LogFAQs > #885768631

Mario_VS_DK posted...

Well, after someone decided they wanted to skin the dogs, anyways.

Oh, so you have one of those in your party ...


krazychao5 posted...

I never understood DnD

Reading this doesn't help

Basically, it's writing a book as a group. One person is the Dungeon Master, who acts as the referee and guide. Everyone else controls a character they made within the setting. The rules are extremely fast and loose. All disagreements are settled by the DM. To 'play' you simply say what your character is doing. In order to make sure that a player can't just have Superman with an Infinity +1 Sword, they have stats and limitations like classes or races. When you try to do something (let's say you say, "I'm going to push that boulder off the cliff on top of that Ogre") then the DM will ask you to roll a D20, add your strength bonus, and if you roll as high as the DM's set difficulty check (DC), you succeed. If not, you fail.

So basically, the DM needs to be godlike and well prepared because you always know there is going to be some asshole that thinks that the solution to saving the kingdom is blowing up the castle while unleashing several flaming goats in the streets, and the DM has to figure out how to determine if he succeeds or not.

I remember one story, it might have been on here, where a player created a poorly worded spell about summoning skeletons. Basically, the necromancer summoned the skeleton, and then had to roll to determine if they can control them. On the first casting, it failed and the skeleton mage that was summoned began using the spell. After a few minutes, they filled the city with skeletons. They ran and got in a boat while the city was crushed under the heaving mass of animated bones. They watched as the skeletons humorously tumbled into the sea, only for things to take a turn when a wave of undead started chasing the boat. After awhile, the entire planet was crushed under the weight of the massive undead skeletons that had been summoned.