I had to bite my tongue on Saturday when the storyteller made the ruling that led to this particular comment. It was fortunate that I didn't really care enough to correct him, because:
1) The ruling involved a Self-Control roll to allow my character to light a cigarette. Should have been a Courage roll.
2) The difficulty of the roll was a mere 3, and I had 5 dice in Courage (this being one of Roger's characters). So, per the rules, I qualified for an automatic success.
There are two morals I wish to draw from this little rant:
Firstly, if the GM wishes to appeal to the rules to justify a ruling he makes during the game, it's fairly important that the ruling actually be correct. This means knowing the rules of the game very, very well. Otherwise, an unkind player is liable to correct him, leading to potentially significant advantage.
Secondly, and more importantly, the GM should never resort to saying, "it's the rules", to justify himself. Better just to say, "you'll need to make a Self-Control roll", and leave it at that. Otherwise, he opens the door for the rules lawyers to come out to play.
In other news, my name is Stephen, and I'm a rules lawyer...
Archived comment by Mort:
ReplyDeleteWell I don't know about you, but I'm getting somewhat fed up with the fact that I'm supposedly some occult freak who talk to the dead on a daily basis. And still can't figure out that there's a goddamn wraith messing with me.
Actually, if it's something I honestly dislike it's when a GM is using their NPCs to make players seem useless and crappy, and seemingly just for the hell of it as well.
Also, from scanning through the book I couldn't find any way for a necromancer to actually banish a wraith, big problem right there. Calling up the dead, no problem. Getting rid of them, nu-huh, try a priest. Just a bit flawed if you ask me.