The Gaming Den

It's a pretty big reason. Not allowing take 20 even after you've declared retry: yes and given them enough time is the chest high wall or rocket proof door of the RPG world because you're literally saying "I am too lazy to even give a reasonable explanation for why you can't do this." More...

The Deus Ex of the finale was really just a result of it being a "children's show" and the main character not being allowed to kill anyone. It's way less insulting than the way violence was sanitized in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and X-Men cartoons ("Everything's a robot!"). Th...

Order of operation. The DM decides if the situation allows retries and if there's enough time to try at least 20 times, then the players decide if they'd like to take 20 (which is shorthand for "I apply statistics"). The DM can't fiat "you can't take 20, giant frog" because the p...

That's a pretty shittastic view to take. Sure, trying to argue about what an anime character's jump modifier is based on how far they jump in some scene or what their strength score is based on things they lift is totally clownshoes. It's even dumber to do the Elminster (HA! On topic!) thing and cre...

It must be interesting having to deal with the fact that the poor wizard is then stuck never being able to reproduce that feat. And that nobody else in the game can replicate his unique magical powers. Nothing about what I just said prevents the wizard from casting fireball and then casting firebal...

So, Sashi, what do you propose to call it when a wizard uses the reliable, known methods of memorization of special patterns, special words, a few gestures, and some dust to cause a huge explosion 400 feet away? In game rules? I call it "this would really suck if the player had to roll for a p...

I think K's argument is that Beowolf is level 8 and fights a CR 7 Grendel, then stays level 8 and fights a CR 9 Grendel's Mom. Beowolf didn't so much "power up" as "face a tougher challenge". It's really difficult to discuss such things because a lot of stories suffer the Spider-...

How do you "indicate" epic level? The ELH and Deities & Demigods makes me sad, so I don't really follow them. If Guts is in the level 14-18 range (and he appears to be so, since he fought a huge half-demon carborundum dragon to a standstill with a few buffs from Shierke's level 8 Squir...

99% of all fiction and RPG's define "magic" as "stuff that violates the laws of the universe that you and I live in". And that's fine because we just get on with the story and nobody in the book gets into debates about the nature of magic. But this entire thread is about wanking ...

Guts fought a Huge Dragon apostle to a standstill by his lonesome, that's basically the definition of a level ~15 character. Slan is an epic-level demon queen, the reason Guts is still alive after encountering her is because his impotent raging trying to kill her amuses her to the point of orgasm. T...

This is something that Wizards designers seem to not understand: a dynamic scene is worth way more than even the best rendered "Oh Hai, I can Demogorgon?" Then again, seriously, championship belt . That is clearly a wrasslin match. We're just five minutes late for Ursa Murder's manager tal...

The physical rules governing the creation of the Mona Lisa are well understood. They're so well understood that painting something approximating the Mona Lisa is something that can be done by anyone with the right instruction and the right tools (which, again, are easily reproduced). But it's not g...

You know, I've been trying to come up with my own campaign setting recently but I've been having trouble with it. I really want to port over Dragonlance's 'the world is slowly going to hell and there is little we can do' tone. That's pretty much what saved the comic for me. However, Krynn is a stup...

In a magical world the laws of the universe are simply different. So how does that work? "the laws of the universe" are science . Again, I don't want to get into wankery over the definition of "art" or "science" because it starts to turn painful (once you start dealing...

Something weird that just occurred to me is how much a D&D adventure where the players bust into a dungeon, kill the orcs, disarm the traps, and abscond with the treasure is very very similar to one where Shadowrunners bust into an office building, kill the rentacops, disabled the security syste...

So something very much like magic but which could, with sufficient education, be practiced by anyone wouldn't be magic? Yes, I'm saying exactly that. I think the best analogy to the real world is artistic ability. Anyone can go to art school and learn perspective, color theory, and anatomy. But art...

It still gets props for the cover obviously being a wrestling match between Cleavenstein and Ursa Murder (who is wearing his championship belt)

...you're a railroad dm, aren't you? Hijack the story? If your players want to go play megaman with the ecosystem, instead of complete your carefully crafted magnum opus, they may be telling you something. It has nothing to do with "railroading" and everything to do with incentives. It's ...

One of my characters carried around a chunk (specifically the face) of an animated statue that was a total bitch to fight at level 1. It seriously just hung from his belt via a little webbing pouch for ages until he threw it at the BBEG during a fight just because he was totally pissed at the dude (...

So you're really just talking about players crafting wondrous items through taxidermy? That's seriously an entirely different thing than what happens in megaman-land where fighting a giant lets you grab rock hurling or some shits. That's seriously not even a class ability, that's maybe a magic item ...

honestly, I think D&D needs more megamaning, where your special equipment powers frequently come from beating up your enemies. Not a lot, but I think it should be an option, and not necessarily a protected one tied to a specific class, everyone should be able to do it. God no. At the very best ...

Question: How can you take 20 on spot/listen? Are you just talking about see through the disguise/hear the plot clue in the dungeon? Magic eye paintings. You can take 20 to see the sail boats or whatever. Or trying to see some far away, barely visible, but basically stationary object, like ships on...

See, my way, would be "in the safety of your lair, you open the box" if he disables the trap, or I'd indicate the trap going off if that's the case. The only real question is the trap, after all, and that can be resolved in a single die roll. NO you dumb shit. "In the safety of your ...

Fair enough. Give an example where 'take 20' comes up (a completely worked out situation), and there's absolutely no way to improve the encounter/incident/activity/whatever so that 'take 20' couldn't have come up in the first place. The Rogue has broken into the evil Duke's study with the task of a...

Uh, Sashi, I'm quoting YOU here: Infinite rerolls are not always allowed, they are only rarely allowed. Sorry, that's back when I thought I was talking to a human. You used "always" I used "rarely". I assumed we were both talking about populations (the set of skill usages that t...