Post/Author/DateTime	Post
parad0cz 12-15-07, 12:14 PM	Has anyone ever seen or done something in real life, that changes your game world in some way? Most gamers i figure takes it in their mind to try some aspect of D&D in real life. I have heard small lists of things people should do in life to really get an apreciation of what your characters go through. My experience was caving. I went on my first dry cave run, and it totally changed my dungeon adventures. 'You go through the cave with your platemail, sword and shield? Try again'. I mean, i've done fencing, horseback riding and such and never really changed the game, but caving made me drastically change a thing. Anyone else have something similar?
TheLurkingShadows 12-15-07, 12:51 PM	Definitely, spelunking can change how you view dungeon delving! We took the Violet City Lantern Tour at Mammoth Caves and was quite surprised at how dark it really was! Quite honestly, I don't see why 'fear' checks aren't made deep in caves or caverns where the light is minimal - the echo or lack thereof, is quite spooky! --Carry that lantern folks - there's grues lurking about!
CryoSilver 12-15-07, 01:52 PM	Quite honestly, I don't see why 'fear' checks aren't made deep in caves or caverns where the light is minimal - the echo or lack thereof, is quite spooky! --Carry that lantern folks - there's grues lurking about! Probably because adventurers do it for a living and get used to it. I (mostly) quit drinking, and my DMing improved vastly. It also gave me perspective on how rules for alcohol should work.
TheLurkingShadows 12-15-07, 01:56 PM	Probably because adventurers do it for a living and get used to it. This is true for higher levels...a level 1 character is still learning and probably hasn't been through a cave or whatnot - it depends on the character concept. For lower level characters, I think fear checks would suit just fine.
1 ton ghost 12-15-07, 03:08 PM	spelunking-you're right, we did that (amateur anyway) at Mammoth Cave and Red River Gorge (KY as well) and it is profound. i really stress the Spotting Distant Light rules from Underdark as a result both normal rural and subterraneously now. it totally changes and EL format and encourages probing raids and forward scouting. darkvision is king, so choice. Craft: apart from ceramics, painting, photography, pen/ink, printmaking and bla bla bla in college (MBA & BA:rolleyes: ), i decided to get an independent study for credit during jewelry making. nothing fancy, but i made a dagger and it was a b-tch. not saying i have ranks in Weaponsmithing, but damn...so tedious. like most of jewlery making, 1/2 the time is just polishing, sanding, dremeling (?) the Hell out of what you thought was already finished (presentation basically). even cold joining the sandlewood was difficult. making rings by comparison is incredibly easy. you just need a rawhide mallet, a mandrill, a measured length of metal 'x', bunch of sandpaper/polishing agents and time. Kendo/Fencing/Paintball - fun and thoroughly expensive hobbies, but i can safely say they don't measure to life and death combat (not that i'd know the later). i mean, the whole mechanics of any RPG combat is just such an abstraction...it's just, damn, you can't really compare the two. it does help give a little more insight in game (strange move, weapon degradation, fatigue, etc) but not vice versa. Hunting - hunting hasn't really changed much in hundreds of years, though i profess a fondness towards firearms than projectile weapons (not terribly strong). hunting, apart from foraging and finding fresh water via Survival, i can't really justify 1/2 overland movement all the time for doing this. i still enforce the rules verbatim for simplicity, but we could cover alot of Ohio backwoods, fell and process a deer and have plenty of daylight. of course, this was "in season" in the states, not dead of winter in the Spine of the World. yeah, i guess it would've been quite different then. still, if all you're doing is hunting/fishing (say your Ranger has water for all), shouldn't they cut you some slack on Travel time vs. Survial? Archery/Target Shooting - owe this one to my father as well (see above). closer to in-game mechanics than melee combat, but still... i've tested sharpshooter w/ a Remington bolt-action .223 and .22 and the only time i got 1st place in gym during high school was archery week, but for me to actually kill a sentient creature (human, even an evil one; ork, troll, etc) i don't know. it's not like hunting and fight/flight takes over, got no formal combat experience, etc. it messes you up and i got enough baggage.
parad0cz 12-15-07, 03:47 PM	Yeah, lighting rules really start to make sense when you realize what firstworlders consider 'night' is no where near the dark of the uh, Dark Ages. Lowlight and especailly darkvision becomes more than flavor choices. Tracking through a forest at night? Cant see the sky? How about that total concealment for all those Orc that are following you?
metalmayhem80110 12-15-07, 06:06 PM	Yeah, actually this has happened to me... I had a happy/cheery game, heros as the PC's and everything. Good right? Well somebody close died, and it was pretty rough (This wasn't recent, it happened over a year ago). My game/characters have durastically become darker. Now there is more to that knight in shining armor (Especially since it's an Illithid in that armor getting ready to kill you in your sleep).