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Reliable Talent. What the what?
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7296226" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>All of that is true, but it's the sort of reply that makes me think you didn't understand what I was saying. In this case, the difficulty in breaking into the building is based on the fact that you have a consistent picture of how the world works. As such, the lock strength is based on the fact that gas stations have a certain level of security (pretty much anywhere, with variation perhaps based on the prevalence of property crime), police stations have a certain level of security, and sensitive government installations have a certain level of security. You could conceivably, before the start of such a campaign write up the stats for typical security of such buildings regardless of where they were found, and then just stick to your choices.</p><p></p><p>That is coherent, but it's precisely the thing I was recommending. </p><p></p><p>What I was complaining about was something quite different. </p><p></p><p>One approach that I complained about was tailoring the level of security to the PC, so that the lock strength at the gas station was based on how good the PC was at picking locks. That is to say, the DM decided that it would be 'boring' to make breaking into the gas station easy for a high level PC, and so invents elaborate security (or at least, high DC's) because the DM sees his job as 'providing challenge'. That ultimately ends up punishing PC's for being competent.</p><p></p><p>Another approach I complained about was having the gas station, police station, and CIA headquarters all have masterwork locks because 'Langley VA' was a zone designed for high level play and so everything in the zone was more difficult. This approach is sometimes seen in PnP adventure paths (or MMORPGs). The trope might be best typified by, "The bears are now level 80." </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Sure, but that's not the problem that I see in this thread. The problem I see in this thread is that people are somewhat upset that the 20th level spy faces no challenge if he turns his attention to knocking off gas stations. So? The fault there is not the system, but the PC for setting his sights so low. A 20th level spy that can break into the CIA headquarters should be creating those sort of stories. But, if he for some reason wants to knock off a gas station, it shouldn't be suddenly harder to do now just because he's 20th level, than it would have been had he attempted the same thing at 1st level.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Verisimilitude was exactly what I was advocating when I wrote, "When a DM doesn't have a consistent picture of how his world works..."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7296226, member: 4937"] All of that is true, but it's the sort of reply that makes me think you didn't understand what I was saying. In this case, the difficulty in breaking into the building is based on the fact that you have a consistent picture of how the world works. As such, the lock strength is based on the fact that gas stations have a certain level of security (pretty much anywhere, with variation perhaps based on the prevalence of property crime), police stations have a certain level of security, and sensitive government installations have a certain level of security. You could conceivably, before the start of such a campaign write up the stats for typical security of such buildings regardless of where they were found, and then just stick to your choices. That is coherent, but it's precisely the thing I was recommending. What I was complaining about was something quite different. One approach that I complained about was tailoring the level of security to the PC, so that the lock strength at the gas station was based on how good the PC was at picking locks. That is to say, the DM decided that it would be 'boring' to make breaking into the gas station easy for a high level PC, and so invents elaborate security (or at least, high DC's) because the DM sees his job as 'providing challenge'. That ultimately ends up punishing PC's for being competent. Another approach I complained about was having the gas station, police station, and CIA headquarters all have masterwork locks because 'Langley VA' was a zone designed for high level play and so everything in the zone was more difficult. This approach is sometimes seen in PnP adventure paths (or MMORPGs). The trope might be best typified by, "The bears are now level 80." Sure, but that's not the problem that I see in this thread. The problem I see in this thread is that people are somewhat upset that the 20th level spy faces no challenge if he turns his attention to knocking off gas stations. So? The fault there is not the system, but the PC for setting his sights so low. A 20th level spy that can break into the CIA headquarters should be creating those sort of stories. But, if he for some reason wants to knock off a gas station, it shouldn't be suddenly harder to do now just because he's 20th level, than it would have been had he attempted the same thing at 1st level. Verisimilitude was exactly what I was advocating when I wrote, "When a DM doesn't have a consistent picture of how his world works..." [/QUOTE]
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