Penny Arcade - Comic - Comptabiblio

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Penny Arcade - Comic - Comptabiblio

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

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Quid

To paraphrase Gygax: "Man fuck the rules"

Hevach

To be fair, you can pick up a stat block for any edition and refiguring stuff like THAC0 and saves you can just use it in whichever edition you're playing, usually with no more ambiguity and arguments than you already need to sort out.

You want it to be balanced? Well then you're playing the wrong game, we don't do that here.

palidine40

Forgot the "Odd Couple" tag on the comic XD...

Djiem

The evolution of Gabe's relationship with D&D is a multi-arc saga.

Aegeri

I am going to say that it is "Backwards compatible" with heavy emphasis on the "" here.

furlion

I am glad other games exist to help influence and shape d&d because i don't really see myself getting my friends to branch out. Maybe to Pathfinder. Having said that i think most DMs can probably name many times they went rule of cool and says fuck the rules. I let one of my players seduce a warehouse because they couldn't get the door unlocked.

Hevach

furlion wrote: »

I am glad other games exist to help influence and shape d&d because i don't really see myself getting my friends to branch out. Maybe to Pathfinder. Having said that i think most DMs can probably name many times they went rule of cool and says fuck the rules. I let one of my players seduce a warehouse because they couldn't get the door unlocked.

"You know you could keep hitting the door until it breaks. We could just say the wizard remembered to prepare knock. You could look in the trash or under the mat. In fact here's a freebie, just roll perception right now. Go ahead."
"Nah, I've made my choice."

Anon von Zilch

furlion wrote: »

I am glad other games exist to help influence and shape d&d because i don't really see myself getting my friends to branch out. Maybe to Pathfinder. Having said that i think most DMs can probably name many times they went rule of cool and says fuck the rules. I let one of my players seduce a warehouse because they couldn't get the door unlocked.

"Can I seduce it?"
"It's a warehouse, Eric!"

Anyway, if my group got into the situation where somehow seducing a building is their only option to get inside, I guess they're just not getting inside then. That's also a possibility, the players are not owed success.

Overkillengine

Besides that's what an adamantine dagger or other weapon made of that metal is for. And even if the door panel itself is adamantine, that's time to start asking questions about the lock itself or the hinges. Or even the walls or roof. Or (any) windows. Even though that will be noisy, but if you aren't making the lockpick check, it's plausible you aren't going to be making ("succeeding at" for the pedants) any stealth checks either. How bad and how fast do you need in starts to be come the question if you have the right tools and some creativity.

Granted, the latest edition could have taken out mechanics like that. My willingness to pay close attention to WotC's particular rulesets has waned a bit post 3.5 Ed.

Hevach

Mechanics like that still exist. Like I said up thread, old stuff still can be used with minimal adjustment as well, nothing has really ever been removed from D&D. THAC0 is easy to translate into modern bonuses, saves changed but the old saves (where each one ran on the higher of two stars) still work so you don't need to sort an old spell into a single star save, and while bounded accuracy breaks high level stuff from old editions there are simple guides to adapt creature stat blocks to 5e (and you can just use existing high CR blocks as a template).

And of course the DM still has unlimited authority to rewrite the scenario so the party never boxes themselves in, including the old standby of waiting until the party comes up it's a good idea and pretending that was the plan all along.

And if the party are being morons maybe not wait for a good idea and just have them roll something.

And then there's the ultimate rule of what works best for your table's fun trumping any rule as written. If you want to do "Hitchhikers Gude with magic" and have your depressed warforged artificer talk to the building until it commits suicide then ok sure, pick a DC and roll that shit, doesn't ruin my fun over here at a different table in the least.

Donnicton

Hey baby, I love the way you keep valuable cargo protected from the weather

Armored Chocobo

I liked the part where WotC was like "This new PHB is incompatible with the old PHB" and like 90% of the community was like "bet."

Overkillengine

Yeah it's easy to tell MBAholes that have no real grasp of the product or their customer base were behind a lot of the recent boneheadedness given that the product literally has had Rule 0 as a core feature for generations.