[PnP] noob questions part II

[Paul L. Ming]

Hiya.

  Oh, I didn't mean "on the fly adjustments" all the time. Consistency 
is the key to any good campaign. The -5 is the 'baseline' from which 
other cases would be adjusted. So if -5 is the bonus for normal man vs. 
man on well-lit, even ground, then the adjustment would be raised or 
lowered based on how different the situation is from that 'base'. A 
warrior choosing to flee against a mud-dwelling beast, as the warrior is 
up over his ankles in mud would probably warrant a much larger bonus to 
the mud-beast.

  A house rule is a good thing to write down. :) What I was trying to 
get at was to not have a separate situational modifier for 'every little 
change'; in the example above, I would have just one house rule: "When 
disengaging from a foe, the foe not fleeing will get a single attack at 
a -5 bonus against the fleeing foe. Adjustments to this bonus should be 
made based on terrain, physiology, and other factors that might come 
into play in that particular engagement."  This keeps it simple, but 
leaves it open to interpretation for various other situations.

Paul L. Ming
> Thanks for the excellent advice Paul.
>
> I hear you when you say I should think less in terms of game
> mechanics, but even the books suggest that when the gamemaster makes a
> ruling it should be consistent. And really I think we've done the same
> thing. I expect your ad-hoc ruling of fleeing with the -5 bonus would
> be applied to any other instance of flight where all other things are
> equal, right? If so, why not make it a house rule so it's easy to
> remember?
>