Question about taking 10.

[Vegepygmy]

Of course even the most skilled people in the world ocassionally fail and die. Why? Because real life does not include a DM who tells you all the DCs so you know if you can take 10 or not.

That's not why. They fail and die because there's no such thing as "taking 10" in the real world.

The "take 10" rules are an attempt to model something that happens in real life. They do so imperfectly, as shadmere has pointed out. But as shadmere also pointed out, rounding a 99.9% chance of success up to 100% is better than rounding it down to 95%.

In fact, this thread has just convinced me to never ever tell a player a DC number again for a check. I will tell them if they think it will be easy, moderate, difficult, or impossible, and then they can decide to try or not and if they want to take 10.

That's exactly what I do, as a matter of fact. I also use synonyms for "easy," "moderate," etc. Characters should be able to estimate the difficulty of a task, but not pinpoint it, IMO.

 

[PythonPuncher]

Of course even the most skilled people in the world ocassionally fail and die. Why? Because real life does not include a DM who tells you all the DCs so you know if you can take 10 or not.

You want that in your game? Its easy. Just do not tell your characters the DC for sucess. They can chose to take 10. But if the DC is 25 and they have +10 in the skill then taking 10 will fail for while taking a roll gives a chance of sucess.

In fact, this thread has just convinced me to never ever tell a player a DC number again for a check. I will tell them if they think it will be easy, moderate, difficult, or impossible, and then they can decide to try or not and if they want to take 10.

Actually, its this line of thinking that made me come to EN in the first place.

I like to bring in a big dose of realism into my games. That means that typically there are bigger consequences (and rewards as well) for most actions. There's a lot more violence, a lot more lethality and a lot more thinking required. In the past, I disliked the Take 10 rule so much, that I only allowed it if the character had a particular amount of skill points already.

I wouldnt say my DM style is adversarial but maybe close to it. The games are always fun, but extra-challenging. Seems like the "Take 10" rule merits more thought on my part.