Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 5801871" data-attributes="member: 5143">I think this difference is precisely the difference between old school gamers and new school gamers.  Old school gamers like the idea that you say what you'd LIKE to do, and the DM determines how hard that is and exactly how you go about doing it.In new school gaming, the DM or the player or both consult the rules to see how hard something is and how you go about doing it.  If an example isn't in the book, they try to approximate one based on the existing examples.  If a rule isn't available on HOW to do something, they make it up, but they pick the closest, fairest rule and adapt it accordingly.Often, in old school gaming there is literally zero examples of how difficult something is or even any rules on how to do anything remotely like what you are asking.Sometimes this results in wildly different ways to handle the same situation from DM to DM.  In one DM's game jumping off a chandelier and on to an enemy to attack would be handled with a str check to jump far enough to grab it, a dex check to hang on and another dex check to land near enough your target to attack(and on your feet), then you'd get a -5 to your attack roll for attacking in such an awkward fashion without proper footing to make your attack.  Fail any of the rolls and you'd end up flat on your face, losing your next turn and taking damage from the fall.In another DM's game, you might succeed automatically and get a +5 bonus to the roll and double damage for surprising the enemy.I've found most DMs don't really tell you your chance of success in advance.  Most of the time, in my experience, asking this question gets responses like "You don't know, you've never tried it before...try it and find out."  This is because most DMs have no idea what the rules will be for this sort of thing before they come out of their mouths.  I had a DM who ruled something similar to the first example.  It was obvious he had no idea I was going to be making a dex check to determine if I landed in the right spot until after I made the dex check to grab the chandelier.  And he was hoping I'd fail the grab the chandelier roll so he didn't have to keep making up rules.Other times no one asks how difficult something will be simply because of a difference in perception, knowledge, and life experience.  A player may find the idea of jumping over a 5 ft hole perfectly normal and easy to do.  A DM may think: "5 ft?  I can't jump that far without a running start, no matter how hard I try.  It's an impossible task."  So, the conversation never happens.  The player just says "Well, I jump over the hole" and the DM says "You try, but you fall to your death instead."Or the example I keep using, where a player uses a fireball in a wooden building, the DM says "You're sure?  It's a small building, you'll set the place on fire?"  The player says "Sure, it's the enemies base, we'll burn it down in the process of beating them."  So, then the battle continues for a round after that, and the DM tells everyone that they are taking fire damage because of the blazing, out of control inferno that has engulfed the room they are standing in.  The player says "It's only been 1 round!  How is the entire room on fire, I only hit that one wall?"  The DM says "It's made of wood, fire spreads extremely fast."  Meanwhile, the player made their decision based on the fact that he thought the fire would take 10 or 15 minutes to burn down the building and they'd be long gone before that happened.</blockquote>

Verification