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Stuff You Don't Want To Have To Roll For

Started by RPGPundit, April 07, 2010, 09:26:05 PM

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Lawbag

#30
April 11, 2010, 01:39:15 PM
a Spot Hidden or Listen roll where the successful outcome of the roll is critical to the continuation of the adventure.
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Soylent Green

#31
April 11, 2010, 02:00:32 PM
Quote from: P&P;372970Absolutely, that's the purpose of it.  As a DM you use it after an off-topic conversation to bring everyone's attention back to the game.



Wow.  It's too much effort to roll a dice?  I'd certainly be taken aback by that; it's an attitude that's completely outside my experience.

I think I'd turn it into a joke, but there'd be a point to it.  On balance I think I'd decide that the player who couldn't be bothered to roll (a) had his trousers down squatting behind a bush, and (b) had just failed to notice a nest of biting insects.  The rest of the party might have spotted the hint, clue, treasure, or approaching monster.

It's not the effort of rolling the dice, it the charade. I know what I roll for perception doesn't matter, the GM knows it doesn't matter, the only reason we are going through this ritual of getting everyone to roll perception is because the GM doesn't have enough sense to simply say "Suddenly..." to move the scene on.
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P&P

#32
April 11, 2010, 08:58:45 PM
Quote from: Soylent Green;372979It's not the effort of rolling the dice, it the charade. I know what I roll for perception doesn't matter, the GM knows it doesn't matter, the only reason we are going through this ritual of getting everyone to roll perception is because the GM doesn't have enough sense to simply say "Suddenly..." to move the scene on.

It's because the GM wants you to roll a dice.  The act of rolling shows you're engaged in the game again; it's a signal to say, "Okay, now I'm participating and paying attention and I'm willing to have fun."

Refusing to roll sends the opposite signal.  It says, "I'm choosing not to participate until you do or say something to entertain me.  That means something more interesting than this crap, Mr So-Called DM."
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Soylent Green

#33
April 12, 2010, 03:42:20 AM
Not really, the act of rolling the dice in this instance isn't a sign of engagement, it just humouring the GM.

In the scheme of things, it's not a big deal. I don't imagine most players give a damn one way or the other and, bless their souls, there may even be some players who get all excited by getting to make a perception check. But for me it's a sloppy technique to misuse a skill as a pacing device and it's kinda condescending towards the players.
New! Cyberblues City - like cyberpunk, only more mellow. Free, fully illustrated roleplaying game based on the Fudge system
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PaladinCA

#34
April 16, 2010, 11:37:02 AM
I'm pretty much in the "hate rolling routine driving, piloting, and riding checks" camp.

If I want to take my seaplane under a low bridge while being chased by enemy planes... Yeah, I probably need to make a piloting check, but if I'm just flying from Chicago to New York, then what's the point?

The point is that some GMs like to see PCs fail the routine. It gives them a kick. Force enough die rolls from a player and their PC will fail eventually. And so those GMs make people roll for EVERYTHING, even the routine. Drives me batcrap insane.
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