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Why doesn't the help action have more limits and down sides?
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<blockquote data-quote="Wyvern" data-source="post: 7448989" data-attributes="member: 2374"><p>Yesterday I was too busy trying to figure out how to disentangle myself from the sticky mess that I'd gotten myself into by trying to mediate between Ovinomancer and ClaytonCross, to give much thought to your reply. Now that I've had more time to mull it over, here's what I think.</p><p></p><p>I see your point that difficulty ratings are subjective and trying to pin them down can just result in pointless arguments. To the extent that avoiding argument is the goal, I agree with you. If one GM thinks that climbing a rope is a DC 10 task and another thinks it should be a DC 15, there's no point in debating over who's right and who's wrong as long as both GMs and their players are happy. Having said that, I still contend that there are two reasons why it *is* useful to have concrete guidelines as to what constitutes an Easy task, a Medium one, and so forth.</p><p></p><p>The first, of course, is for inexperienced GMs who need guidance in determining what DCs to assign.</p><p></p><p>The second is when the players are *not* happy. If one person thinks that DC 10 tasks are too easy and another thinks they're too hard, it's useful to know that the first has a GM who makes the players roll DC 10 Dex checks to tie their shoelaces, while the latter has a GM who thinks that juggling lit sticks of dynamite is a DC 10 Dex check. In those cases, having concrete examples of what they're basing their judgments on allows us to conclude that the problem isn't with the game, it's with how they're playing the game.</p><p></p><p>If you still don't think there's any value in having concrete examples, then we'll just have to agree to disagree. In any case, I think I've said everything I have to say on the topic.</p><p></p><p>Wyvern</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Wyvern, post: 7448989, member: 2374"] Yesterday I was too busy trying to figure out how to disentangle myself from the sticky mess that I'd gotten myself into by trying to mediate between Ovinomancer and ClaytonCross, to give much thought to your reply. Now that I've had more time to mull it over, here's what I think. I see your point that difficulty ratings are subjective and trying to pin them down can just result in pointless arguments. To the extent that avoiding argument is the goal, I agree with you. If one GM thinks that climbing a rope is a DC 10 task and another thinks it should be a DC 15, there's no point in debating over who's right and who's wrong as long as both GMs and their players are happy. Having said that, I still contend that there are two reasons why it *is* useful to have concrete guidelines as to what constitutes an Easy task, a Medium one, and so forth. The first, of course, is for inexperienced GMs who need guidance in determining what DCs to assign. The second is when the players are *not* happy. If one person thinks that DC 10 tasks are too easy and another thinks they're too hard, it's useful to know that the first has a GM who makes the players roll DC 10 Dex checks to tie their shoelaces, while the latter has a GM who thinks that juggling lit sticks of dynamite is a DC 10 Dex check. In those cases, having concrete examples of what they're basing their judgments on allows us to conclude that the problem isn't with the game, it's with how they're playing the game. If you still don't think there's any value in having concrete examples, then we'll just have to agree to disagree. In any case, I think I've said everything I have to say on the topic. Wyvern [/QUOTE]
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Why doesn't the help action have more limits and down sides?
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