Provide an example of when FLUFF overrided > Crunch

[Corathon]

In 1E, due to the vagaries of initiative, a huge scorpion-thing attacked a paladin before he could heal himself. Normally both pincers would hit at the same moment, however the paladin's player argued that it was unlikely that two 8' long pincers could attack his 6' tall character at once. The DM (me) agreed, and the second pincer came a segment later than the first - allowing the paladin to heal himself before the second pincer's damage was assessed, which saved the paladin's life.

 

[Corathon]

In one game I was playing, as a swashbuckling rogue-fighter, the DM decided that when an ogre hit me with its club for a substantial, but non-lethal, portion of my hit points, that meant that I got flung across the room and into the wall on the other side.

The damage from hitting the wall was enough to knock me unconscious, so I got to sit out the rest of the combat.

So, yeah, not a huge fan of "fluff over crunch."

[EDIT: To be clear:

Crunch: My character took XXhp of damage. This reduced him from A/B hitpoints to (A-XX)/B hitpoints, but otherwise had no mechanical effect.

Fluff: My character totally just got golf-clubbed by a giant! That obviously means you go flying through the air.]

Doesn't the "awesome blow" feat allow this mechanically?

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Not really, no.

Awesome Blow [General, Fighter]

Prerequisites: Str 25, Power Attack, Improved Bull Rush, size Large or larger.

Benefit:

As a standard action, the creature may choose to subtract 4 from its melee attack roll and deliver an awesome blow. If the creature hits a corporeal opponent smaller than itself with an awesome blow, its opponent must succeed on a Reflex save (DC = damage dealt) or be knocked flying 10 feet in a direction of the attacking creature’s choice and fall prone. The attacking creature can only push the opponent in a straight line, and the opponent can’t move closer to the attacking creature than the square it started in. If an obstacle prevents the completion of the opponent’s move, the opponent and the obstacle each take 1d6 points of damage, and the opponent stops in the space adjacent to the obstacle.

Requires a specific standard action, a Reflex save, only goes 10', only does 1d6 points of damage. Standard ogres don't qualify for it.

It was totally done as an after-the-fact, "Hey, this should totally happen" maneuver.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

I was playing a Monk in a 3.x one-shot dungeoncrawl module and since it wasn't a serious game I decided a room or two into the dungeon to play my character as if he was a superhero. The description of one room included an old tapestry with a hole in it and a bag lying in a corner. So I popped my head through the tapestry as a makeshift cape, then cut two eyeholes into the bag and threw it on my head as a cowl.

It turned out that the bag that I willingly plopped onto my head was actually a bag of devouring. Although crunch would say that cutting two eyeholes into a cloth bag would destroy it (by reduced it to 0 hp) and thus make it lose all of its magical power, the GM let fluff override for a wonderfully hilarious scene!

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

In one game I was playing, as a swashbuckling rogue-fighter, the DM decided that when an ogre hit me with its club for a substantial, but non-lethal, portion of my hit points, that meant that I got flung across the room and into the wall on the other side.

The damage from hitting the wall was enough to knock me unconscious, so I got to sit out the rest of the combat.

So, yeah, not a huge fan of "fluff over crunch."

I would immediately report this DM to the BDMB (Better Dungeon Master Bureau). I would expect his DM's license to be revoked for at least 6 months while they investigate the combat in question.

 

[Dioltach]

In a Star Wars d20 game, the villain was about to escape from his underground lair in his space ship. My character, an Infiltrator, ran outside though a long tunnel to where the PCs had left their speeder, climbed on board, drove the speeder up a ramp and jumped out, crashing the speeder into the space ship that was just rising out of the ground.

Logically my character shouldn't have had the time and the villain should have been long gone by the time he emerged from the tunnel, but the DM thought it was such a cool plan that he allowed it.

 

[Viking Bastard]

In one game I was playing, as a swashbuckling rogue-fighter, the DM decided that when an ogre hit me with its club for a substantial, but non-lethal, portion of my hit points, that meant that I got flung across the room and into the wall on the other side.

The damage from hitting the wall was enough to knock me unconscious, so I got to sit out the rest of the combat.

So, yeah, not a huge fan of "fluff over crunch."

I throw out little effects like that in combat all the time--affecting both sides. I most probably wouldn't have knocked you out, but I see people getting thrown about as classic combat fluff.

 

[AeroDm]

I throw out little effects like that in combat all the time--effecting both sides. I most probably wouldn't have knocked you out, but I see people getting thrown about as classic combat fluff.

Agreed. The game is about narrative and crafting something memorable, sometimes that necessitates being memorable. The thing is, you can push the fluff without *breaking* the crunch and I think the DM went too far in Elvenshae's case and broke the crunch.

Sort of fits the OP -- in the 2e Complete Book of Elves there was an off-hand blurb that if non-elves heard elvish funeral songs their hearts would burst of sorrow and they would die. We were young and I played an elven bard who routinely threatened to burst into a song of mourning. I'm certain that the DM would have said it had no mechanical effect, but it didn't stop the threats and it was a fun bit of cultural exposition since the dwarf had no rebuttal.

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

Agreed. The game is about narrative and crafting something memorable, sometimes that necessitates being memorable. The thing is, you can push the fluff without *breaking* the crunch and I think the DM went too far in Elvenshae's case and broke the crunch.

Honestly, Elvenshae's example of fluff going too far is outrageous. An ogre tossing around a smaller target with his club is a good example of Fluff trumping Crunch. Elvenshae disliked it because it negatively impacted his character.

Nothing described by Elvenshae remotely resembles a DM going too far with narrative.

Now, when the pixies start doing this, I'll question the DM

 

[Huw]

Players penetrate the deepest corner of the lich's tomb. Unbeknown to them, in doing so they have released the lich from imprisonment (stop me if you've heard this before ). So the lich starts bragging about his impending reign of terror over the kingdom he ruled thousands of years ago, and gives the PC's the option of joining him or dying.

"He's monologuing!" cries a player, "get him while he's distracted!"

I give them a surprise round as a bonus .