Your approach to rules

[Mark]

Your approach to rules?

In the dark, from behind, with a knife in my teeth...

 

[Nellisir]

I needed a 10-second option, but went with "on the fly" instead. I try to use DM "dead time" to anticipate questions and flip the rulebook to the correct page, but if I haven't I just wing it. I'm also blessed with a player that not only apparently knows every rule by heart, he's not obnoxious about it. If he can't figure it out in 10 seconds, I make a call and he searches out the right answer for next time.

Cheers
Nell.

 

[Campbell]

Anyone else but me find it odd that only ~5% of people on here know all the rules? Is this game too complicated?

I don't believe that the lack of complete knowledge is problematic. By and large, most rules elements that I (and I'm going to assume most other posters on EN World) lack a complete understanding of are vastly situational, mainly being applicable to ~2% of game situations. What would seem to be problematic, if it was widespread, would be a general lack of rules competence. An understanding of basic rules, along with a small amount of preparation seems to lead to a serviceably smooth gaming experience. I've actually come to appreciate the furthering of rules mastery with experience that is a key design element of D&D 3.x.

 

[Hussar]

I said 5 minutes, although that's because 30 seconds is too short. Realistically, it takes about a minute or so. I do almost all my gaming online now, so I have the SRD up and running. Gotta love hypertext SRD's that are searchable. I can generally find, read, copy and paste the rule into OpenRPG within a couple of minutes and that tends to end arguements.

By the same token, in my last campaign, I had a player who was a failed rules lawyer. I have no problems with people challenging me on rules, but, then again, when it turned out to be every ten minutes and me being right 99% of the time, something had to be done. So, to forestall further breakdown, I instituted the following house rule:

Any player could challenge a rule at any time. However, if the challenge is mistaken, then the player forfeits all xp for that session. If you're going to waste my and every one else's time, you better be bloody well sure that you know what you're talking about. Otherwise, leave it until after the session.

It worked for my group. I've never had any problems admitting when I don't know something, but having someone constantly challenge me on things that I did know became annoying.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Anyone else but me find it odd that only ~5% of people on here know all the rules? Is this game too complicated?

"All" is pretty all-inclusive. If you said 90% then maybe, but all of them? Quick, what's the penalty that fascinated creatures get to listen checks! No, I'm not asking really, it's -4, but I had to look it up just now. Yeah, I'm sure a lot of people know it, those who use spells and abilities that fascinate often enough that it is important or those who just have that good of a memory.

And, there are many conditions and various penalties and bonuses that I just don't know. And, most people are going to have some rules like this that they don't know because they're rarely used. I couldn't honestly answer that I know all the rules because of this, even though I'm probably better than a lot of people simply because I read these boards. So, if it comes up in game, I'm gonna have to look it up.

 

[Li Shenron]

Since there was multiple poll options, I voted both 30 seconds and 5 minutes.

Probably 90% of the time I know at least where to look for to find that rule, and therefore I can look it up quickly without badly pausing the game. If I don't find it, or if I know that the rule isn't in the books but in some FAQ, or even if it's just too complicated to be worth being precise, I make something up - possibly something reasonable. However if the situation is very critical and it seems a matter of life or death (for the PC obviously) to make the correct decision, I am willing to tell the players to make a short pause and seriously look up at the rule even if it takes several minutes.

 

[Treebore]

I bought Fiery Dragons Battlebox, which has flash cards of a lot of the combat rules such as overrun, shield bash, trip, sunder, etc... So I can verify those in a few seconds. I also bought Kenzers DM Shield. Between these two products the only time I open my DMG or PH is to look up spells or magic items during game play. So I would say usually less than 30 seconds.

 

[MonsterMash]

I said 5 minutes, but that is a maximum and does depend on circumstances - sometimes I'll houserule on the fly as I don't want to slow things down, but adding that to my notes and then to the houserules document later.

I personally have some sections of the rules I barely know as I haven't used them - psionics for example.

 

[S'mon]

Some stuff I always do on the fly, most notably skill check DCs. I'll tend to look up combat manuevers though, which may not be a good thing but 3e discourages winging a Trip or Disarm attempt. I'll look up spell effects too.

 

[TerraDave]

Anyone else but me find it odd that only ~5% of people on here know all the rules? Is this game too complicated?

Its not a question of complexity...its a question of sheer volume, every spell, monster, skill use is a little different... and there is hundreds and hundreds of pages of this stuff (of course, the reason it is like that is that what gamers want, and then they want hundreds of pages of suplements). And, at the normal rate of advancement in 3rd edition, you will be going through new spells, monsters, skill uses...at a fairly fast rate.