185
Ummm
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
I'm casting fireball
Remember, total darkness is -5 to passive perception even if you have darkvision.
Then what is even the point?
Because without darkvision you automatically fail (and get hit by advantage/disadvantage for unseen attacker/target).
I ask this, or for their stealth modifiers, and then roll behind the screen just to fuck with them sometimes. But it's actually quite useful. I do this once in a while and it trains them not to overreact (and assume ambush) when I ask them for realzies.
On player training, I like systems where you can bribe players to let bad things happen.
Like in vampire: the requiem, a player can always turn a regular failure into a Dramatic Failure, and get a little XP. This meant the players went from "oh no the cave is probably full of monsters let's take forever stressing" to "I ROLLED GARBAGE CAN I JUST BARGE IN LIKE A CONFIDENT IDIOT FOR MY DRAMATIC FAILURE?"
Tastes vary, but I found it made a more interesting and snappier game.
Like the Fate system!
I like systems that are player-driven, like Dungeon World. Instead of me putting a bunch of traps into place and hoping you walk into them, the complication of you rolling a failure on something else might mean there's a trap there.
"Are there any traps there?" "You tell me."
Yes! I usually take any opportunity to gush about Fate but I restrained myself here
The main weakness of Fate is you need more engaged players. Stuff like DND can mostly hum along with passive players, but Fate falls really flat if people aren't engaging with it.
One of my favorite podcasts, High Rollers (sadly stuck in Hasbro Hell) uses "fate dice", a set of d6s rolled at the start of each session, that can be used by the players (high rolls) or the DM (low rolls) to influence other rolls and situations, but doing so moves the die into the opposite pool.
I do wish both sides interacted with them more though. It's a cool idea.
I think they got used the most during the window of time when the DM let the players spend them after seeing a roll (but before knowing the result). They get squelched by forgetfulness and what-if-I-need-it-later-itis.
Sure, adding them then probably ruins the balance, but fun is more important than balance.
I made it a routine to ask perception and stealth modifier of every player at the beginning of each session m
this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2025
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