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Things your table should do, but doesn't do- The Fun v. Efficiency Thread
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<blockquote data-quote="Mercule" data-source="post: 7556002" data-attributes="member: 5100"><p>I'm almost always the GM, and a couple of my players have been in my group for over 25 years, so it's really hard to distinguish between personal quirks and table customs, at this point. Here goes:</p><p></p><p>Skill names are malleable. Over the course of 35 years of gaming, I've played 6 editions of D&D and about 20 other systems. I really don't care if you call it "spot", "perception", "notice", "awareness", or "flufferpump" -- can we both understand what the die roll is intended to check? Cool. Then roll the freaking die. In a similar vein, if I tell you to roll Knowledge: History to know something about a magic sword and you think your Craft: Weaponsmithing should work, let me know and I'll probably let it pass. There may or may not be a penalty, depending on what the specific info to be revealed is.</p><p></p><p>Let me finish describing the scene before you act. This isn't an ego thing, on my part. Sometimes the details provide important clues to what's going on and interrupting the description can cause other players to miss something I said, me to lose my place and think I'd given info I hadn't, or otherwise just generally screw up the flow of information and cause misunderstandings. In a theatre of the mind game, that's a killer. Even with minis and a map, some of the info is verbal (this is a fire, but it's <u>blue</u>). If someone is really bad, the table fully backs up the notion that I should let the action occur and that player totally botched whatever perception check they should have made -- up to and including the existence of a bottomless chasm right in front of them or Demogorgon and an army of demons.</p><p></p><p>Don't crunch the numbers too hard. Yes, be competent, but don't worry about that extra damage a long sword does vs a short sword. Feats exist for personality, not statistical benefit (primarily). Most of the group is there to casually hang out and have fun. If one player starts crunching, in earnest, it'll be obvious and throw off the balance of the whole group. If this was a board game, it'd be a different story, but a TTRPG is neither a tactical minis skirmish game nor an amateur improve troop. It's somewhere in between (kinda) and has its own character.</p><p></p><p>The rules are guidelines. Yes, they're important, and we theoretically go by RAW, but TTRPGs ultimately live and die by the GM. The flow of the game is more important than the letter of the law. The legalism of the d20 days kinda broke this part of the group, but we've intentionally brought it back in. It seems to have been the missing ingredient that made the AD&D games so much fun, even if we appreciate the 5E rules and have no interest in going back to the older rules.</p><p></p><p>Always do a Session 0. This is a new one. We tried it, a couple years ago, because the players ended up all hating their characters, which were created to "test" 5E and were driven past their expiration date. The result was extraordinary and we resolved to never not do a Session 0 again. I think we've done it twice, so far, but I don't see us changing.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mercule, post: 7556002, member: 5100"] I'm almost always the GM, and a couple of my players have been in my group for over 25 years, so it's really hard to distinguish between personal quirks and table customs, at this point. Here goes: Skill names are malleable. Over the course of 35 years of gaming, I've played 6 editions of D&D and about 20 other systems. I really don't care if you call it "spot", "perception", "notice", "awareness", or "flufferpump" -- can we both understand what the die roll is intended to check? Cool. Then roll the freaking die. In a similar vein, if I tell you to roll Knowledge: History to know something about a magic sword and you think your Craft: Weaponsmithing should work, let me know and I'll probably let it pass. There may or may not be a penalty, depending on what the specific info to be revealed is. Let me finish describing the scene before you act. This isn't an ego thing, on my part. Sometimes the details provide important clues to what's going on and interrupting the description can cause other players to miss something I said, me to lose my place and think I'd given info I hadn't, or otherwise just generally screw up the flow of information and cause misunderstandings. In a theatre of the mind game, that's a killer. Even with minis and a map, some of the info is verbal (this is a fire, but it's [U]blue[/U]). If someone is really bad, the table fully backs up the notion that I should let the action occur and that player totally botched whatever perception check they should have made -- up to and including the existence of a bottomless chasm right in front of them or Demogorgon and an army of demons. Don't crunch the numbers too hard. Yes, be competent, but don't worry about that extra damage a long sword does vs a short sword. Feats exist for personality, not statistical benefit (primarily). Most of the group is there to casually hang out and have fun. If one player starts crunching, in earnest, it'll be obvious and throw off the balance of the whole group. If this was a board game, it'd be a different story, but a TTRPG is neither a tactical minis skirmish game nor an amateur improve troop. It's somewhere in between (kinda) and has its own character. The rules are guidelines. Yes, they're important, and we theoretically go by RAW, but TTRPGs ultimately live and die by the GM. The flow of the game is more important than the letter of the law. The legalism of the d20 days kinda broke this part of the group, but we've intentionally brought it back in. It seems to have been the missing ingredient that made the AD&D games so much fun, even if we appreciate the 5E rules and have no interest in going back to the older rules. Always do a Session 0. This is a new one. We tried it, a couple years ago, because the players ended up all hating their characters, which were created to "test" 5E and were driven past their expiration date. The result was extraordinary and we resolved to never not do a Session 0 again. I think we've done it twice, so far, but I don't see us changing. [/QUOTE]
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