D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

[Maxperson]

That our fictional worlds exist, that we have characters that inhabit them?

There's no falsehood there. We are pretending to be pretend elves(or whatever race) in a pretend world. That's all true. It's all pretend.

 

[Gimby]

If a rune expert was conjecturing that runes on a dungeon wall were directions out, I'd ask for his expert credentials back. Dungeon creators don't have any reason to write those kinds of runes in the walls. Dungeon visitors who were actually trying to be helpful would scrawl something readable to more than some obscure rune expert.

Or the visitor was a long time ago and was writing in something readable for their time. Or the original builders put the map in place before it was overrun by whatever haunts it now. Or it's not a map, but instead some information (such as the name of a chamber) that can be cross-referenced by a scholar to lead to knowledge of how to escape by allowing them to get their bearings. Or the visitor was more recent but used an obscure script for their own reasons.

Most of the above can be found in the Fellowship's journey through Moria, so it's hardly out of question for the fantasy genre. Now, if you don't want to try and make it make sense, you can absolutely do that, but it's hardly the only logical position.

 

[The Firebird]

how is hitting the creature with your swing and doing damage not succeeding at the task of hitting the creature with your weapon to deal damage?

I think @pemerton's idea is that a "hit" on a roll could mean a hit with a weapon, but could also be read as a near miss that depletes the PCs energy/luck/etc. And therefore reduces hp without making contact.

 

[Maxperson]

Yes. This is one of the reasons why I don't have a particularly positive opinion of the typical way the "traditional GM" role is presented. Because that's exactly what it looks like to me. Player input is irrelevant outside of coloring within the established lines. You get to decide if your roses are red or white or yellow or maybe green if you're feeling adventurous.

This misperception is why so many traditional DMs argue with you. What we do isn't even close to being one person telling a story, or forcing players to color between established lines. That's just not what we do.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I think @pemerton's idea is that a "hit" on a roll could mean a hit with a weapon, but could also be read as a near miss that depletes the PCs energy/luck/etc. And therefore reduces hp without making contact.

Yeah, it gets muddy if you do that, so I don't. Hit is a hit that connected and caused some harm. Damage is actual injury, though it might be very slight. HP are still weird, but it at least we can maintain some level of coherent connection between the fiction and the rules this way.

 

[Umbran]

Why would the founders of a place filled with undead create runes to show intruders the way out and escape the undead?

Why do people write down important passwords and leave them on a post-it on their monitors?

 

[Maxperson]

Why do people write down important passwords and leave them on a post-it on their monitors?

I rather think there's a bit of a difference between writing the password down on an easy to use post-it note and sticking it to your monitor as a reminder to yourself, and going through the time and expense to inscribe runes that will last centuries that show the way out of a place you know the way out of and don't want others who come in to know about. Also, this is a dungeon, not someone's mansion or castle.

 

[Maxperson]

I, personally, have no use for blue cheese, and have been quoted as thinking that funk is great in music, but not in food. Except... I just had buffalo chicken fingers with blue cheese sauce for lunch. And I enjoyed it!

That happened to my wife some time back. Both of us very much dislike asparagus. At an executive luncheon a few years ago the restaurant served some sort of seasoned and bacon wrapped asparagus. She tried it and really liked it.

 

[Gimby]

There's no falsehood there. We are pretending to be pretend elves(or whatever race) in a pretend world. That's all true. It's all pretend.

And we pretend these falsehoods are true, for the time we pretend to spend in that world. Otherwise there would be no reason to suspend our disbelief.

 

[Maxperson]

Or the visitor was a long time ago and was writing in something readable for their time. Or the original builders put the map in place before it was overrun by whatever haunts it now. Or it's not a map, but instead some information (such as the name of a chamber) that can be cross-referenced by a scholar to lead to knowledge of how to escape by allowing them to get their bearings. Or the visitor was more recent but used an obscure script for their own reasons.

Most of the above can be found in the Fellowship's journey through Moria, so it's hardly out of question for the fantasy genre. Now, if you don't want to try and make it make sense, you can absolutely do that, but it's hardly the only logical position.

Sure, but in Moria it was written in dwarvish, not some obscure runes that would take a history or arcana check to decipher. While dwarvish might be runic in origin, it's still a racial language that anyone who knows dwarvish could read. Moria is also a city, not a dungeon so inscribed guide stones would make a lot of sense. Gandalf was the one looking at the markers, but if he had not been there Gimli could have read them just as easily. Easier in fact since he grew up with that language.

The scenario presented is a dungeon, not a city like Moria. And runes, not a racial language. Those differences mean a lot.