Question For Referees?

[The Perilous Dreamer]

I saw this on X/Twitter. I am curious as to what you opinions are on it? I know exactly what I would do. Also your opinion on a dungeon that could be raided by one player? As well as the idea that playing through an hour of game time, could take a full hour of real time? I would like your response to all three questions please.

[simrion]

Yeah...ummm...okay. I certainly wouldn't last long in a game like that. Been fortunate to not encounter anything like that in my groups.

[JMiskimen]

Where we're gaming, there are no rogues.

(Luck points?)

JM.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

I found the whole scenario to be ridiculous.

1. One is that even if the thief (in the example) had an eight hour game time head start on the party, he would not have time to get through more than a tiny fraction of the first level of the dungeon before the party caught up with him.

2. I would let the player do that, I have had players in games go off by themselves before, but contrary to the example, they did not set in silence, they instead where highly entertained by how that (not an hour, but in my game 4 hours of game time) played out in about 15 minutes of real time and the trouble the player got himself into and then the players spent the next 20 minutes ignoring him in the room, but in game saying so and so is gone again, should we go look for him or just continue on our way and then finally saying well we might as well look for him, he is useful to take all those risks the rest of us are too smart to take and etc.

3. I once asked him why he went off by himself, when it never works out and he said it was because such interesting things always happened.

4. The silly part of this is that these idiots set there silent for an hour. My players IRL would be dogging him and making fun of his decisions and making suggestions for what I could have happen to him.

5. I have never had any player that was going to attack another players PC, that is never on the table, unless the players all 100% wanted it, but it has never come up.

6. What is most likely to happen if a single player went into a dungeon alone is that he would be dead before the party ever found him.

7. It sounds like the DM is not very creative and if he can't handle a single player alone, I shudder to think how bad he must be with the whole group.

8. Having the players sit in silence for an hour is crazy. Days can pass in 15 minutes. A few hours can pass in 15 minutes easily.

9. It is really easy for things to go horribly wrong in a non-old school game.

10. An excellent example of why "luck points" are a bad idea. It puts the game on easy mode.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Mar 18, 2024 9:23:15 GMT -5 JMiskimen said:

Where we're gaming, there are no rogues.

(Luck points?)

JM.

I think it is a 5E game.

[simrion]

I'm firmly with PD on this one. A father and daughter play in my games. They wander off frequently and bad things typically ensue. And as PD points out the rest of the group cajoles them no end. The intent of the game is to be (at least somewhat) cooperative. A lone operator in a dungeon deserves a quick and gruesome end. Heck when Gary and company tested dungeons solo their PC still typically brought along small armies of followers, hench folk and other dungeon fodder.

[hengest]

I wouldn't care to play with this group.

[mao]

1 dumb ref
2 I had one for 1-2 players
3 maybe rping

[The Semi-Retired Gamer]

This doesn't sound like a game I would enjoy playing.

As a referee, I expect the players to be HEROES. Sure, there is some wiggle room and there are times when some might want to push against the boundaries but at the end of the day, they are NOT the bad guys. I don't like "murderhobo" games and will not participate in them either.

I wouldn't stop the other players from retaliating with their characters in game. Simply put, FAFO.

[muddywater]

I don't know about anyone else, but I would not be sitting there silent and I would not be letting that thief get out alive either.