What Edition to use? (Forked Thread: When did I stop being WotC's target audience?)

[bagger245]

This reminds me of one curse I put on my player ie talk in rhymes. He really had to
come up with own rhymes in order to talk. This was back in 2nd ed, withoput using nwps.
In 3rd ed or 4th,to bestow such curse do we apply skill based checks to it?

 

[ruemere]

Let the players come up with solution, let them do some rolls using appropriate skills with bonus/penalty assigned based on skill relevance and player's acting.

Any system would do, but there would be single roll at most per character.

Regards,
Ruemere

 

[vagabundo]

I'm so having a poetry competition in my game now, hmmm a Spring fair in Winterhaven.....

 

[diaglo]

none of the above.

OD&D(1974) is the correct answer.

 

[ExploderWizard]

I didn't vote because OD&D/Basic D&D wasn't an option. Either one would be flexible enough to handle the situation with ease. 1E could work just as well.

If the players are very excited about the encounter and cannot wait to show thier stuff, let them spout out poetry as they desire. Use entertainment value as a measure of success.

If the players are uncertain about thier own poetic skill but would like to negotiate the encounter, let them describe thier actions, and roll an INT or CHA check to determine the success of thier efforts.

If the players are like, " WTF, can we just kick his poetic pansy A!!"
have them roll for initiative and run combat.

In any of these solutions there are no specialized mechanics to fiddle with or a textbook procedure that must be followed. The DM simply reacts to the actions of the players as the situation demands.

The adventure notes should contain information regarding the rewards and consequences that are possible depending on the outcome. Perhaps defeating the giant at poetry gains an additional reward of treasure or XP while killing the giant allows for passage beyond and little else. In either event the adventure continues with the encounter handled as the players desired.

 

[JeffB]

I think 4E is better suited for that sitch than any other version of D&D-that is, if one wants to combine rules with roleplaying: the 4E Skill challenge offers a little for everyone with some random dice results as well as creative thinking from the players.

That said, I voted for "other" system- my vote would be HeroWars/Heroquest from Issaries. I think that is the best system for handling "the abstract" out there that I've experienced.

 

[rkwoodard]

I did this...kind of

Hi,

DMing a planescape campaign years ago, I had the key to a portal be a poem about the moon.

The players found out and the 2 english majors start composing a Haiku and a limmerick respectively. The biology major quickly whipped out

The moon in june, is round like a spoon.

the portal opened. The 2 english majors almost punched me in the face.

So, while my preferred edition is 3rd. Something like this should be tried "old school" player ability first. In my opinion of course.

RK

 

[Jhaelen]

There's only one way to do this old school: Have the players recite poetry then and there. Depending on the players, they may either proclaim, "This is the best encounter ever!" or they may stare coldly into your eyes with a sense of WTF! This depends on if the DM can guess if the players would enjoy such a thing. If he thinks yes when he's wrong then that may lead to problems.

Exactly! An encounter like this would be pretty pointless if you used an abstract system of any kind to resolve it.

So I'd never include such an encounter in one of my adventures unless I knew my players would enjoy this kind of thing. And if they do, the edition/system is completely irrelevant.

 

[TerraDave]

Essentially the skill-challenge aspect would be the background/in-game information gathered, etc. When it comes to social skill-challenges.

So the players would actually recite the actual poetry and me as the Giant would as well.

But the players would also roll to determine some things.
-Recite a poem, then roll to see how well their character was able to perform it, (diplomacy)
-Insight see what the Giant thought of it (give hints, information or misinformation if done badly).
-Bluff would be done to give players time to come up with a new poem, or intimidate, etc.

So basically while it would be actually roleplayed and acted out in-game things that determine how much it actually helps is somewhat determined by the dice.

This. You can give the pcs some relevant help (and exciting world background info!), but still emberass the players.

The worst way to handle this: opposed perform checks.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Congrats and EXP to Malraux for getting the reference.

Sorry for not including OD&D/Basic D&D. I never took the Old System Knowledge NWP.

I must agree with Thasmodious about skill challenges. The system may not be perfect RAW but the concept is very good. Using house adjustments like the ones suggested could make the system sing.