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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 8695804" data-attributes="member: 6801228">head deskYes, I understand that fear and the frightened condition are not necessarily the same thing. Someone can be scared (ie experience fear) without being under the effects of the frightened condition. I understand that, in fact, it underlines my entire point. Because being brave is about fear. As you literally said, to quote you right here "A character who is afraid of something can move towards the source of their fear. This is being brave."  (emphasis mine_The frightened condition supersedes this. Following the mechanical rules of the frightened condition has no bearing on whether or not you are brave. The halfling ability is about the frightened condition. It isn't about fear. Therefore, since it isn't about fear, it can't be about being brave. Because it is only about the frightened condition, and to again quote you "This isn't being brave or being not brave or being cowardly; it's being under the effects of a game condition that has its own rules that supersede player agency." So, since this is all true, halflings are not braver than other races. They can't be, because the frightened condition which is a game effect with specific rules that override player agency, is the ONLY thing that the halfing ability interacts with. And since the frightened condition has no bearing on whether or not someone is brave, this mechanical ability of the halflings also has no bearing on whether or not someone is brave. You are literally laying out, in precise detail, my entire point. Describing halflings as "the brave race" because of this ability to interact with the frightened condition misstates what bravery is, because bravery has nothing to do with the frightened condition. Failing a save and falling under the mechanical effects of the frightened condition, has zero bearing on whether or not the character is brave. This is why I've proposed changing the name of the ability, and pushing for people not to describe halflings as exceptionally brave, because it doesn't work and comes from conflation.And once again. I understand that comic books and games are different media. I understand that games have rules and comic book rules are different. I understand that you can have plot contrivances in a comic book, that you can't have in a game. Supernatural luck is a plot contrivance. It always is a plot contrivance. It is nothing but a plot contrivance. It is literally the ability for things to work out for the sake of the plot. So, since you can't have plot contrivances as mechanics in a game (at least not in a game designed in the way Dungeons and Dragons is designed) then supernatural luck is out of place. Halflings are repeatedly stated, by players, by DMs, and by the sourcebooks themselves to be supernaturally lucky. In the video I posted before Mearls talks about how a kingdom couldn't invade a halfling village, because the cartographer 20 years ago made a mistake and didn't mark where the village was on a map. This is, from the creative lead of the design of the game, how halfling luck works. It is a plot contrivance. It is literally the ability to alter the narrative to suit them, not actively, but passively. And so, since this is a tabletop game where the game has rules in order to keep things fair and working in a specific way... halfling luck as we are told it must work by the narratives and lore of the game doesn't fit. It would be a bad rule. It would be a bad game design. I'm not talking about the lucky mechanic which affects the d20, that doesn't matter in this discussion, except that it is trying (and failing) to represent this supernatural luck of plot contrivances. I'm talking about what we have been told is true by the people who make the game. And so, I have put forth, that since it is bad game design to have a race that has "plot contrivance" as a racial power, that we should move away from it. Because it is doing us no favors, and instead, putting a burden on the DM to include plot contrivances when dealing with halflings, otherwise they are violating the "halfling fantasy". But, again, I do understand that when I sit down to play a game, I'm not reading a comic book. And when I'm writing a novel, I'm not playing a game. Because those things are different.And because the DM can't force players to act certain ways, and the game has rules to keep things fair, I think the game setting up the basic expectation that "halflings are unusually brave and supernaturally lucky" is bad for the game. Those traits work great for a book or a movie, because the writer has perfect and full control over the characters they create, but that isn't true for a game.</blockquote>

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