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Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net
ROGUE FEED So there you go. Now if you will excuse, I am going to bed.
The physical copies of the books have been sent to both IPR and Studio
2’s warehouses. They should be making their way out shortly from there.
I have not gotten any copies yet, and once I do, I will be handling the
mail out to playtesters and contributors. My day job has been crazy for
the past few weeks, but these copies will be out no later than month’s
end. I will be contacting each point of contact of the various playtest
groups with the details.
1
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net 8 July 2009
expedition into the ruins of Katsushiro’s Castle. told tales and legends of the campaign.
If that sounds awesome to you, go ahead and grab yourself a copy. I rather like this passage and think it does a good job of showing not only
why saving throws are themselves an invaluable game mechanic, but also
why saving throws whose consequences are “inevitable destruction” lend
richness and texture to a campaign — which is why I do not now, nor
have I ever, shied away from “save or die” effects.
ROGUE FEED
That’s probably the most exhaustive explanation for what a saving throw
is in the Gygaxian canon, but, coming as it does in 1979’s Dungeon
Masters Guide, it can hardly be called definitive for the entirety of D&D.
(And if anyone knows of a lengthier or more detailed discussion of saving
throws in Gygax’s works, I’d be interested in knowing about it).
I bring this up at all, because my post last month on this topic generated
a lot of valuable discussion, but also some disagreement. I treat saving
throws, by and large, as a kind of check against a player’s foolhardiness.
It’s a last chance to mitigate the consequences of his own stupidity. Quite
rightly, some, including the estimable Dan Proctor, creator of Labyrinth
Lord, disagreed with my approach, since it doesn’t explain why a
character should get a save vs. a spell cast by an opponent or why a
fighter has a better saving throw against dragon breath than any other
class.
That’s a perfectly valid criticism and, in light of the text quoted above,
illustrates that, like many things in D&D, there’s no single overriding
explanation for their existence. Saving throws have, so far as I can tell, a
dual purpose. One purpose serves verisimilitude; saves are a way to
represent the fact that not every attack is 100% effective all the time. The
other serves “fairness;” it’s a recognition that D&D is a game and people
often better enjoy games when they feel “there’s always a chance” that
they might succeed (or at least avoid the worst effects of failure). Gygax
himself was aware of this when he wrote later on in the same section of
the DMG: