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

[hawkeyefan]

I did respond to you. It just wasn't (as far as I can tell) what you wanted to hear from me.

Yes, you did. But @dave2008 had jumped in before you had, and I was explaining to him why I would ask someone to justify their opinion.

I wanted him to realize I was doing so not because I have an issue with his opinion, but it was because you wanted me to justify mine.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I am more familiar with Vampire: The Masquerade (that game was huge when I was in high school and there was always someone running it). I think we were pretty loose with the rules though. Most of our campaigns seemed to turn into Near Dark situations

 

[JConstantine]

I've seen it mentioned online in places. It's not something I've encountered a lot in actual play.

I will say, it certainly seems to be the BitD version of a munchkin.

the GM can never dictate the spending of Stress... it's always up to the player.

One small caveat to that: flashbacks. The GM is the one who decides the stress cost of a given flashback, based on plausibility, essentially.

Consequences. Once you've spent 9 Stress, your character is out of the action temporarily... which often means for the remainder of the Score, but not always... and then they take a Trauma.

This a pet peeve of mine from Blades players. The book specifies "out of the action". That is typically going to be the "scene", not the score, but it could be anything from the scene, to the score, to a brief moment within the scene, to in-game weeks.

 

[hawkeyefan]

My Songs players were super cautious for a while, and then it was like a switch flipped and they started racing each other for their first Scar (Trauma analogue). Not for XP, but just to show the wear and tear on their characters and find a new interesting thing to twist their role-play. Was super cool!

That's typically been my experience is that once players kind of get settled with the game, they then enjoy the traumas because it shows that they've been through some stuff. It's more fun to play someone Haunted by their decisions, or Paranoid about their enemies.

 

[Lanefan]

This doesn’t seem like a very effective example because it simultaneously universally true in all RPG systems (whether Narrativist, trad or sandbox, if a character is established in a particular location, he is not going to appear elsewhere), but also false in a matter that is independent of RPG systems: i.e. in any high magic setting, independent of Narrativist, trad or sandbox, there is a possibility that a character can travel virtually instantaneously between locations.

If what I said is universally true across all RPG systems then that tells me I got it right.

And yes, there's the possibility that a character can travel long-range in a hurry but having that possibility happen just at the right moment for the traveller to meet the party his player wants him to join - yeah, that's contrivance all day long; and is the only type of contrivance that I as a DM am willing to make happen.

 

[Faolyn]

When I say every game that values those things, I don't mean every system. I mean every table. Literally ever game being played that values verisimilitude et al, even if the system being used has higher priorities.

So wait, I'm confused. Every game that values verisimilitude is better with GM as neutral referee rather than, e.g., GM as fan of the players?

If that's the case, that doesn't make sense. "GM as fan of the players" doesn't mean "GM makes everything go their way." It nearly always means "give the PCs challenges that let them shine and use their abilities."

 

[hawkeyefan]

I will say, it certainly seems to be the BitD version of a munchkin.

My pet peeve along these lines is the Training downtime action.

One small caveat to that: flashbacks. The GM is the one who decides the stress cost of a given flashback, based on plausibility, essentially.

This is true... but the player could always decide not to take the flashback. So although the GM sets the cost, the player decides to pay it or not.

This a pet peeve of mine from Blades players. The book specifies "out of the current action". That is typically going to be the "scene", not the score, but it could be anything from the scene, to the score, to a brief moment within the scene, to in-game weeks.

Yeah, it's a common misconception. Many Scores may revolve mostly or entirely around one scene or one location... but not all. I had only one instance in the first campaign I ran of it where I told the player that his character was back up and in play... and it kind of blew everyone' minds.

 

[JConstantine]

I am more familiar with Vampire: The Masquerade (that game was huge when I was in high school and there was always someone running it). I think we were pretty loose with the rules though. Most of our campaigns seemed to turn into Near Dark situations

Sounds like a standard Sabbat pack.

 

[AnotherGuy]

When they're in the field, my start-of-session summary consists of telling them what hit points, spells, etc. the're currently at,

Geez, are you seriously taking all that on yourself, they do not manage their own character sheets?

 

[zakael19]

I will say, it certainly seems to be the BitD version of a munchkin.


One small caveat to that: flashbacks. The GM is the one who decides the stress cost of a given flashback, based on plausibility, essentially.


This a pet peeve of mine from Blades players. The book specifies "out of the action". That is typically going to be the "scene", not the score, but it could be anything from the scene, to the score, to a brief moment within the scene, to in-game weeks.

I really appreciate that Deep Cuts clarified the latter to be that it means the "scene conflict" and not the entire score or anything broader, and also leaves it in the player's court to say how exactly it manifests - which could be anything from yeah, they go catatonic for a while and have to be dragged away up through "I snap in rage and stab the Bluecoat over and over and over and over until blood is spattered everywhere;" or even something that manifests less noticeably now - but maybe comes up the next time something bad happens when they Invoke it to complicate!