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/tg/ what is your opinion on retconning?
What I mean by that is - the changing of past actions because someone forgot or wasn't aware of an ability they had in game.
Is it acceptable for either players or DMs, should we ignore the feasibility and linearity of the world to by the rules? After all it's just a game system not real life. Is there a time limit on when it is acceptable?
To give some combat examples.
>Ranger shoots 2 shots dealing 20 damage
>This leaves the enemy mage on 5hp
>Enemy mage casts cone of cold on his turn doing X amount of damage
>A turn later the ranger pipes up "actually I have favoured enemy humanoids, so I would have done an 8 extra damage on my round so that CoC never happened"
or
>Spirit guardians
>Make the saving throw
>Dice hits the table its a fail
>"Oh wait I forgot I have counterspell, obviously I would have counterspelled to not take that damage"
or less combat
>Players confront a corrupt official
>He had an escape plan to jump out the window onto the secret carriage he had prepared
>DM finishes describing the event
>"I shot him before he left, didn't you hear me say that?"
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>>53754035
For the combat, no retcon because you forgot a feature you have. You will remember the next time. And I will encourage you to mark it down in evidence, and I will remind you that you have it.
For the narrative, it's different. If I didn't hear a player doing something, it's my fault, not his. So the retcon is deserved.
If he wanted to do something but didn't because I talked too much, he didn't succeed at interrupting me, he wanted to talk but other talked before him, etc, for all this type of shenanigans, I can do a retcon.
For story event I'm lenient if you say something while this is hapenning and the retcon is just seconds or one/two minutes away.
When the scene has passed, it's generally over.
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>>53754161
>For the combat, no retcon because you forgot a feature you have. You will remember the next time. And I will encourage you to mark it down in evidence, and I will remind you that you have it.
What if its the DM making the mistake?
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>>53754232
Then we do a retcon.
If your players can't trust you because when you fuck up you don't fix it, you should put down the GM hat. Not retconing a mistake you made will feel unfair and sloppy.
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Very occasionally we might retcon something in a scene, but only very short term. If too much has happened since, the retcon would stop any of it making sense and nobody wants to 'roll back' to that point.
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>>53754035
>Ranger example
You fucked up and didn't know your own math. We missed it, this is a learning experience, move on.
>Spirit guardians example
You fucked up and didn't know your own abilities. We missed it, this is a learning experience, move on.
>Official example
You don't get to interrupt DM narration with some bullshit. DM decides what happens in narration and will provide you with your turn for agency. This is extremely variable and situation dependent, so maybe the PC was in the right, maybe he wasn't, I'd need more data.
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>>53754035
No OP you can't rewind time.
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>>53756167
What in the fuck is that image, anon
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>>53754035
If it's directly my fault as a GM, yes I'll allow retconning.
However, you forgetting a class ability or you not reading what I wrote or something else? Nah. Pay attention, it's over text, you don't have any excuses for not knowing what I just said
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>>53754035
>"actually I have favoured enemy humanoids, so I would have done an 8 extra damage on my round so that CoC never happened"
Doesn't happen because we use spreadsheets.
>"Oh wait I forgot I have counterspell, obviously I would have counterspelled to not take that damage"
If it was an honest mistake caught quickly then sure why the fuck not. If it was distinctly ex post facto then I'd allow it once but fluff it in a memorable way so the player knows they got off lightly; e.g. the character achieves an anticausal counterspell under the pain and stress of taking damage, and is left with lingering phantom pains and a strange sense of jamais vu.
>"I shot him before he left, didn't you hear me say that?"
We have text logs. If you did, roll for it; if you didn't, well, you fucking well didn't. In that particular scenario though, I'd pin the fault on the DM since it seems like the players didn't want to interrupt him mid-sentence with "I CAP THAT MUTHAFUCKA IN THE ASS" but he didn't give them a proper chance to react during his "cutscene". At least that's usually how something like that happens in my experience.
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>>53757912
>Doesn't happen because we use spreadsheets.
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>>53758066
Sshhhhh.
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>>53754035
Depends. Our DM gives us a certain amount of leeway for new abilities, i.e. a fresh set of adamantine armor that negates crits. He'll allow a certain number of "oh wait"s and he'll even remind us of abilities, but after two or three he'll say "and after this one if you forget, you forget."
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>>53756167
>someone took the time to make this
species over
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