tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post8809576429829257208..comments2023-10-14T03:58:59.333-06:00Comments on The Tao of D&D: BetterAlexis Smolenskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-70695719528900564362014-01-26T13:21:50.639-07:002014-01-26T13:21:50.639-07:00Slightly tangential, but what if death was not the...Slightly tangential, but what if death was not the guaranteed outcome of a lost encounter? DnD by default presumes that victory and defeat are absolute -- a player's character left behind on the battlefield is presumed dead; an enemy dies the moment his HP falls to 0. There are house rules and optional modules for NPC morale and surrender. But as far as I know there are no published rules for what would happen to a captured character, beyond whatever the DM cooks up for a particular situation. <br /><br />Frequent character death due to bad luck is a problem for tabletop games because it severs continuity. Is difficult to care about Jimbob VII, son of Jimbob VI, with Jimbob VIII waiting in the wings for a chance at failure. This does not mean that death must be inconsequential or impossible, or even rare. But there must be continuity to maintain narrative flow, otherwise the players won't care about the situation, no matter how good the DM may be: "Oh, dear. Jimmy 32 died. Let me pull out Timmy 12 and see if he has better luck." These characters don't live long enough to accomplish anything, and so there's nothing for the player to be invested in, and no reason for the player to worry about the effects of failure, because it probably won't have much effect on their new character.<br /><br />There are setting-specific ways of allowing characters to not-die after death without making death inconsequential. A character might be cloned or reincarnated, but without his most-recent memories or any of his things, for example. But without resorting to fantasy technology or magic, what if the rules provided ways a player character might survive defeat, and even talk his way back to freedom?Homer2101https://www.blogger.com/profile/02241354859306924485noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-57898939473620910832014-01-24T09:21:23.340-07:002014-01-24T09:21:23.340-07:00There's definitely another post in your commen...There's definitely another post in your comment, Matt, something along the point you make, that when you learn a skill, you adapt yourself to manage the tools you have - the tools will not provide the solution themselves, only your experience using the tools will allow improvement overall.<br /><br />Thanks for this. It is very enlightening.Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-787637689227013462014-01-24T08:55:18.496-07:002014-01-24T08:55:18.496-07:00I started DMing under 3rd edition D&D. They we...I started DMing under 3rd edition D&D. They were the books that were current, and more importantly the books that I and everyone else had. It took me a long time to realize that something about the game was wrong. I didn't think to look outside of D&D for answers though. We kept playing with little fixes here and there until 4th edition came out.<br /><br />A lot of the problems that I had with 3rd edition went away in 4th edition. It took me a long time to realize that there was still something wrong. I could not run the sort of games that I wanted to run. Players cried foul if I brought up weapon breakage, or low-magic, or long overland expeditions. The game didn't support these ideas. I put those ideas aside, and ran the kind of game the books supported. The games I ran were mostly awful fiat-based role-playing scenes fitted uncomfortably around scripted combat encounters.<br /><br />I started trying different RPG systems. Mostly they sucked. That might not be entirely fair. We hadn't had time to practice with them, to become good at the systems. I get a bad feeling that a lot of them just plain sucked though.<br /><br />I mentioned running a 1st or 2nd edition AD&D game with my dad's old books. No one thought it was a good idea.<br /><br />I continued doing the system hopping thing. I lost some players because one guy was an asshole, and the others were his friends. Games became easier to run, but I was still unhappy with the systems we were using.<br /><br />So I made good on my joke and pulled out the 2nd edition D&D books. I explained that I would deal with all of the ancient, draconian bullshit, and all they had to do was sit down and play the game.<br /><br />We ran for about 6 months of the most well received campaign I've ever run. We put the campaign on hold to play around with a little sci-fi idea were all excited about. That idea lasted about 6 weeks. We're returning to that D&D campaign next Saturday.<br /><br />The 2nd edition D&D rules suck though. So does AD&D, and OD&D and everything else though. I didn't start running my best until I started reading D&D blogs, in particular: this one. <br /><br />Basically, I realized that buying a new kayak wasn't going to help me kayak better. I needed to listen to skilled kayakers. Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17939309042792833333noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-91848394850179368112014-01-23T16:10:08.568-07:002014-01-23T16:10:08.568-07:00Spurring discussion, or have you already got an id...Spurring discussion, or have you already got an idea on the RPG's equivalent of whitewater?<br /><br />Either way, I agree with the premise of this post. It'd be awesome to find someone, online or off, who truly raised the bar for our expectations among -players-.<br /><br />And now my productive addition to the conversation is over, because I haven't the faintest idea what this would look like.Pandredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03917809464727878157noreply@blogger.com