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To Kill or Not to Kill?
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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 7546952" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>Exactly. Too many times people use the math when they should be using the story. If you strictly used the math in the OP's scenario, the chase would continue, a bunch of ranged attacks could have been used against the chased PC, and the PC could have been killed. For no other reason that the math (and obviously as I think we can all get, I'm using "math" here as a synonym for game mechanics) would ask us to use the chase rules until the chase rules had reached a conclusion as per the chase rules. And the idea of having this allied being show up to run interference would not occur (unless of course the DM using the "math" rolled on some chart to affect chase rules and that chart just luckily came up with the result of some ally showing up to help out.)</p><p></p><p>By having the cat ally arrive and take the hit for the PC... the DM was not making themselves beholden to the math-- the numeric dice mechanics the "game" part of D&D offers up as a way of adjudicating results. I am a firm believer that improvisation on the part of the DM is almost always preferable to rolling dice on some chart to determine results, because the DM's improvised choice will more often be more applicable and satisfying that whatever randomly was generated by the dice.</p><p></p><p>Some people don't like that way of playing. For them, the dice are the end-all-and-be-all of playing any RPG. And you don't ever ignore or go against the almighty arbiter of the die. And that's fine. You play the way that makes you happy. But when someone asks "Hey, do you think what I did was the right call?" and that call was to let the narrative of the situation take control, rather than a randomly determined result from just using game mechanics... I will always tell that person to go with the improv.</p><p></p><p>Sometimes I think DMs don't give themselves enough credit. Their improv to try and make sense of a situation and produce more satisfying results for their table is better than they realize... and more often than not better than just doing what the dice tell them what to do. Dice have their place-- especially for repetitive situations where each roll is like only 5% of an entire exchange (like combat)-- but for big things that dramatically affect the story (like say not running a chase scene per game-given chase rules to an inevitable conclusion of 'catch or escape'), improvised decisions on the part of the DM I believe usually win out.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 7546952, member: 7006"] Exactly. Too many times people use the math when they should be using the story. If you strictly used the math in the OP's scenario, the chase would continue, a bunch of ranged attacks could have been used against the chased PC, and the PC could have been killed. For no other reason that the math (and obviously as I think we can all get, I'm using "math" here as a synonym for game mechanics) would ask us to use the chase rules until the chase rules had reached a conclusion as per the chase rules. And the idea of having this allied being show up to run interference would not occur (unless of course the DM using the "math" rolled on some chart to affect chase rules and that chart just luckily came up with the result of some ally showing up to help out.) By having the cat ally arrive and take the hit for the PC... the DM was not making themselves beholden to the math-- the numeric dice mechanics the "game" part of D&D offers up as a way of adjudicating results. I am a firm believer that improvisation on the part of the DM is almost always preferable to rolling dice on some chart to determine results, because the DM's improvised choice will more often be more applicable and satisfying that whatever randomly was generated by the dice. Some people don't like that way of playing. For them, the dice are the end-all-and-be-all of playing any RPG. And you don't ever ignore or go against the almighty arbiter of the die. And that's fine. You play the way that makes you happy. But when someone asks "Hey, do you think what I did was the right call?" and that call was to let the narrative of the situation take control, rather than a randomly determined result from just using game mechanics... I will always tell that person to go with the improv. Sometimes I think DMs don't give themselves enough credit. Their improv to try and make sense of a situation and produce more satisfying results for their table is better than they realize... and more often than not better than just doing what the dice tell them what to do. Dice have their place-- especially for repetitive situations where each roll is like only 5% of an entire exchange (like combat)-- but for big things that dramatically affect the story (like say not running a chase scene per game-given chase rules to an inevitable conclusion of 'catch or escape'), improvised decisions on the part of the DM I believe usually win out. [/QUOTE]
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