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Episode 2491: Figuring It Out

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Sometimes players look on their character sheet as though it holds all the potential answers to situations. There's a combat? Roll Fight skill. There's a locked chest? Roll Pick Locks skill. There's a person you need to convince? Roll Persuasion skill. There's a room to search? Roll Observation skill.

It doesn't need to be this way. This way of playing can be very mechanical, and to some players rather boring. The answers are not all on your character sheet.

There's a room to search? Describe how your character searches! "I look under the bed. Do I see anything? I check the wardrobe for hidden compartments. I rifle through the drawers and pull everything out. I check behind the wall hangings." If there's something hidden under the bed, or in the drawers, or behind the hangings, you don't need to roll - you find it!

There's a person you need to convince? "I think, my lord, that the goblins pose a serious threat to your western borders, and that a show of strength will both quell them and improve support for you in those threatened regions." Sounds convincing enough? Okay, the baron agrees!

You can't do this for everything, and perhaps it's not for everyone, but it can make the game more of an interactive and free-form exploration than simply picking the right skill and rolling some dice. Different game rulesets encourage or discourage either of these approaches in differing amounts. If the game you're playing seems to encourage one form of play and you'd like to try going the other way, try some different games to see how they handle things.

Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)

Material eaten by dogs? Is Snoke actually that one librarian? That would be a heck of a realization to have. She was old even back then!

Snoke could be a clone though. I don't really know what Nute would get out of cloning an old librarian instead of finding someone else. Maybe it's just that hard finding a force sensitive person willing to work with books of any kind? As nice as books are, they're not nearly as flashy as laser swords. And Nute does seem like the sort of being that would want to control all information so it could be properly sold.

Transcript

Rey: Damn. Can’t roll my way out of this one. Gonna have to try talking.
Kylo Ren: I know what I have to do.
Rey: Kylo. It’s not the hand. The Dark Side fears me. Don’t you want to know why? Don’t you want that power?
Rey: I came here like we agreed. The two of us can take Snoke down. And then Nute. We’re a dyad, we can rule together.
Kylo Ren: Administrator Snoke. Any villainous monologue?
Snoke: Just a final chance for Rey. Give me the Jedi List.
Rey: Why do you want it so much? Terrorising more families? Engineering more Dark Side users?
Snoke: Gunray recruited me to collate information for him. Cross reference. Recover material eaten by dogs. But The List was missing.
Snoke: He forced me into Administration until I could recover it. The final overdue item to clear the blot on my record.
Snoke: Regain The List and I can retire. Books to comfort my twilight... and all shall be glorious silence.
Rey: You really need a new hobby. I have some miniatures you can paint.


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Published: Sunday, 14 July, 2024; 02:11:02 PDT.
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