"My Character Would Know That"
- Thread starter Reynard
- Start date
overgeeked
B/X Known World
I'm not sure how you can separate that from skilled play vs sheet play.
Err on the side of giving the player too much information. Verify the details you as the referee think they're skipping over, but ultimately the choice is theirs...as are the consequences.
Player: "I jump out the window."
Ref: "You're 100ft up, everyone give me your d6s."
vs
Player: "I jump out the window."
Ref: "You're 100ft up."
Player: "I know, I have a plan."
overgeeked
B/X Known World
I still think the best Shadowrun game is a Lasers & Feelings hack called "Go Quiet or Go Loud."
Because I am explicitly not talking about things on the sheet. I am talking about plans, strategies and operations. I am talking about the GM dinging you because you did not say you were packing wagon wheel repair kits because you assumed it and the GM expected you to write it down.
overgeeked
B/X Known World
Again, err on the side of giving the players more information than they need. But the decisions and consequences are theirs.
Right. But that's all about skilled play vs sheet play.
In skilled play, you do not make those kinds of assumptions. You write it down or you do not have it. Resource management, including carrying capacity, are generally enforced as it determines how much gold (and therefore XP) you can carry out of the adventuring site.
In sheet play, you generally do make those kinds of assumptions. Even if you didn't write it down, it's assumed you'd have basic stuff. Resource management, including carrying capacity, are generally handwaved as irrelevant.
This is one of the defining distinctions between those styles of play.
(It's worth noting that "sheet play" can be misleading here as in skilled play either it's written on your sheet or you don't have it.)
mamba
Legend
no disagreement, that kinda was my take on the Wazit. As I said, unless there is a reason why it would only hang out around that tree, they can catch one anywhere, provided they come up with a feasible plan (so no trying to catch a bird with a fishing line
).
Voadam
Legend
I generally do not agree with tracking carrying capacity being relevant for skilled play versus sheet play. I think of skilled play as the players trying to be cunning in the narrative situation to meet a challenge while sheet play would be looking over your sheet for applicable mechanics levers to overcome a challenge.
overgeeked
B/X Known World
In the sense of leveraging the environment and the equipment the PCs happen to be carrying. It’s a cornerstone of skilled play and old-school gaming.
The GM should provide a reasonable amount of the information needed to make a good plan and certainly shouldn't hold things back 'because'. Being free with information is always better than being chary with it. That's not to say that the players should be handed everything, obviously not, but gating even common knowledge behind knowledge rolls is silly.
James Gasik
We don't talk about Pun-Pun
Strangely, when I DM, I'm usually the one informing the players that their characters probably know a lot more than they do, lol. Usually reminding them of information that they literally got in game five minutes ago...
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