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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: 8506063" 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 will now scale these very cliffs - yes, this daunting north face before me - in order to surprise dear old Ma." </em>And in conversation they have established that climbing straight up is the best or only possible way to surprise her. (Not my example.)</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">Foremost I was weary of being tested by this point and stepped outside - adopting a metagame voice intentionally skeptical of the process.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">In line with that, the character "remembers" the other cases. They ask themselves about that path to the east (introduced by the case provider only now, in the third example...). I felt that was enough to signify my skepticism. (In hindsight, it was not.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Still, there is perforce a meaningful consequence, that justified rolling. Here the layered consequences are reduced to one: falling and risking death.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I saw no reason to spell things out further or even to give the real narration, because...</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A consequence of falling and death speaks for itself: this case is trivial... given that the roll was rightly called under 5e*.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I will spell it out here in case it seems otherwise. As noted in my response to 1, the first part doesn't need a roll if there is no time pressure: we go straight to the overhang.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">We're assuming all failed rolls. I (or rather, DM whose shoes I am filling) have telegraphed the lethality of a fail on the overhang. No progress here is not a nothingburger, it is (probably) death. 10d6 bludgeoning.</li> </ul><p>Again, I disliked that the character has chosen an insanely dangerous task just to surprise their Ma, but by the terms of the test I can't question that. I can only assume that it matters to them that they do it. As DM, I am not here to tell players what they think, do or say. Again, avoiding conflicts across all three narrations made the process feel artificial.. maybe that drove my antipathy toward this case.</p><p></p><p>I did feel that there might be something worthwhile in contrasting different types and sizes of consequences. I snuck in a challenge to such assumptions. For the character, was death (3) a less meaningful consequence than Demogorgon (1)?</p><p></p><p>[USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER] for vis. This one is spicy so will await response.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="clearstream, post: 8506063, 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 will now scale these very cliffs - yes, this daunting north face before me - in order to surprise dear old Ma." [/I]And in conversation they have established that climbing straight up is the best or only possible way to surprise her. (Not my example.) 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] [*]Foremost I was weary of being tested by this point and stepped outside - adopting a metagame voice intentionally skeptical of the process. [*]In line with that, the character "remembers" the other cases. They ask themselves about that path to the east (introduced by the case provider only now, in the third example...). I felt that was enough to signify my skepticism. (In hindsight, it was not.) [*]Still, there is perforce a meaningful consequence, that justified rolling. Here the layered consequences are reduced to one: falling and risking death. [*]I saw no reason to spell things out further or even to give the real narration, because... [*]A consequence of falling and death speaks for itself: this case is trivial... given that the roll was rightly called under 5e*. [*]I will spell it out here in case it seems otherwise. As noted in my response to 1, the first part doesn't need a roll if there is no time pressure: we go straight to the overhang. [*]We're assuming all failed rolls. I (or rather, DM whose shoes I am filling) have telegraphed the lethality of a fail on the overhang. No progress here is not a nothingburger, it is (probably) death. 10d6 bludgeoning. [/LIST] Again, I disliked that the character has chosen an insanely dangerous task just to surprise their Ma, but by the terms of the test I can't question that. I can only assume that it matters to them that they do it. As DM, I am not here to tell players what they think, do or say. Again, avoiding conflicts across all three narrations made the process feel artificial.. maybe that drove my antipathy toward this case. I did feel that there might be something worthwhile in contrasting different types and sizes of consequences. I snuck in a challenge to such assumptions. For the character, was death (3) a less meaningful consequence than Demogorgon (1)? [USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER] for vis. This one is spicy so will await response. [/QUOTE]
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