Weird. I was told on other forums (RPGNet, Wizards, EnWorld) that you can ask for advantage/disadvantage, therefore you should.

If you can't, that's great and solves a lot of problems

Quote from: PencilBoy99;835012Weird. I was told on other forums (RPGNet, Wizards, EnWorld) that you can ask for advantage/disadvantage, therefore you should.

If you can't, that's great and solves a lot of problems

You can ask if a certain situation (as an 'Improvised Action' in combat) or if a character background (for a skill check) might help, but that's usually rare.  In fact, I've yet to have it happen.  I'm more likely to give either to the players.

YMMV.

Christopher Brady is absolutely right. GM prerogative has been repeated and encouraged throughout this edition. You can alway ask. That has nothing to do with whether it will be granted. The game provides a strong framework of explicit mechanical situations to guide GMs if and when they encounter improvised situations.

And players usually go for the rules specific things which explicitly grant Adv/Disadv. Rare do they try Improvised Action or PC background to appeal for it. I too find myself reminding players of their race, backgrounds, or environmental objects to give Adv/Disadv.

Quote from: PencilBoy99;835012Weird. I was told on other forums (RPGNet, Wizards, EnWorld) that you can ask for advantage/disadvantage, therefore you should.

If you can't, that's great and solves a lot of problems

Similar to Surprise. It is situational and the DMs call unless something specifically says you have it. Like some conditions, Flanking, some class abilities, a few spells, etc.

Outside of that you can try to gain advantage or impose advantage by asking the DM. Like getting some enemies in a mire and asking if that grants advantage. Or you re-inforce an illusion with some stage tricks to try and impose disadvantage on the viewers save.

An in play example would be Jannet who will in a tight battle ask the GM if she can forgo using her extra attack to take harder bow aim to gain advantage. She does not do that every single battle and the DM has been agreeable to the rare times shes tried it. Whereas for the group I DM I cannot recall them ever trying to set up freewheeling advantage/disadvantage. It has always been using the mechanical triggers.

Play 5e every other week, and 13th Age the other week.
I am not a traditional D&D fan, more 'other' games so this is a ground breaking edition for me.

I DM'd it, briefly.

No, I don't currently run or play it, and I don't feel the need. It's ok, but after 3e and 4e it's "too little, too late".
There are so many OSR clones and hacks (and d20 hacks) that I like way better, from Exemplars & Eidolons, over Swords & Wizardry, over everything by John Stater and Simon Washbourne (Crimson Blades!), over Beyond the Wall, over the dK System, to Whitehack.

If I ever use something remotely 5ish I'll hack bounded accuracy, advantage/disadvantage and backgrounds into Microlite 20, and be done.

Even though I helped make it, I have yet to have an opportunity to use it.  This isn't due to any distaste, though, its just that I play very very long campaigns.

Ran a campaign for a few months, then recently switched to AD&D because that's what one of the guys in my group wants to run for a few sessions. Then another guy will start running a 5E campaign (The Princes of the Apocalypse) when that's finished.

So yeah, it's pretty much our default now.

Quote from: RPGPundit;834472So, as of this point in time, how many of you have played 5e D&D?
How many of you are regularly playing it?
How many of you are mainly playing it (that is, it is what you are most often playing now)?

I am not adverse to this edition as I was to 4e. However, I didn't even buy the books, and do not intend to, except maybe for the monster manual (just in case I would want to make a 5e variant of my next book). The image I saw featuring a ludicrous geisha-samurai, killed what little interest I had in the game. I am more interested in getting a copy of Crypt & Things II when it is released.

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;835174If I ever use something remotely 5ish I'll hack bounded accuracy, advantage/disadvantage and backgrounds into Microlite 20, and be done.

People are already trying to do that. There are at least two Microlite20 5e-style variants in the Microlite20 Variants section of the Microlite20.org download library.

I'd be willing to give Micro-5 a shot sometime.:-)

Still perfectly happy with the books I've been using all along, and not feeling inclined to buy a new edition every handful of years.

I bought the reprints a couple of years ago instead, so it isn't as if WOTC can't have my money.  If they would allow 3rd party support for older editions with a royalty going to WOTC, they could have more of my money.