More Feedback Questions For Players or DMs

[arkanis]

1. Tried them, they are awful and cumbersome

2. Still using them, but you have to retune them because they are prone to aggravate the action economy pitfalls. They add spice to combat, but lone creatures, who already suffer a lot from poor action economy, are further hampered by a lucky criticals, which is guaranteed because they have to endure a large number of attack rolls each turn. We use criticals only against creatures and PCs of medium size or smaller, not perfect but still fun.

3. Yes, rolling initiative each turn affect start of turn/end of turn mechanics too much, and makes the duration of spells inconsistent. We tried once and it was a mess.

4. Boring, we don't feel sentient items add anything to storytelling, and end up being annoying and diminish player agency, so nay.

5. This is always group preference, but we tend to like solid rules but not written on stone approach. The Golden Rules of Roleplaying always apply, and that's in a sense part of RAW, so there's no such thing as "We are going to play 100% RAW".

6. In our case the players a stable group of people who had been playing Rolemaster for years, so final death is not the drama it's seems to be at other gaming tables. Death is final, and we don't make much fuss about it. Being from bad luck, bad decisions or whatever, death it's final and the players at my table accept it. After many years playing they have understood that what makes and adventure something "adventurous" is the real possibility of death. I'm totally transparent when rolling, because I come to understand that players accept their PC demise more easily if there's no shadow of doubt of them being cheated.

[BushViper]

Disclaimer - I am a forever DM

1. I don't use this rule because it's cumbersome, but I do use other methods to make combat more interesting/challenging. Also, early in my DM career I, like many DMs, went through the phase where lingering wounds 'sounded' like a good idea, but in practice they just don't work the way they do in theory.

2. I don't like the critical success element, but why is a multi-faceted answer that I won't bore you with. However, I do think critical attacks should be more impactful and go with the max base damage + roll the critical effect. In regard to critical failures, I absolutely hate them. Particularly the ones where you hurt yourself or an ally.

3. Personally, I love it when playing online because it's handled by the program, but it can be a little slow in real life. That said, some players don't like it and I let each group decide.

4. I like sentient weapons, but they can be a huge problem with bad/inexperienced DMs. Regardless, they should be extremely rare.

5. I prefer "serious" games, but I have absolutely no problem with levity and people making jokes, but the 'feel' I strive for is something along the lines of the Dragonlance Chronicles or LotR trilogy. I don't enjoy goofy, whimsical games, at all.

6. I'm not an oppositional DM and want my players to have fun and succeed, but -- "If he dies, he dies." That basically sums up my position. This modern push for immortal characters because of the potential for hurt feelings is completely asinine.

[Lazybones1969]

DMing three 5e campaigns at the moment, two in FGU and one live.

1. Don't like it. Too random. Death saves serve this role sufficiently in 5e IMO. If you want to add an extra consequence to death, consider a permanent -1 CON penalty.
2. Back in my AD&D days I played using tables from an article entitled, "Good Hits and Bad Misses" from Dragon magazine. Remember that over time, crits/fumbles that have a lingering effect will have a disproportionate impact on player characters, given the number of dice rolls a character makes over a campaign. I think by the time that the party was 7th level one was missing a foot and another a hand.
3. I would find this quite cumbersome.
4. Potentially cool, but only if the player is involved in the decision to introduce the weapon, and only if it had some plot purpose. I would not impose this on a player without warning.
5. I try to stick to RAW for consistency but we discuss my rulings in the campaign Discord. There will always be situations that are not covered in the rules that require some interpretation.
6. Character death has always been a part of RPGs, but I find it's far less common in today's D&D. Back in the day, when zero HP equaled death, characters were more expendable. However, I find that most players today invest more time and effort in their character's backstory and character development, so I don't mind the modern trend of making characters more survivable.