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

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6861960" data-attributes="member: 42582">I don't see why combat is terribly special in this regard. A player describes how his/her PC climbs the slippery wall, looking carefully for foot- and finger-holds. The GM replies "Ah, but the finger hold has moss that you couldn't see because you are reaching above your head onto an occluded ledge - you plummet to your death!" The player then responds "I grap a tree branch as I rush buy it, stopping my fall" - and the GM retorts "The branch breaks!"And of course the same thing can happen in social interactions as well - "I befriend the merchant by bringing him a flagon of wine" "Ah, the merchant is allergic to wine and only drinks beer and cider - so is unmoved by your gift!"In other words, disputes over the content and implications of the fiction, and of how action declaration relates to that, can come up anywhere, not just in relation to combat.And dice aren't the only solution, either. In D&D, for instance, no roll is required to draw one's sword (so no one ever drops a sword when drawing it). No roll is required to make sure a spell is properly cast (no one ever sneezes or trips over when casting a spell, or forgets what words to speak, or mucks up the hand gestures). In all these cases, a player declaring the action is enough to make it so in the fiction. (Not all RPGs are the same. Rolemaster has quickdraw rules, that involve rolling dice. Many fantasy RPGs require a roll to successfully cast a spell, often with consequences for miscasting.)There's no in-principle reason why a fighter character couldn't have a number of "kill ponits" equal to his/her level, and when engaging a creature in melee simply declare as his/her action "I strike it dead." - expending a number of points equal to the target's CR (which, at least ostensibly, corresponds in some loose fashion to the target's combat resilience). (These slots would be almost like anti-hit points - instead of reflecting the fighter's defensive luck and intangible resilience, they would represent his/her offensive luck and intangible prowess.)The design decision to handle combat as D&D does is just that - a decision - and not the only option that was on the table.</blockquote>

Verification