Peasant Railgun

Peasant Railgun Concept & Initial Reactions

• Commenters treat the railgun as a classic “rules vs reality” meme: chaining readied actions from thousands of peasants to pass an object across miles in a single round.
• Some enjoy it as a funny thought experiment; others find it emblematic of what they dislike about D&D’s rules-obsession.

Rules, Physics, and RAW vs RAI

• Strong consensus that D&D is not a physics engine: distances, falling, and damage are abstractions, not a simulation.
• Several note the railgun only “works” by mixing D&D abstractions for timing with real-world physics for momentum, selectively, to favor the players.
• Others emphasize RAW doesn’t say objects retain velocity when handed off; by rules, the last peasant just makes a normal improvised attack, not a relativistic strike.
• Debate about applying falling-object rules: some try to scale damage via equivalent fall distance or kinetic energy; others point out those rules were never meant for this.

DM Rulings and Possible Fixes

• Common DM responses proposed:
  • Require increasingly difficult checks for peasants to catch/pass a fast-moving object, killing or maiming most of them.
  • Limit or redefine chained readied actions (e.g., you can’t Ready in response to a readied action, or cap how many creatures can interact with one object in a round).
  • Simply rule that velocity doesn’t accumulate between passes; the rod stops at each peasant.
  • Treat the final throw as a mundane improvised weapon (small damage, bad accuracy).
• Some would allow it once for comedy/“rule of cool,” then have NPCs copy it or escalate consequences so players regret relying on it.

Playstyles: Story vs Puzzle vs Min-Max

• Large subthread contrasts:
  • Story/roleplay-focused players, who find railgun-style exploits immersion-breaking or “meta-gaming.”
  • Puzzle/min-max players who view the rules as a system to optimize and enjoy clever exploits.
• Multiple people note modern D&D culture (influenced by actual-play shows) has tilted toward performative roleplay, frustrating old-school dungeon-crawl fans. Others recommend different systems (OSR, dungeon crawls, or heavier-tactics games) for each preference.

Social Contract & Table Culture

• Many argue the real issue isn’t the exploit but mismatched expectations:
  • Good tables negotiate tone and tolerance for shenanigans in “session 0.”
  • Rules exist to support a shared experience, not to “win” against the DM or other players.
  • Reading the room matters: in some groups railgun antics are hilarious; in others they’d get you uninvited.

Related Exploits & Humor

• Numerous analogous hacks are shared: “saddle highways” for instant travel, lines of chickens enabling absurd cleave chains, goat armies, immovable-rod projectiles, avalanche-by-Create-Water, summon-steed drops, etc.
• These stories are used both to celebrate system-bending creativity and to illustrate why DMs reserve veto power and why every group ends up with house rules.