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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 5457771" data-attributes="member: 58197"><p>This is a major example of where you can go wrong with house rules. Injecting random risk of permanent injury/death into a game, without seriously considering what will happen when the dice come up snake eyes for some hapless player, is a recipe for problems. If they can, players will soon start avoiding the risk-bearing element. If they can't, they'll become increasingly more disconnected from their PCs, since nobody wants to get invested in a character who may suddenly and arbitrarily end up a half-blind cripple with leprosy.</p><p></p><p>That's not to say you can't have such rules, but they have to be thought through with an eye to consequences and player behavior. If combat carries a substantial risk of random, unavoidable death, players will either avoid combat or treat their PCs as disposable. Is that what you want? If so, great. If not, consider a different approach. If every spell has a chance to explode in your face and permanently mess you up, very few people will play mages.</p><p></p><p>(It doesn't help that a lot of GMs don't have a solid grasp on how probability works. If a natural 1 is a fumble, you're gonna see a <em>lot</em> of fumbles. If fumble results are silly and stupid, there's going to be a lot of silliness.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 5457771, member: 58197"] This is a major example of where you can go wrong with house rules. Injecting random risk of permanent injury/death into a game, without seriously considering what will happen when the dice come up snake eyes for some hapless player, is a recipe for problems. If they can, players will soon start avoiding the risk-bearing element. If they can't, they'll become increasingly more disconnected from their PCs, since nobody wants to get invested in a character who may suddenly and arbitrarily end up a half-blind cripple with leprosy. That's not to say you can't have such rules, but they have to be thought through with an eye to consequences and player behavior. If combat carries a substantial risk of random, unavoidable death, players will either avoid combat or treat their PCs as disposable. Is that what you want? If so, great. If not, consider a different approach. If every spell has a chance to explode in your face and permanently mess you up, very few people will play mages. (It doesn't help that a lot of GMs don't have a solid grasp on how probability works. If a natural 1 is a fumble, you're gonna see a [i]lot[/i] of fumbles. If fumble results are silly and stupid, there's going to be a lot of silliness.) [/QUOTE]
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