Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Sinaz 06-25-05, 02:44 PM	I'm thinking about adding a simple little caveat rule to combat so that we can undo brash and total lack of common sense actions. First, I want to point out that I have a very mature gaming group. My players don't throw hissy fits over adjucation and don't attempt to be munchkins or powergamers... So with that in mind, I'm thikning about adding an element to combat that will act as a sort of metagaming finger of god on the DM's part. If I catch a player getting ready to do something that perhaps he is doing because he doesn't understand the game-mechanics consequences, I interrupt him with an automatic free-action of "reconsider this." And then I explain "if you cast fireball here, you'll be well within it's blast radius and you have nothing going for protection... is this what you mean to do?" or "remember that the fighter has grappled the enemy, you're facing a -6 penalty to hit, and if you miss, I'm adjucating a ranged touch attack with no penalty vs. the fighter to see if you accidentally hit him. Are you sure you want to try this?" If the player says, "yeah, I meant to do that." Then they continue with thier prescribed action as I adjucated it. If the player goes "oh, I didn't realize I was within splash range of my fireball" or "oh, right... and my arrows really pack a wallop. Nevermind" then they spend a partial action "changing his/her mind." I think I'll also adjucate that the "changing his/her mind" retains a readied action status if they decide to redirect the action to a more sane or ideal alternative... For instance, the previous misinformed arrow shot could be redirected as a free action against another enemy in the player's foward arc. The caster in the other example could redirect the fireball to a better target location as a free action so long as it's in his foward arc. Anything beyond that requires the player spend the partial action to "change his/her mind." So it's like, "what you were about to do was really stupid, and you face this minor penalty of a lost action instead of me just adjucating that action and you nearly killing other players and/or yourself." I feel I should mention that I came up with this rule because we play with a lot of momentum. We don't spend a lot of time waiting for a player to come to a carefully planned decision, and sometimes, I'll adjucate "ok, this round you've stood around unable to make a decision on what to do... you're only option now is to ready an action if you want for your next turn."
pangalactic 06-25-05, 03:32 PM	This feels a lot like the way I tend to play anyway, but turned into game mechanics. I like it :)
lostone 06-26-05, 08:41 AM	That's the way we do things in our group, but doesn't have any mechanics to it. It's more of an out of character thing, because the character should realize if they cast this fireball spell they'll be hit by it, and would have made a conscious decision to go ahead with it. I just mention to them out of character what will happen and they go ahead or rethink their action. I don't think it is really necessary to make an actual game mechanic for it, but if it helps your group, then it's a Good Thing (TM).