>You're lying. He's not a slave and you're not traders.
>He doesn't carry himself like a slave, look at the way he stands. Probably ex-military.
>Akrennian traders always threaten before they ask a favor. It's tradition.
>And your robes are made out of bedspreads.
Is pulling a move like this acceptable as a GM?
if your players are not careful in preparing a disguise, then a smart guard will teach them to be more thorough
it also lets you force your players to resort to fast talking if they get complacent with the old disguise routine
it makes sense for a guard to be quick on the draw if they are locals
Depends, did they fail their roll, or did you decide the players didn't have enough attention to detail when roleplaying their disguise?
>Is pulling a move like this acceptable as a GM?
Only if the players massively fucked up the disguise.
Otherwise, you're just being a tremendous faggot because the players neglected to mention random minutae about the setting.
>Titan AE
Christ this brings back memories. Seems like it'd be a good teaching opportunity like mentioned if they made some major mistakes.
That's pretty much just the PCs failing a disguise/bluff roll and the GM fluffing it as them messing up due to not acting their role properly.
do that if they decide to do it haphazardly, but just for the lulz, pull something close to the "romanes eunt domus" scene from life of brian with the guard threatening to hurt the PCs if they dont come back without being acceptably disguised
>Whats this, are those bedspreads as robes?
>and what is this posture, young man? you cant expect to look like a trader like this.
>come back tomorrow, if you're not looking convincing till then, I'll cut your balls off.
Rolled 13 (1d20)
>He doesn't carry himself like a slave, look at the way he stands. Probably ex-military.
He has been acquired recently: he is very good at following orders and commands, I assure you.
>Akrennian traders always threaten before they ask a favor. It's tradition.
No, nononono. I'm sorry, it's spelled Aqrennian, not Akrennian. They are a smaller culture in the northern part of Akre, who do not share many of the traditions of Akrennian.
>And your robes are made out of bedspreads.
My lad, this is the usual garb of the Fan'Cul academy in the south.
>Only if the players massively fucked up the disguise.
Rather, only if they didn't get high enough to beat the guard's own perception check. It might be a great disguise, but the guard just might be that good for any number of reasons. Sometimes mooks roll natural 20s. Or whatever the equivalent is in your game of choice. The point is, no disguise is so good that it auto-succeeds.
>And your robes are made out of bedspreads.
I didn't watch this movie until a few years ago, and by then I was already in my mid-30s, but goddamn did I laugh hard at that line.
Rolled 1 (1d20)
I call bullshit
No, guard, YOU are bullshit.
>natural 1
Your bullshit call not only fails, but your commanding officer clips you around the back of the head and halves your day's pay for wasting time.
"You heard the Aqua... Aqen... Aqrennian? You heard him, the slave's just new. Very nice robes, sir. Very nice. Please don't tell our superior officer about this!"
What movie is that screenshot from?
Yes, if the one speaking is knowledgeable in such things, why wouldn't it be?
>He doesn't carry himself like a slave, look at the way he stands. Probably ex-military.
They could explain that away fairly easily.
>Akrennian traders always threaten before they ask a favor. It's tradition.
So they either didn't do enough research about the people they're trying to impersonate, or aren't putting much effort in doing so.
>And your robes are made out of bedspreads.
Really?
Yeah, they really deserve to get called on it. If you want to avoid using GM powers, have the guard roll scrutiny/system equivalent with a substantial bonus. Otherwise, so long as you give them a chance to fast-talk their way out of it all's fair.
Seriously, bedspreads?
But in a d100 system that would be a critical success!
Its a good way to explain a failed disguise roll.
I think the best failed disguise moment I've seen in a game was a player with a female character stealing a suit of power armour from a barracks for a disguise.
Forgetting she'd stolen a man's uniform from the mens' barracks, which had an IFF tag and nameplate on both clearly stating this was a man.
And then opening a direct line to the man's squad leader to try to pretend to be him.
>Seriously, bedspreads?
If you've ever GM'd you'd know that players can be 100% retarded at the BEST of times.
...
>The point is, no disguise is so good that it auto-succeeds.
Depends on the setting.
In Exalted, for instance, there's a way to get a diguise that auto-succeeds
>No, nononono. I'm sorry, it's spelled Aqrennian, not Akrennian.
Eyesight so good he can see incorrect spelling in spoken word
It would really depend on how well the player and the guard did for their opposing rolls, wouldn't it?
>HAHAHA MONTY PYTHON ON TRPGs
STOP
Hi, reddit
Question.
How do you represent something the player is trying to do. In a D20 system that is extremely unlikely to work?
My rule book says penalties should be between -2 and -5 but that doesn't seem to cover things that really shouldn't work without a miracle. Like dressing up in a bedsheet toga and convincing the praetorian guard you are totally an important person and the princeps has sent for you.
>My rule book says penalties should be between -2 and -5 but that doesn't seem to cover things that really shouldn't work without a miracle. Like dressing up in a bedsheet toga and convincing the praetorian guard you are totally an important person and the princeps has sent for you.
You tell the player not to bother rolling, because there's no way to succeed with the attempt.
he eats a lot of carrots
But what if they roll a NAT FUCKING 20
situationally, it's fine.
If they either fail a check or massively unprepare, sure.
My group has a running "joke" where the actual plan for almost every infiltration is "blow something up as a distraction and improvise the rest" and they actively resist making more detailed plans.
It is absolutely acceptible to punish this kind of behavior. Any plan that explicitly relies on everyone else being profoundly stupid or not knowing their job isn't a good plan.
For the first two, only if those things had been commented on previously at least in passing. The third would only come up in relation to the first two.
>rolls NAT20 bluff
>"Kill this man impersonating the guard immediately!"
For things that would/should be impossible, I require multiple saves.
1/20 chance to convince a crowd you're the emperor of the planet? With 9 charisma? No. Keep rolling 20s, I'll tell you when to stop.
Rule of fun(ny) can occasionally trump this, however.
Not him, but I would go with a high roll being them either thinking of the issues with the disguise or managing to scrounge up something better.
>"Alright, I wanna disguise myself as a guard. I take a bedsheet and wear it like a toga. 19 plus 4"
>"You manage to cut and weave the bedsheet together in a perfect arrangement of the style you're going for, but due to the materials used you can tell that it won't stand to close scrutiny. Unless you can find something better you'll have to stay at a distance to remain unseen."
>no, fuck off rolemaster
>You're lying. He's not a slave and you're not traders.
>He doesn't carry himself like a slave, look at the way he stands. Probably ex-military.
>Akrennian traders always threaten before they ask a favor. It's tradition.
>And your robes are made out of bedspreads.
....do we have a plan B?
What is this from?
Titan A.E.
>google image search before reading thread
>all related images are Gaston
>do we have a plan B?
do PCs EVER have a plan B?
It's been my experience that when Plan A fails, they will keep trying Plan A until it DOES work, or have screwed themselves so far over that one way or another the whole campaign is rendered unplayable and the GM has to write up a whole new campaign and the players have to make whole new PCs, usually while bitching on sites like this one that their GM 'railroaded' them.
>how an RPG party is meant to be
>having a dedicated healer
>caster needing to be protected by a martial
>rogue being relevant instead of having his utility covered by casters
Hmmm, I could buy the third and maybe the second one depending on the system, but a dedicated healer?
Maybe the artist is as accustomed to RPG video games as tabletop RPGs? That's understandable in this day and age.
I'm guessing the artist of that comic is the pissy little orc bitch in the second panel, instead of any of the people clearly having fun and enjoying themselves?