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re: smolderingwizard - roll vs roleplaying | |
March 06th, 2020 | |
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I just read a really interesting observational phlog post from | |
smolderingwizard [0] on his experiences in a 5th edition D&D game. | |
He describes everything in 5th edition coming down to a mechanic | |
role and that those rolls are happening constantly and distracting | |
from the game. | |
[0] smolderingwizard - roll vs role-playing | |
I've run into this in some games as well and feel it's ultimately | |
the fault of the DM/GM, though I can't judge them harshly for it. | |
Running a game is hard work and it's not a skill that's usually | |
taught. People learn in their own way, from playing with others | |
and emulating good GMs, or watching games online, or just doing | |
their best to guess their way through. | |
One big influence these days is computer gaming. It's had immense | |
impact on tabletop RPGs over the years, going so far as to | |
completely screw up D&D into the mess that was 4th edition AKA | |
World of Warcraft on paper. But even in the early days of say, 2nd | |
edition, there were books and books describing mechanics that you | |
could turn into rolls. I remember one guidebook describing the | |
fall-off rate of light from various sized campfires and the impact | |
for low-light vision at each distance in a grid. It got silly. | |
But those books didn't come from a vacuum. People wanted that in | |
their games. There's always been a subset of gamers who want the | |
mechanics to rule the action. Sometimes these are reflected in | |
power-gaming, or just optimized buildes. Sometimes it's just | |
a style of play that the group enjoys. | |
I cannot put myself in that camp, personally. My most formative | |
long-term RPG was played 1-on-1 with my DM in high school. It was | |
a solo game and we rolled almost never. The entire game was | |
role-play and that has had enormous impact on my own style. | |
In the Fate Core System book, the game designers have this to say: | |
When to Roll Dice | |
Roll the dice when succeeding or failing at the action could | |
each contribute something interesting to the game... | |
The worst, WORST thing you can do is have a failed roll that | |
means NOTHING HAPPENS--no new knowledge, no new course of action | |
to take, and no change in the situation. This is totally | |
boring... | |
If you can't imagine an interesting outcome from both results, | |
then don't call for that roll. If failure is the uninteresting | |
option, just give the PCs what thy want and call for a roll | |
later, when you CAN think of an interesting failure. If success | |
is the boring option, then see if you can turn your idea for | |
failure into [a motivation for the PC to role play their | |
character that way]. | |
In combat things are simple. You failed a roll or you succeed at | |
it have immediate consequences. If you're rolling as you walk down | |
a hallway, what happens if you fail? You triggered a trap? But | |
what if you succeed? Did you just notice the trap? That's boring | |
because it doesn't change anything. What if the success meant you | |
spotted a trap that was about to affect the party behind you. Your | |
quick action let you spring up and grab a counterweight. Now you | |
have to hold it in place so the others can get across. The | |
challenge has changed the dynamic of the action and given the | |
party a reason to interact with one another. Is your character | |
strong enough to hold it for the whole party? What if you this | |
splits you up? What if you have to choose who to drop it on before | |
you're pulled inside the mechanism? | |
Anyway, I digress. Chat with your DM and talk about the rolls. Or | |
talk about it with the whole group. Are they into it? Maybe so. | |
Maybe they're just waiting for the topic to come up. |