. The line I've quoted above is the one that would destroy any such game, in my opinion. Players are likely to quickly feel like they're being randomly punished for trying things since they never have any idea of what they can mechanically do. You cannot decide if you should face that enemy or bravely run away if you have absolutely no way to determine your capabilities, let alone theirs. Heck, you wouldn't even know if riding a horse could be fatal.</p><p></p><p>I don't think it would be long before players would refuse to try anything for fear of failing or dying. (Assuming you could get players to play this at all. Few that I know would even give it a try.)</p><p></p><p>On the other hand, I have played in and run games where the players did not know the rules in detail or where the players only had their character sheets. The difference there is that the players have a way of understanding how they interact with the game world and they have some perspective. They can know that they have a 75% base chance of making a particular skill roll or that they have a combat bonus that gives them a 20% better chance of hitting than someone without any bonus at all. It may not be everything, but it gives them a framework to use.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The one exception to the above I can see would be a one-shot or short term campaign where the character all start out with amnesia and have to discover what they can do. Basically, they're building their character sheet as they go. That could be fun and in such a short-term focus, I think more players would be willing to accept the lack of information.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="SiderisAnon, post: 5681381, member: 44949"] In general, I am not in favor of the players having no knowledge of the rules whatsoever. It makes it very difficult to play the game when you have no idea of what your character can do. The line I've quoted above is the one that would destroy any such game, in my opinion. Players are likely to quickly feel like they're being randomly punished for trying things since they never have any idea of what they can mechanically do. You cannot decide if you should face that enemy or bravely run away if you have absolutely no way to determine your capabilities, let alone theirs. Heck, you wouldn't even know if riding a horse could be fatal. I don't think it would be long before players would refuse to try anything for fear of failing or dying. (Assuming you could get players to play this at all. Few that I know would even give it a try.) On the other hand, I have played in and run games where the players did not know the rules in detail or where the players only had their character sheets. The difference there is that the players have a way of understanding how they interact with the game world and they have some perspective. They can know that they have a 75% base chance of making a particular skill roll or that they have a combat bonus that gives them a 20% better chance of hitting than someone without any bonus at all. It may not be everything, but it gives them a framework to use. The one exception to the above I can see would be a one-shot or short term campaign where the character all start out with amnesia and have to discover what they can do. Basically, they're building their character sheet as they go. That could be fun and in such a short-term focus, I think more players would be willing to accept the lack of information. [/QUOTE]
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