Hey

In KAP 5.1, there is a side-box on Player Knowledge versus Character Knowledge. It says the players should be allowed to use player knowledge on the game. In another part of the book, a side-box about the missing Intelligence stats says that the PK's INT is his player's INT. In an example in the book, Sir Ambrut is trying to get the love of a lady, so his player actually writes a love letter and read it aloud. The GM then give him success and a check on compose.

My players are using this side-boxes and Sir Ambrut's poetry as literal rules. All games they want to write some (poor) poetry by themselves, most of the time just to exalt they own feats; and they just expect to gain checks in skills for it. They refuse to even roll most of social skills, just saying they much prefer to "roleplay, auto-pass and get a check". Our Court phases all look like players demanding free-checks for bad poetry or poetry from internet (we play using skype). Several other skills have been suffering this problem, they keep asking me to draw coat of arms of any knight they meet, want to use elaborate strategies on Battle rolls without actually rolling it, etc, etc.

So, how do you people deal with that? How could I prevent them from abusing Sir Ambrut's poetry and stuff like that without incurring into arguments like "this game is just dice rolling"?

Roleplay does not give an automatic success, and also no auto checks. I feel this is still the decision of gamemaster. In our game we have two rules:
Rule 1: The GM is always right.
Rule 2: If the GM is not right see rule 1.
If I , as GM, feel the roleplay is good or even exceptionally good (this usually brings a smile to my face) then I would grant a check, otherwise it may be a success if I feel it is good roleplay. But I have seen players fumble along and as a result fail their role.

I would prefer having them try to roleplay it, but then must also accept that they may fail. There are no auto successes, ever.

In regards to the coat of arms: I like to do this, but it is not up to every GM. A program called Domesday can generate them quickly (see http://www.mystyldyne.com/). But there are moments that I do not use this and if they complain I remind them of the rules.

Seconded.

Those sidebars are all about rewarding players who bring fun to the table by being creative and interesting. If the players aren't being creative, fun or interesting then they don't get the reward.

Regards
Luke

In KAP 5.1, there is a side-box on Player Knowledge versus Character Knowledge. It says the players should be allowed to use player knowledge on the game. In another part of the book, a side-box about the missing Intelligence stats says that the PK's INT is his player's INT. In an example in the book, Sir Ambrut is trying to get the love of a lady, so his player actually writes a love letter and read it aloud. The GM then give him success and a check on compose.

My players are using this side-boxes and Sir Ambrut's poetry as literal rules. All games they want to write some (poor) poetry by themselves, most of the time just to exalt they own feats; and they just expect to gain checks in skills for it. They refuse to even roll most of social skills, just saying they much prefer to "roleplay, auto-pass and get a check". Our Court phases all look like players demanding free-checks for bad poetry or poetry from internet (we play using skype). Several other skills have been suffering this problem, they keep asking me to draw coat of arms of any knight they meet, want to use elaborate strategies on Battle rolls without actually rolling it, etc, etc.

So, how do you people deal with that? How could I prevent them from abusing Sir Ambrut's poetry and stuff like that without incurring into arguments like "this game is just dice rolling"?


1. If they write bad poetry that is inappropriate then their characters receive appropriate scorn, mockery and so on
2. Agree that it is about dice rolling--that is a feature, not a bug
3. See Cornelius' letter for guidelines

I actually like the way you guys and KAP are slowly turning me into a ruthless, almost evil GM :)

I actually like the way you guys and KAP are slowly turning me into a ruthless, almost evil GM :)


There is always room for more GMs like me. ;)