Take 10 and "immediate danger"

[Nearyn]

When is a character "in immediate danger?". A character cannot take 10 on a skill check, if the character is distracted or in immediate danger. So what constitutes immediate danger?

Lets operate under the assumption that our game does not use the massive damage rules. A character with 200 hp decides to walk a tighrope across a 100 ft drop. In this case, the fall cannot kill him.

Is this character in immediate danger, and thus prevented from taking 10 on his acrobatics check to cross the tightrope?

-Nearyn

[Cardinal Chunder]

I take "immediate danger" as being in the middle of a combat.

No reason why he couldn't Take 10 on the acrobatics check unless (for example) someone was pinging arrows at him.

Even if a PC with 10hps was crossing he could Take 10.

[Jiggy]

Here's a quote on the Take 10 mechanic from designer Sean K Reynolds:

"I'm not an athlete, but I can easily to a standing broad jump of 5-6 feet, over and over again without fail. It doesn't matter if I'm jumping over a piece of tape on the floor or a deep pit... I can make that jump. With a running start, it's even easier. If I were an adventurer, a 5-foot-diameter pit would be a trivial obstacle. Why waste game time making everyone roll to jump over the pit? Why not let them Take 10 and get on to something relevant to the adventure that's actually a threat, like a trap, monster, or shady NPC?

Let your players Take 10 unless they're in combat or they're distracted by something other than the task at hand."

[Captain Wacky]

"In immediate danger" is pretty much determined by the GM. But it's usually described as some large consiquence for failure, something that distracts the character from his/her usual degree of focus. In this case, falling 100' is a pretty large consiquence to failure and just because it won't "kill you" doesn't mean it won't hurt like an SOB and take up resources to heal.

But like I said, it's pretty much determined by the GM.

[MurphysParadox]

It is also considered to be something outside the task at hand. Walking across a tightrope with the chance of falling and dieing is bad... but it is also what you're focused on doing so take 10 should be allowed. However, if you're being shot at while doing this, your mind is going to be preoccupied and you shouldn't be able to take 10.

[Nearyn]

Yeah, I just tried to do the math on how the stats would look on a circus tightrope walker, if you could NOT take 10 on walking a tightrope with no safety-net. If you could not, tightrope-walkers would have to be VERY high level indeed, to have a moderate succes-rate. My (not too thorough) calculations showed that a level 8 expert who focussed on tightrope-walking and who had a balancing pole, would still fall 1 out of 20 times. And nevermind a slackline.

So in my games I'll go with take 10 as an option.

Thanks for the assistance.

-Nearyn

[Kazaan]

If you're walking a tightrope, you should be able to take 10 on the Acrobatics check. However, while you're crossing, whether or not you take 10 on the check, you cannot take 10 on some other check like Bluff, Knowledge, Diplomacy, etc. while putting your whole focus on walking the tightrope.

Another example, say you're climbing up a cliff, taking 10 on your Climb check. Sure, a fall would kill you, but nothing is distracting you "from climbing". But you couldn't take 10 on a Stealth check to avoid being noticed because you're distracted from being stealthy by trying to climb up a dangerous cliff face, whether or not you're taking 10 on the Climb check.

[Jiggy]

Captain Wacky wrote:

"In immediate danger" is ... usually described as some large consiquence for failure

Nope, the consequence of failing a given task never distracts/prevents T10 on that task. See the designer quote I posted above, where SKR states that it doesn't matter whether you're jumping over a piece of paper or a deep pit.

Not to mention the T10 rules themselves specifically state that the whole point of taking 10 is to avoid failing when you fear that a low roll would fail. That line becomes nonsense if consequences of failing prevent you from using the mechanic that you use when you fear failing.

[Caineach]

Kazaan wrote:

If you're walking a tightrope, you should be able to take 10 on the Acrobatics check. However, while you're crossing, whether or not you take 10 on the check, you cannot take 10 on some other check like Bluff, Knowledge, Diplomacy, etc. while putting your whole focus on walking the tightrope.

Another example, say you're climbing up a cliff, taking 10 on your Climb check. Sure, a fall would kill you, but nothing is distracting you "from climbing". But you couldn't take 10 on a Stealth check to avoid being noticed because you're distracted from being stealthy by trying to climb up a dangerous cliff face, whether or not you're taking 10 on the Climb check.

There is no reason you can't take 10 on multiple things simultaneously, so long as you have the actions for it.

[blahpers]

Captain Wacky wrote:

"In immediate danger" is pretty much determined by the GM. But it's usually described as some large consiquence for failure, something that distracts the character from his/her usual degree of focus. In this case, falling 100' is a pretty large consiquence to failure and just because it won't "kill you" doesn't mean it won't hurt like an SOB and take up resources to heal.

But like I said, it's pretty much determined by the GM.

This is confusing Take 10 with Take 20. Take 20 is not possible when the consequence for failure is significant, as it assumes many failures before succeeding. Take 10 just means that you're performing an action you could do routinely so long as nothing distracts you. A skilled acrobat can walk a tightrope every time without fail--at least until some jackass throws a water bottle at him or blurts out a few notes with a vuvuzela.

[The Terrible Zodin]

Immediate danger is pretty much danger that is comming for you regardless of your actions. In the examples above, you can avoid the danger of falling by not doing the action "I'm not going on that rope."

An archer is, presumeably if able, going to shoot arrows at you even if you don't make the check.

Also, taking 10 is a way to reward people who put resources into that skill, as opposed to that other skill. They will succeed (and make it look easy) because they have actually studied that skill.

[James Risner]

Nearyn wrote:

When is a character "in immediate danger?".

In combat rounds or Indiana Jones running from the rolling ball and jumping a pit at the end that will save him from the rolling ball.

[Kazaan]

Caineach wrote:

Kazaan wrote:

If you're walking a tightrope, you should be able to take 10 on the Acrobatics check. However, while you're crossing, whether or not you take 10 on the check, you cannot take 10 on some other check like Bluff, Knowledge, Diplomacy, etc. while putting your whole focus on walking the tightrope.

Another example, say you're climbing up a cliff, taking 10 on your Climb check. Sure, a fall would kill you, but nothing is distracting you "from climbing". But you couldn't take 10 on a Stealth check to avoid being noticed because you're distracted from being stealthy by trying to climb up a dangerous cliff face, whether or not you're taking 10 on the Climb check.

There is no reason you can't take 10 on multiple things simultaneously, so long as you have the actions for it.

You missed the point entirely. It's not the simultaneous taking 10 but the fact that scaling the cliff face represents a "distraction" from things other than climbing the cliff face. You can take 10 on your attempt to climb the cliff face and the inherent danger of the task doesn't distract you from that exact task. But the inherent danger of climbing the cliff face, whether or not you take 10 on your climb check, is an inherently dangerous situation that could distract you from some other check like Stealth, Knowledge, Bluff, whatever. In that case, you couldn't take 10 on any other check because the situation distracts you. But Climbing can't possibly distract you from... climbing.