D&D General What is player agency to you?

[FrogReaver]

Except there is no real background feature that says this. This was expressly introduced as a "would you let this ridiculous background feature in..." As some a strawman to knock down (look how ridiculous your position is). Again no one is ACTUALLY advocating absurd results.

The actual feature is Wanderer:

In addition, you can find food and fresh water for yourself and up to five other people each day, provided that the land offers berries, small game, water, and so forth.

It has its own inherrent limitation and would expressly NOT work in a truly lifeless place.

Hypotheticals are not Strawmen.

 

[mamba]

Except there is no real background feature that says this.

Does that matter? We are talking hypotheticals here, to me that is a cop out. We had a ridiculous scenario and sure as hell, someone jumped in to show how they can make it work, because a player feature 'demanded' it

 

[Campbell]

What about if there isn't one? What do you propose then?

Have a discussion about how we are going to rule it this time and then (between games) draw up an addendum to the rule in question so that it both remains useful and dependable without causing the same issue again.

 

[Mort]

Help me square these 2 statements.

The purpose the features are intended is to facilitate roleplaying. They do not require inserting by any means necessary because they can easily be fitted right in to a standard session without any absurdity lack of reasonableness, whatever.

That said, if you choose not to use the features - it's really no big deal. The noble feature for example, can easily be achieved through roleplaying - it's just a shortcut.

 

[FrogReaver]

Have a discussion about how we are going to rule it this time and then (between games) draw up an addendum to the rule in question so that it both remains useful and dependable without causing the same issue again.

Sounds good, but kind of sidesteps the focus of the discussion, what if that ruling is, no - it doesn't work this time?

 

[mamba]

I wasn’t really involved in discussion on that example, really. The reason being that the example itself seemed ridiculous. As I said previously, I’d want to know a lot more about this situation before I judged it

So you know it is ridiculous, but you cannot just accept that at face value, you have to see why the player feature could work despite this ridiculous scenario that is clearly designed to make it impossible. My point from earlier exactly...

 

[hawkeyefan]

What about if there isn't one? What do you propose then?

How am I supposed to answer this for you?

What do you do whenever you’re at a point in a game, or any other creative endeavor, and you don’t know what to do next? Do that.

If it was me, I’d ask everyone at the table. “How does this work? I can’t seem to figure out how this ability makes sense at this time given what we know… what do you guys think?”

I do this quite a bit in other games even if I’m not drawing a blank, but I just want some creative input. It always helps… either a cool idea is shared and we go with that, or else the ideas shared help inspire me to come up with something.

 

[Mort]

Hypotheticals are not Strawmen.

They are when they are used to knock down a position no one is advocating.

 

[Mort]

Does that matter? We are talking hypotheticals here, to me that is a cop out. We had a ridiculous scenario and sure as hell, someone jumped in to show how they can make it work, because a player feature 'demanded' it

Just to demonstrate that, even that, COULD be used - ridiculous or no.

The point is, if the DM thinks it is ridiculous, disallow it in the first place. Don't allow it and then constantly nope it.

 

[FrogReaver]

They are when they are used to knock down a position no one is advocating.

But you just advocated for the position that specific hypothetical was intended to knock down...

The purpose the features are intended is to facilitate roleplaying. They do not require inserting by any means necessary because they can easily be fitted right in to a standard session without any absurdity lack of reasonableness, whatever.

Tell me again about how you can easily fit finding an egg on a lifeless plane that's never been visited before?