Supplement Four
Mongoose
If you remember the expression "Hang Ten", then you're either a surfer or as old as I am.
This thread is about Taking Ten, though. I'm developing a love/hate relationship with the game rule.
A lot of times, I love Take 10. It's a brilliant concept that encourages smooth game play.
Other times I find it getting in the way.
Let's talk about it.
Do you use Take 10? Do you like it? How do you use it?
Besides what's written in the book (that you can't use Take 10 in a dangerous situation), how do you decide to Take 10 and when to roll a skill check?
For example, in one of my game's supplemental books, there's a rule for sleeping in the wilderness. If you don't make the check, you wake up fatigued as if you had slept in armor.
There are various ways to over come this penalty. Making shelters will get you a bonus on the check. So will the Endurance Feat. The same for having 5 ranks in Survival (the check is a Fortitude Save). Things like having the right equipment (bedrolls, fire) gets you bonuses and things like adverse weather will get you penalties.
The problem is that the entire section might as well not be there, except for a very few characters, because Taking 10 will beat many of the save DCs except in extreme conditions.
In other words, Taking 10 wipes out the entire rule. Taking 10 makes the rule no longer something to use.
Would you consider this a threatening situation, barring the use of Take 10...because a character might wake up after sleeping on a root all night, with a crimp in his neck?
But, if you allow Taking 10, then the entire rule is moot 90% of the time, with most characters.
So, what, as a GM, do you do? Do you allow the Take 10 or not? And, why?
This thread is about Taking Ten, though. I'm developing a love/hate relationship with the game rule.
A lot of times, I love Take 10. It's a brilliant concept that encourages smooth game play.
Other times I find it getting in the way.
Let's talk about it.
Do you use Take 10? Do you like it? How do you use it?
Besides what's written in the book (that you can't use Take 10 in a dangerous situation), how do you decide to Take 10 and when to roll a skill check?
For example, in one of my game's supplemental books, there's a rule for sleeping in the wilderness. If you don't make the check, you wake up fatigued as if you had slept in armor.
There are various ways to over come this penalty. Making shelters will get you a bonus on the check. So will the Endurance Feat. The same for having 5 ranks in Survival (the check is a Fortitude Save). Things like having the right equipment (bedrolls, fire) gets you bonuses and things like adverse weather will get you penalties.
The problem is that the entire section might as well not be there, except for a very few characters, because Taking 10 will beat many of the save DCs except in extreme conditions.
In other words, Taking 10 wipes out the entire rule. Taking 10 makes the rule no longer something to use.
Would you consider this a threatening situation, barring the use of Take 10...because a character might wake up after sleeping on a root all night, with a crimp in his neck?
But, if you allow Taking 10, then the entire rule is moot 90% of the time, with most characters.
So, what, as a GM, do you do? Do you allow the Take 10 or not? And, why?
