If your character was hacking a terminal in some scenario and you the player weren't as smart at such things as the character and the GM whipped out a Sudoku or some such to rerpesent the problem in order for you to roleplay the attempt, what would you do?
Boggle at them and then ask them what the hell they were thinking. If I wasn't able to persuade them it was a terrible idea and it looked like they were going to keep doing similar things I might well drop out of the game after that session.
I'd say "seriously?". If he insisted, I'd quit the game.
I'd probably laugh and just do the damn skillcheck - ignoring the gamemaster until he stopped being silly.
I just can't take it anymore. :banghead:
Please, PLEASE stop adding unnecessary question marks to thread titles.
I hear the rising, questioning inflection and keep on picturing some timid little guy who just can't get up the gumption to post a Bold Unapologetic Thread.
Quote from: Ghost Whistler;421164If your character was hacking a terminal in some scenario and you the player weren't as smart at such things as the character and the GM whipped out a Sudoku or some such to rerpesent the problem in order for you to roleplay the attempt, what would you do?
I'd do it, but only if the strong guy in the party had to bench 400 lbs for his muscle rolls.
Really the GM should be more worried about the other players, who have to sit and watch their friend finish a sudoku. I would find this scenario incredibly jarring.
I'd laugh, ask "seriously?" and then...
I'd do the fucking sudoku puzzle.
Knowing my group, we'd bust his balls about it later, and the episode would eventually enter the annals of our gaming history, and we'd fondly recall it and laugh and viciously mock the GM over a few beers for years to come.
And the shamed GM would never, EVER attempt to pull it out again.
Quote from: The_Shadow;421191I just can't take it anymore. :banghead:
Please, PLEASE stop adding unnecessary question marks to thread titles.
I hear the rising, questioning inflection and keep on picturing some timid little guy who just can't get up the gumption to post a Bold Unapologetic Thread.
Unnecessary?
Quote from: Ghost Whistler;421197Unnecessary?
"Riddle me this" is imperative. Such statements neither require, nor are they improved by, question marks.
TBP suffers from this disease even more than here, with every second thread title seemingly to be pronounced in a tremulous whine.
Quote from: The_Shadow;421211"Riddle me this" is imperative. Such statements neither require, nor are they improved by, question marks.
TBP suffers from this disease even more than here, with every second thread title seemingly to be pronounced in a tremulous whine.
Shall we have a big off topic conversation about it then?
Quote from: Ghost Whistler;421228Shall we have a big off topic conversation about it then?
I think the only solution is for the two of you to square off in a punctuation beat down.
Quote from: BedrockBrendan;421193I'd do it, but only if the strong guy in the party had to bench 400 lbs for his muscle rolls.
No doubt. Also, get extensive plastic surgery and lost 50 lbs. before making that seduction roll. If your character is trying to pull off a dangerous driving stunt, get behind the wheel and drive down the wrong side of the road doing 75. When your character takes damage, the GM brains you with a frying pan so you have to
really work through injury.
Just let me roll the dice and fail in peace like a man oughtta.
Quote from: Insufficient Metal;421237No doubt. Also, get extensive plastic surgery and lost 50 lbs. before making that seduction roll.
Well, if you ain't prepared to get into character...?
?? :D
Quote from: The Butcher;421195I'd laugh, ask "seriously?" and then...
I'd do the fucking sudoku puzzle.
Knowing my group, we'd bust his balls about it later, and the episode would eventually enter the annals of our gaming history, and we'd fondly recall it and laugh and viciously mock the GM over a few beers for years to come.
And the shamed GM would never, EVER attempt to pull it out again.
This. FTW!
I'd do it, deliberately take several hours to finish, ruin everyone's fun, and constantly glare at the DM.
Or just laugh. Depends on how my day had gone so far.
That completely depends. I mean. If I know there is a huge sudoku fan amongst the players, I might actually do this! If no one's particularly interested in sudoku, then I won't pull it off.
Me, I'm not a fan of those. So that would be really hard on me.
My bottom line is: know thy players. Design challenges that engage them and immerse them into the action of the game. If someone likes chess and you think that would be a cool addition to the game (a chess room in a D&D game, for instance), then go for it. If you don't know, investigate first. If your players aren't particularly interested in these types of challenges, avoid them.
It's all about the particulars of the group, IMO.
I personally wouldn't mind something along those lines (I liked the "hacking" mini-game in Bioshock, for example), but I know my players would string me up if I tried it as GM.
What can I say, I like trying new things occasionally. Stagnation sucks.
Quote from: Werekoala;421317I personally wouldn't mind something along those lines (I liked the "hacking" mini-game in Bioshock, for example), but I know my players would string me up if I tried it as GM.
What can I say, I like trying new things occasionally. Stagnation sucks.
I agree. I don't see anything wrong with it, especially if you take it to scale. "Your character has about as much difficulty hacking the terminal as you will have with this easy Sudoku."
When I've had demons want to play a board game, like Go, or something in my game, I've pulled out a 9x9 board and made people play it with me.
I played in an Exalted game with this theater kid, back when it first came out, hid tokens around the game store to represent our characters actually looking for something. It was silly, but funny. No one busted his balls for it.
I think people should put on their try-hards, play the game, and stop bitching so much about their GMs attempts to spice things up.
Quote from: Werekoala;421317I personally wouldn't mind something along those lines (I liked the "hacking" mini-game in Bioshock, for example), but I know my players would string me up if I tried it as GM.
What can I say, I like trying new things occasionally. Stagnation sucks.
I like those too, but I don't have five other people sitting around the table waiting for me to solve it. That's the big difference to me.
Quote from: Insufficient Metal;421386I like those too, but I don't have five other people sitting around the table waiting for me to solve it. That's the big difference to me.
Ture, and again, that's why I said my guys would string my up if I tried it. I, personally, wouldn't mind it a bit.
I do this shit all the time. A minigame or puzzle every few sessions. However, I know my players dig it, and 95% of the time completing the puzzle/minigame gets 'em something extra (so it's worth trying with good faith) above and beyond the success.
I've never used Sudoku, but we've had mazes, tangrams, tons of word puzzles and the like, cryptograms, and more.
I don't think I would use a minigame as a substitute for a "normal" skill use, though - no Tetris in lieu of picking a lock. Weird puzzle to represent the magic puzzle box? Sure.
I mean, seriously. When you guys get to the chess-puzzle-room in the old-school dungeon, do you just ask if you can roll under your INT or what? Sheesh. Play the game, man. :)
Quote from: VectorSigma;421511I do this shit all the time. A minigame or puzzle every few sessions. However, I know my players dig it, and 95% of the time completing the puzzle/minigame gets 'em something extra (so it's worth trying with good faith) above and beyond the success.
I've never used Sudoku, but we've had mazes, tangrams, tons of word puzzles and the like, cryptograms, and more.
I don't think I would use a minigame as a substitute for a "normal" skill use, though - no Tetris in lieu of picking a lock. Weird puzzle to represent the magic puzzle box? Sure.
I mean, seriously. When you guys get to the chess-puzzle-room in the old-school dungeon, do you just ask if you can roll under your INT or what? Sheesh. Play the game, man. :)
That's a great answer. I recall doing similar things early on in my D&D-playing days. All of us enjoyed the occasional maze or word puzzle. I recall the Rubik's Cube getting some use, too. You're right about not using such things as substitutes for regular skill checks, but hell, the version of the game I played didn't have a skill system.
Quote from: Ghost Whistler;421164If your character was hacking a terminal in some scenario and you the player weren't as smart at such things as the character and the GM whipped out a Sudoku or some such to rerpesent the problem in order for you to roleplay the attempt, what would you do?
Say "Sure" and do it. Then the next time I'm at a bar(in game), I'd expect him to provide me with booze(in the real world) "to represent my character getting drunk" and a blow job(irl) when I make my seduction roll.....
I'd tell them to go fuck themselves.
RPGPundit
Sudoku is too distant from the task itself.
On the other hand, I have had to solve anagrams and crack codes when these existed in game (like there's a coded message we find on an enemy's body or something). No skill check allowed, or maybe just to get a clue or two.
I'd insist on using Jenga instead.
Quote from: KenHR;421780I'd insist on using Jenga instead.
Have you ever considered the psychological horror themed, mechanics light RPG called Dread?
Instead of dice you play with a game of Jenga with tower collapses representing nasty plot twists, character deaths and the shit generally hitting the fan in some capacity or another.
http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11974.phtml
As for the original question, unless the sudoku was seamlessly integrated I'd have to explain about breaking story flow, why minigames are for single player video games and suggest that it would work better in something more LARP-ish.
Frankly I'm surprised by the overwhelming negative reaction; I'm going to have to throw some real-life puzzles into my dungeon now.
Quote from: Planet Algol;422111Frankly I'm surprised by the overwhelming negative reaction; I'm going to have to throw some real-life puzzles into my dungeon now.
I would be less bothered by "you enter a room with this sudoku on the floor" (i might still groan a little) than "to find the file you need to hack this computer : therefore do this sudoku." I'm not sure why, because, really I wouldn't object to a word puzzle even though in theory the PCs aren't speaking english (but then maybe in some weird, Worm Ouroboros type way, they are). I guess the distance is just enough to shake the concreteness of the gameworld.
Its a cool idea...if the whole group can participate. I would not give a time-consuming task to a single player that would hold up the game.
However....
It might be cool if the hacker had to do the puzzle while everyone else was in combat against something nasty. Thus, the players would want the hacker to be quick and there would be tension, but meanwhile the other players would be fully engaged in the game.
"Live Dungeons" regularly have these type of puzzles. They can be fun, or annoying, depending on the puzzle and the players.
My feeling:
I hate puzzles, Jock. I hate them.
I've been playing Assassins Creed Brotherhood which, despite poor organisation and no tutorial, is pretty good. But there are sequences where you unlock puzzles that are, at times, totally random and far too difficult (and poorly explained in English). To me it's as incongruous as whipping out a Sudoku in an rpg for a skill test. I don't enjoy it and I wish they weren't part of the game.
I don't do puzzles and any GM that tried this with me would be one that doesn't know his players.
Quote from: Ghost Whistler;422182I hate puzzles, Jock. I hate them.
There's a big puzzle in the game, Jock!
Come on, show a little backbone, will ya?
Maybe someone could figure out how to incorporate Hungry, Hungry Hippos into a resolution mechanic...
Quote from: Werekoala;422238Maybe someone could figure out how to incorporate Hungry, Hungry Hippos into a resolution mechanic...
It's a Hasbro game so would be good cross-marketing for D&D ;)
Maybe go with Hungry Hungry Illithids? Little brains painted on the balls...
Say "I am not my character, he/she, is skilled at this task, I am not."
Quote from: Wereturkey;422087Have you ever considered the psychological horror themed, mechanics light RPG called Dread?
Instead of dice you play with a game of Jenga with tower collapses representing nasty plot twists, character deaths and the shit generally hitting the fan in some capacity or another.
http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11974.phtml
As for the original question, unless the sudoku was seamlessly integrated I'd have to explain about breaking story flow, why minigames are for single player video games and suggest that it would work better in something more LARP-ish.
*starts to explain joke, then just sighs and leaves the room*