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Posts
4
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251
Joined
2 yr. ago

  • Different strokes for different folks. And I'd be very careful about using assumptions of "what DnD was designed for" as a guide for how everyone ought to play now. To quote Terry Pratchett by way of Captain Carrot, "Gold and muck come out of the same shaft." It's more important to understand what kinds of fun your game can deliver on, and how, so that you can tune it for the maximum enjoyment of your table, than it is to determine in the abstract how it "should" be played.

  • Well, yes, more precise information is always going to make your decisions easier, so of course less makes it harder. That's not necessarily a bad thing though; perhaps your DM is just running the kind of game where you need to make those calls based off something diagetic to the game, like their combat descriptions ("You shoot the orc square in the chest but the arrow shatters harmlessly on his armor!") or monster research or something. Or perhaps it's the kind of game that thrives on drama, and you just gotta take your shots sometimes and let the dice fall where they may.

    And yeah, theoretically it feels bad to waste a buff on an enemy you'd never be able to actually hit, but because you don't know the numbers, you don't know you could never hit. You're faced with a big scary monster, you try to hit it and can't, you run away. The arc of that encounter is the same regardless of which abilities you used. It only becomes relevant if the DM decides to hit you with another encounter, which presumably they only do if they think your lacking-that-ability would make for another exciting narrative moment. In which case, you'd only be screwing yourself out of that dramatic moment if you'd conserved your ability. It all just depends on what kind of game you're at, whether it prioritizes the gamist mechanical rewards or the narratavist dramatic rewards.

    Likewise, sometimes you're going to "waste" your buff on some overkill, but you won't know that either; you'll simply be told "Bardman McBardo's inspiring music gives you the vigor you need to waste that guy" and get to feel good about winning your encounter. The emotions average out.

  • I think it depends how close you are with the people around you. I had a good time at a friend's holiday party recently (with no drugs or alcohol) just because I really love those folks and I'd enjoy spending time with them no matter what.

  • Do systems like that account for the difference in difficulty between different tasks with the same skill? Skimming the article makes it sound like the author wants to eliminate DCs, but those strike me as important. Otherwise the acrobat in the party is equally likely to fail to vault a railing as they are to perform their complicated high-wire routine.

  • Section 31 actually knows about all the infiltrators, but at least in early stages of their infiltration when they're trying not to arouse suspicion they end up doing a better job than the human admirals would have anyway, so they're allowed to do their thing.