The top 100 'Sacred Cows' of Roleplaying

[sniffles]

Killing a character is, in part, the DM's job; and a good DM will have the occasional character die in the game...either that, or the characters aren't being challenged enough.

Lanefan

#91(I think). Actually, this is one of the 'sacred cows' I object to. Why does a challenge have to be deadly to be a challenge?

#92. The game should never interfere with Real Life (TM).
Why can't you tell your family you're not available for dinner on Father's Day because you have a game scheduled? (especially if you don't really enjoy your family members)

#93. Real life should never interfere with the game.


[cruddy simultaneous posting - renumbered]

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

In D&D, this doesn't happen. Magic is based around individuals, not groups. It requires training and sacrifice. By the DMG demographics, there aren't enough spellcasters to radically change the world.

There are for the elite. No one dies of disease, no one important dies from accident, and raise dead is commonplace for high power people. It needs to be accounted for. Similarly, know alignment, detect evil, zone of truth would have a huge impact on any important trials.

And thats just counting the effects of spellcasters, and not the muiltitudes of rampaging magical beasts.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

#90 - The 'Standard' Point-Buy. The system scales linearly. WHY, oh WHY don't the @!%#$! point-buys? A 12 is to a 14 as a 16 is to an 18. The 'Standard' point-buy does not mimic this. At all. And don't get me started on the Power-shift this annoying Cow does for races. Hmm, 1 feat and skill points, or some racial abilities, and 6 more points to spend on stats....

*deep cleansing breath*
Okay. Next.

Thats bugged me too. We use "lucky 7", where your stat mods add up to a total of +7 at 1st level. 3 stats can be odd, nothing can go below 6. After its all said and done, you apply racial bonuses and penalties. Makes playing a nonfavorable race/class combo (half orc wizard, dwarf sorcerer, etc) less painful.

Mooks get like +2-5 depending on what they are representing. It makes character generation really fast. I rarely even write down a one shot npc's actual stat, just their bonuses.

 

[LostSoul]

#94. Metagaming is bad.

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

#95. Raise Dead.

In 1978, after raising the paladin back from the dead for the third time, the player of the paladin said he was bored and saw no point in having raise dead being so available per the RAW. I discussed with the entire group and all of us agreed to eliminate Raise Dead and Ressurection. Since then all the campaigns I've run did not have Raise Dead or Ressurection. And we liked it!

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

#96. Magic Missile, Fireball, and Lightning Bolt.

I don't allow these spells in my campaigns. Some players's relish the opportunity to use the other 1,001 spells that are out there. Others whine like preschoolers that it's impossible to play an arcane spellcaster without the "holy trinity of spells."

 

[buzz]

#96. Magic Missile, Fireball, and Lightning Bolt.

I don't allow these spells in my campaigns.

Why the heck not?

 

[lukelightning]

#96. Magic Missile, Fireball, and Lightning Bolt.

I don't allow these spells in my campaigns. Some players's relish the opportunity to use the other 1,001 spells that are out there. Others whine like preschoolers that it's impossible to play an arcane spellcaster without the "holy trinity of spells."

That's harsh. Do you hamstring the monsters as well? Do you screw with other class spell lists as well? Do you say to fighters "Sorry, no power attack for you! There are lots of other feats, though!"

 

[lukelightning]

#95. Raise Dead.

I see no problem with raise dead as long as you don't think to hard about it. For me it's just a way to keep a player playing the game without making up a new character (which could be exactly the same as the one that died) and worrying about how to integrate this new character into the game/party and figuring out what to do with the dead person's stuff.

Be that as it may, most players I've seen are happy when their characters die, since it gives them a chance to play one of the zillion other character concepts they have floating around in their devious little brains.

 

[buzz]

Be that as it may, most players I've seen are happy when their characters die, since it gives them a chance to play one of the zillion other character concepts they have floating around in their devious little brains.

:Raises hand:

The only time PC death genuinely bugged me was when my long-time barb got killed pretty much due to (what I considered) a weak DM ruling that "I'm guarding the door" apparently meant "I'm standing around like an idiot letting monsters whack me" because I didn't specifically use the phrase "ready an action to attack enemies who approach the door". I didn't even get the benefit of a solid "It's way late on a weeknight and we've been running this combat for hours already; you know that's what I meant" excuse. :\

Otherwise... bring it on. Don't care if I die fair n' square.