tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post603340239668682782..comments2024-02-27T01:17:39.925-08:00Comments on The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms: Situational FactorsTalysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-73246478445722125492011-12-22T08:08:19.863-08:002011-12-22T08:08:19.863-08:00So: having lots of factors in your favor doesn'...<i>So: having lots of factors in your favor doesn't improve your chance of success much, but it does improve your chances of getting a +1 or +2. This seems natural and easy to me; I could just eyeball the situational factors and think "oh, sounds like the PC has the advantage here." I don't discuss it much because I think it doesn't feel natural to most other people</i><br /><br />This is actually how I prefer to handle these situations too. Any other way slows the game down too much. I think it feels very natural. This is basically a restatement of <i>rulings over rules</i>, no?<br /><br />However, I think situational bonuses are not exactly the same thing as skill bonuses, which are inherent to the character. It is these kind of inherent bonuses (they can come from either skills or equipment) that I think have the potential to cause problems ("problems" might be a strong word; I guess I mean that they might lead to a game with escalating power levels that can be somewhat in conflict with the openness I would like to see in a sandbox game).<br /><br />In order to address this problem with the thief, rather than give a level-based bonus, I think I am leaning towards something close to the the B/X Blackrazor "automatic thief" that you linked to before, but <a href="http://untimately.blogspot.com/2011/12/two-thoughts-on-thieves.html" rel="nofollow">introducing the abilities slowly</a> over the course of level progression. So, awesome abilities gained slowly rather than crappy abilities gained all at once.<br /><br />The major exception that I make to this principle of limited inherent bonuses that I can think of is the fighter's attack bonus, which, any way you look at it, is a tremendous progression. For some reason this doesn't bother me, probably because most people see high-level fighters (rightly or wrongly) as being less powerful than high-level casters.Necropraxishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12716340801054739658noreply@blogger.com