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Roleplaying in D&D 5E: It’s How You Play the Game
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<blockquote data-quote="clearstream" data-source="post: 8505975" data-attributes="member: 71699"><p>Context. A DM has rightly said "roll" in response to player saying something about what their character does. Rightly means that everything is in place for that to be the right call. I think that includes something from player along the lines of "<em>I scramble desperately to the top of these cliffs before the ritual completes!</em>" and in conversation they have established that climbing straight up is the best or only possible way. We know there is a trail to the east, so ruling that out implies it is too circuitous or goes elsewhere. Here is the potted take of the establishing fiction.</p><p></p><p></p><p>It's threadbare, but that's by definition not at issue. I am now stepping into that DM's shoes to narrate no progress: player failed the roll. I don't know the fiction prior to this point, so I have to go on what's there. (For additional context I take the three cases together to be a scaling of the size of consequences - from existence imperilling to a possible nothing: I understand that as an intended element of the "test" of narration.)</p><p></p><p>With the same brevity as the establishing fiction, I outline a possible narration under 5e*.</p><p></p><p></p><p>My thinking process was as follows.</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The urgency of "<em>I must ascend!</em>" makes me feel a doom clock is in play; one that players are aware of. I think they are here and urgently want to climb, because of that clock. But, sadly, they failed.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There are at least two layers of possible consequence here. One is the urgent doom clock at the centre of the fiction, that I take to be the culmination of hours of prior conversation. The other is falling and taking damage, which is a common climb-related consequence in 5e.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">No gear or approach is detailed, so I assume that for whatever reason a free climb straight up made sense to all. I decided the wall was 100' of easy climbing, to a hard overhang for the last dozen feet. Note these keywords equate to 5e DCs.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Additionally, fails on that first part are no progress, not falls. I hope I have telegraphed that fail on the overhang could mean a fall. (Context note. The way the three cases were laid out, these details were provided later in my post. The cliffs had been specified as the same cliffs and I thought it clear that players would be in possession of those details for all three. I'm assuming the DM whose shoes I'm filling gave them that, but I need to specify this detail for the sake of consequences.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I decided we were going to work in roughly one minute increments, so one check gets to the overhang, one gets over it.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">For the sake of brevity, I assume that the easy check is failed and that no progress guarantees that the ritual completes before players can get there.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">As DM, it seems too much to hang the end of existence - and maybe the campaign - on one climb check!</li> </ul><p>Leaning on my experience with OOTA, I decide that a demon lord summoning is a better consequence, and more than meaningful enough. That's such a big deal that I don't feel motivated to consider falling damage - the character's stymied on the easy stretch. I know it's possible to run an engaging campaign with Demogorgon live in it (if you run roughshod over the book as written, as I did.)</p><p></p><p>Note that I chose not to rule out retries. Player is free to try again to climb up... but, Demogorgon. I hint that doing so would be sanity threatening (that's taken directly from OOTA) and hope they get the hint that living to fight another day might be the better course. If they did try to climb then I'd run that straight.</p><p></p><p>I have no idea what classes or levels are involved. Easy is 10, hard is 20. If time pressure were not a factor I wouldn't feel a roll necessary for the first stretch. It would take two or three minutes to scramble up it using the multiple attempts rules. 20 will usually be hard enough to require a check, given the long fall.</p><p></p><p>What do I dislike about this narration? Being forced to picture the same cliffs for three very different situations made this difficult. Seeing as a roll was rightly called in all three, consequences were rightly in play in every case. The added puzzle as I saw it was to avoid any narration invalidating the others: I can't recall ever doing that in real play.</p><p></p><p>[USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER] for vis.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="clearstream, post: 8505975, member: 71699"] Context. A DM has rightly said "roll" in response to player saying something about what their character does. Rightly means that everything is in place for that to be the right call. I think that includes something from player along the lines of "[I]I scramble desperately to the top of these cliffs before the ritual completes![/I]" and in conversation they have established that climbing straight up is the best or only possible way. We know there is a trail to the east, so ruling that out implies it is too circuitous or goes elsewhere. Here is the potted take of the establishing fiction. It's threadbare, but that's by definition not at issue. I am now stepping into that DM's shoes to narrate no progress: player failed the roll. I don't know the fiction prior to this point, so I have to go on what's there. (For additional context I take the three cases together to be a scaling of the size of consequences - from existence imperilling to a possible nothing: I understand that as an intended element of the "test" of narration.) With the same brevity as the establishing fiction, I outline a possible narration under 5e*. My thinking process was as follows. [LIST] [*]The urgency of "[I]I must ascend![/I]" makes me feel a doom clock is in play; one that players are aware of. I think they are here and urgently want to climb, because of that clock. But, sadly, they failed. [*]There are at least two layers of possible consequence here. One is the urgent doom clock at the centre of the fiction, that I take to be the culmination of hours of prior conversation. The other is falling and taking damage, which is a common climb-related consequence in 5e. [*]No gear or approach is detailed, so I assume that for whatever reason a free climb straight up made sense to all. I decided the wall was 100' of easy climbing, to a hard overhang for the last dozen feet. Note these keywords equate to 5e DCs. [*]Additionally, fails on that first part are no progress, not falls. I hope I have telegraphed that fail on the overhang could mean a fall. (Context note. The way the three cases were laid out, these details were provided later in my post. The cliffs had been specified as the same cliffs and I thought it clear that players would be in possession of those details for all three. I'm assuming the DM whose shoes I'm filling gave them that, but I need to specify this detail for the sake of consequences.) [*]I decided we were going to work in roughly one minute increments, so one check gets to the overhang, one gets over it. [*]For the sake of brevity, I assume that the easy check is failed and that no progress guarantees that the ritual completes before players can get there. [*]As DM, it seems too much to hang the end of existence - and maybe the campaign - on one climb check! [/LIST] Leaning on my experience with OOTA, I decide that a demon lord summoning is a better consequence, and more than meaningful enough. That's such a big deal that I don't feel motivated to consider falling damage - the character's stymied on the easy stretch. I know it's possible to run an engaging campaign with Demogorgon live in it (if you run roughshod over the book as written, as I did.) Note that I chose not to rule out retries. Player is free to try again to climb up... but, Demogorgon. I hint that doing so would be sanity threatening (that's taken directly from OOTA) and hope they get the hint that living to fight another day might be the better course. If they did try to climb then I'd run that straight. I have no idea what classes or levels are involved. Easy is 10, hard is 20. If time pressure were not a factor I wouldn't feel a roll necessary for the first stretch. It would take two or three minutes to scramble up it using the multiple attempts rules. 20 will usually be hard enough to require a check, given the long fall. What do I dislike about this narration? Being forced to picture the same cliffs for three very different situations made this difficult. Seeing as a roll was rightly called in all three, consequences were rightly in play in every case. The added puzzle as I saw it was to avoid any narration invalidating the others: I can't recall ever doing that in real play. [USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER] for vis. [/QUOTE]
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