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<blockquote data-quote="Riley37" data-source="post: 6586548" data-attributes="member: 6786839"><p>I'd rather just rule the tables which I DM.</p><p></p><p>I have house rules which STRONGLY discourage other players from saying ANYTHING tactical during another player's decision of what to do with their round. (DM standing orders: if you see another player have their PC make a horrible mistake... then decide, silently, what YOUR character will do, on YOUR character's turn, in the wake of that horrible mistake.) Exception: While Player A decides what PC A wil do, then Player B may speak for *up to six seconds*, IF (and only if) PC B uses their Reaction to speak mid-combat, and PC A is in position to hear PC B's words.</p><p></p><p>This works with players who enjoy quick resolution of fight scenes, and who are OK with the heroes muddling through, winning by abilities and courage and luck rather than by perfect execution of optimal plans.</p><p></p><p>I enjoy fight scenes in which PCs make mistakes, survive those mistakes, and carry on. Or make what COULD have been a mistake, but everything works out fine, maybe it takes them ten rounds to win instead of an optimal-move seven-turn victory. I enjoy those fight scenes more than I enjoy a game in which each PC acts as if a chorus of experts, audible only to them, had spent minutes debating what they should do, in the six seconds since their last action.</p><p></p><p>I mean, consider the Seahawks at Super Bowl 2014: they were among the *best in the world* at American football, a sport which has huge financial incentives to draw excellent players onto professional teams. And yet, in the heat of the moment, in a career-defining game, their quarterback made a snap-second decision to throw a slant pass in the end zone. In 20-20 hindsight, that may have been a mistake. But it was a mistake made by *world-class experts*... who were under pressure from another team of world-class experts. Are the PCs in your campaign really that much better, at making decisions under pressure, than the teams who play the Super Bowl?</p><p></p><p>If a PC makes a horrible mistake, that can be awful for the PC, but amusing to the players. I consider it a success when a PC decides something like "wow, I will NEVER AGAIN start a lamp-oil fire in an unventilated underground passage, and I'll NEVER AGAIN fire a crossbow at a target who's surrounded by my allies." I think that's a better story, than the tale of the PCs who sailed through life without ever making imperfect choices in the heat of battle.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Riley37, post: 6586548, member: 6786839"] I'd rather just rule the tables which I DM. I have house rules which STRONGLY discourage other players from saying ANYTHING tactical during another player's decision of what to do with their round. (DM standing orders: if you see another player have their PC make a horrible mistake... then decide, silently, what YOUR character will do, on YOUR character's turn, in the wake of that horrible mistake.) Exception: While Player A decides what PC A wil do, then Player B may speak for *up to six seconds*, IF (and only if) PC B uses their Reaction to speak mid-combat, and PC A is in position to hear PC B's words. This works with players who enjoy quick resolution of fight scenes, and who are OK with the heroes muddling through, winning by abilities and courage and luck rather than by perfect execution of optimal plans. I enjoy fight scenes in which PCs make mistakes, survive those mistakes, and carry on. Or make what COULD have been a mistake, but everything works out fine, maybe it takes them ten rounds to win instead of an optimal-move seven-turn victory. I enjoy those fight scenes more than I enjoy a game in which each PC acts as if a chorus of experts, audible only to them, had spent minutes debating what they should do, in the six seconds since their last action. I mean, consider the Seahawks at Super Bowl 2014: they were among the *best in the world* at American football, a sport which has huge financial incentives to draw excellent players onto professional teams. And yet, in the heat of the moment, in a career-defining game, their quarterback made a snap-second decision to throw a slant pass in the end zone. In 20-20 hindsight, that may have been a mistake. But it was a mistake made by *world-class experts*... who were under pressure from another team of world-class experts. Are the PCs in your campaign really that much better, at making decisions under pressure, than the teams who play the Super Bowl? If a PC makes a horrible mistake, that can be awful for the PC, but amusing to the players. I consider it a success when a PC decides something like "wow, I will NEVER AGAIN start a lamp-oil fire in an unventilated underground passage, and I'll NEVER AGAIN fire a crossbow at a target who's surrounded by my allies." I think that's a better story, than the tale of the PCs who sailed through life without ever making imperfect choices in the heat of battle. [/QUOTE]
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