Resources and mechanics

[inkylore]

a thread for generlized resources of the club or mechanics typically used to display how to contextualize dnd mechanics or the mechanics of other dnd like games, or more over enlisting other games so people can find and get familiar with how it to play it so they can better contextualize the mechanical aspects of the game...

note that the contextualized explination often acts as a suggestion, and that if you know of a  method for doing so without the use of stats or dice your welcome to do so.

[inkylore]

C o n t e x t u a l   D N D 

Contextual dnd  is about contextualizing the technical mechanics of dnd things like ability scores, skills and other stats not to mention feats and other abilites that rely on numbers. contextualizing them is often a game of persuasion. saying, wearing, doing (successfully) things that convey to the GM that yes, your character should be able to do these things. similar to how the gm decides on what the required dice roll is, they also decide if you've displayed enough infomation for them to judge if you can do whatever it is you seek to do.

 

Take the ability score of strength for example. if you wanted contextulize it as being high, you might do things percieved as being strong. like wearing heavy armor and carrying a shield, have mentioned feats of strength mentioned in your backstory, carry a buster sword as a main weapon. manage to defeat monsters who also demonstrate feats of strength or gain a reputation for being particularly strong. on the other end the GM could bestow you with items or other things to further boost those same ability scores. though insstead of denoting that a item  gives one a strength of +2, a Gm might dictate exactly how much stronger it makes one equipped to it. rather that means saying they're "this many times stronger" compare thier strength to another race or monster, or vaguely insinuate what one could do with this new strength as a comparison, or be as specific as to state how much lifting strength or physical force it grants, or alternatively grant them strength in a specific way. because of this their can be no exaggerations. if the GM says a glove gives you the strength to decimate a moutain with a single punch, then by the discription thats what it does.

 

skills or skill checks like  intemidation, animal handling and stealth are extensions of the main ability scores when contextualize. if insinuated by your normal abilitty scores then it should be implied that you possess skills of the same level if not greater. due to dnd often having professions and back grounds that allow a increase in those skills let alone if they possess profiency with them. a good example might be someone who's a rouge who might have good dexterity as a result they might also have a good slight of hand to the same degree, unless they have a background or other details that implies  they may have had a great or greater slight of hand even before becoming an adventurer... 

 

Feats are typically features you get after a level up gaining you some sort of skill, ability or sometimes item or alternatively the improvement of said skill, ability or item, sometimes a small array of them per feat. contrary to normal dnd, you can't just point and click and tah-dah now you have it. you or more commonly the Gm  should provide context on how you gained it. maybe you did a little training, found someone who taught it or gave it to you, that sort of thing. luckily most feats come with a introduction that explain what the feat is and how it might have been gained. some feats have limits or instruction as to how often they can be used or how they can be used, so you should probably keep that in mind. notable, rather then list it on your character sheet in order to remember due to the fact that you may or may not have the same build when paying diffrent games, i suggest instead to simple list it in a spoiler in the reply of the Game your player. particularly either editing the same spoiler when you need to update it or across several spoilers threw out the game to denote where and when you recieved new feats, skills abilities and alike.

 

Levels are  indicators of progress for a character, each level allowing them to grow in strength and class though other games might have diffrent perameters for how level works or how far it goes. for your typical dnd character you start at lv.1 ( unless stated otherwise by the GM) and can level all the way to lv.20, with some feats even caping the extent to which ability scores can be increased, but you probably already knew that. to contextualize Level you can simple narrate something that would mark they're progress of leveling up, preferable without refering to it directly as a level up. maybe they complete a quest or take a test that ranks them higher in a guild if they succed, maybe they were granted a magic item that grows and changes form whenever they level up. or maybe they have a master or guardian that makes themselves known to them, each time letting them know that they've improved a great deal, granting or teaching them they're choosen feats. something of that nature. of course you just as welcome to be unimaginative by having a voice in they're head tell them that they leveled up andd what comes with it, or to have it prompted with a engulfing light in the shape of a arrow pointing up accompanied by a corny lv up sound from a video game.

Normally in dnd the 2 methods of leveling up is threw Milestones which means you level up after reaching a certain point in the game, which oddly enough is what most of the forementioned example work for. the other method is threw EXP. in short you gain points threw task usually bashing monster and level up once you gain enough points. contextualizing the variation is pretty easy, just make the "exp" a physical object the adventures have to collect and trade to something or someone to receive this level up. maybe gems to a guild or maybe a liquid inside a bottle that needs to be sacrificed to a goddess statue... of course the GM is welcome to take a less imaginative route to just counting the monsters defeated and quest done and go by that ( though i don't recommend it) either way its a resource someone will have to keep track of if you go this route. like normal dnd typically has an exact number for how much to gain the GM is welcome to use they're on numbers if they want.

 

 

Advantages and Disadvantages, are a aspect that typically require a bit of creativity when being contextualized. normally in dnd you would just roll the dice twice and take the worst or better roll depending on the advantage. but with this the GM typically needs to come up with actual advantages or disadvantages and some times the player has to play into them. luckily most of the time its very obvious what they advantage or disadvantage is such as how wearing heavy armor gives you disadvantage with stealth because of how much it clanks or how  having night vision gives you advantage on attacks in the dark with a room full of enemies. though some don't always seem straight forward to everyone. to which your welcome to come up with what exactly that advantage or disadvantage is, though you or the player might have to play into it such as making monsters seem weaker or slower then they would usually be or the player to the same principles. granted this doesn't mean your guaranteed to fail or succeed its just a matter of if the GM thinks you should be able too do it  despite your temporary short coming or of course they could throw you a bone or make it happen for plot reasons as long as it seems reasonable. or rather as long as all parties don't make a fuse about it.



Combat, this aspect might be hard to contextualize. in dnd combat is typically turn based  with special and distance mechanics in mind. though you would typically take turns responding too how you would attack with the GM responding to if it succeeded or not and then the GM doing the same when it was a monsters turn. though that might become overly tedious. in my opinion its probably alot easier if you simple roleplay with T-1 Combat. i think everyone knows what that is, though i might explain it if i get enough people asking about it. now respectfully you should probably follow the lesser rules of combat such as not moving further then 30 feet per turn or takes 1 turn to get up after falling prone. though because different GM's may perform with various levels of detail some rules may not need to be followed if the information isn't made relevant. so if they GM makes no mention of distance between you and the monsters or says nothing about you falling prone you can honestly ignore it and treat it as a free pass. do note this is just a suggestion on how to do the combat system if you or your Gm has something else in mind on how to manage it i certainly won't stop you for going with it as long as it doesn't cause problems...



"This concludes what i have on the process of contextualizing DnD mechanics, is something comes up in the future i may go over suggestions on how to contextualize those mechanics as well"

 

Edited 19 hours ago by inkylore