4.6 KiB
Harry Potter and the Natural 20 Chapter 60
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Author: u/gamarad LessWrong (than usual)*
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URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8096183/60/Harry-Potter-and-the-Natural-20
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Score: 31
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Created: 2014-08-30T02:41:19
Post:
Comments:
u/FeepingCreature [+10] GCV Literally The Entire Culture (5 hours later)
The tower shield exploit is wonderful.
u/alexanderwales [+4] Time flies like an arrow (an hour later)
Too short - I think I might have to save these up and read them in a row. I am really looking forward to a confrontation with Bellatrix, though I somewhat suspect that they're going to both get summoned back at the same moment or something screwy like that.
u/None [+1] (13 hours later)
D&D sounds like the most broken game.
Sirius is here. yayyyyy. Wonder how Lupin will factor in.
u/alexanderwales [+4] Time flies like an arrow (14 hours later)
D&D is only theoretically broken, because in reality you have a DM that will (hopefully) note the differences between "Rules as Written" and "Rules as Intended". The DM is a built-in release valve for all those corner cases and wording ambiguities that result from giving the player characters a simulationist experience without actually providing the rules for simulating everything ever.
u/None [+2] (14 hours later)
So who is DMing this game...?
u/alexanderwales [+9] Time flies like an arrow (15 hours later)
No one.
Or, possibly a very lenient DM that doesn't really care if you do ridiculous stuff. In a real game of D&D, hiding behind a tower shield wouldn't even work once. Rule Zero of D&D is that the DM has veto power and can treat the rules as mere suggestions, and in those situations where someone tries to construct a Commoner Railgun or create Pun-Pun, the DM just says "No".
u/Riddle-Tom_Riddle [+5] (16 hours later)
Milo calls the DM the Dimensional Maestro in Ch 53.
Tangentially, recently, the new munchkin slips out of character a few times.
Milo mentions that the very rules of the universe will be changed as the result of the tower shield exploit.
I'm going to go with a slightly lenient DM who allows some exploits if they're in the RAW, but patches them up with house rules after the first time.
u/Iconochasm [+7] (19 hours later)
Whoever is running Milo's universe has at least some appreciation for insane janky nonsense like the tower shield trick. I'm a similar minded DM, and my rule is "You can use it once, then it's banned forever". Like the old 3.0 "summon a whale over an opponent" trick.
u/None [+5] (16 hours later)
create Pun-Pun
D&D sounds like the most broken game.
seriously how does any time people play this game not turn into a munchkin-fest instantly? Being a DM sounds like a desperate holding action, sticking your finger into the hole in the dike while a raging tsunami with hundred-foot waves is coming toward you because a bunch of commoners got together and started handing each other cups of water.
u/alexanderwales [+4] Time flies like an arrow (18 hours later)
It's a matter of the players and the DM respecting each other. There are big sections in the books that talk about the social contract between everyone in the game. If you've got the wrong sort of player who doesn't respect the assumptions at the table, then you definitely have a problem, but those players are easy to weed out, or at least talk to.
Asking why D&D doesn't just end in insanity is like asking why improv doesn't end with one person as the king of the world - that's not really what it's about.
u/GeneralSCPatton [+6] (16 hours later)
It's mostly a matter of player courtesy and the fact that the DM will kick you out or quit if everyone keeps trying to break things.
u/Iconochasm [+3] (19 hours later)
Nat20 and 2YE are about having fun with the Rules as Written. Any actual DM will declare the railgun non-functional Because Physics. But players not deliberately shattering suspension of disbelief is an important element at any gaming table.
u/None [+3] (20 hours later)
All this just convinces me further that the plot is building up to a confrontation between Milo and the DM and other player characters.