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Do You Think Encounters Should be Difficult?
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<blockquote data-quote="Ratskinner" data-source="post: 7526485" data-attributes="member: 6688937"><p>Not that I'm saying the stakes of any encounter or even combat encounter <em>should</em> be death...but!</p><p></p><p>That's all that the basic mechanics address (HP attrition mediated by resource depletion and tactics). I think players tend to lean on the mechanics of the game (whatever game is being played) and in D&D this leads them to address all combats (sometimes all encounters) this way. IME, if there aren't mechanical consequences or at least a framework to directly inform the fiction, there is a large segment of gamers who just won't care. This is what I mean by D&D not being tuned for anything other than this one kind of dungeoneering narrative.</p><p></p><p>Not that this is always the case to the same degree, even among editions. Early editions had extended mechanics to deal with exploration and some very specific (class-based) non-combat things, 4e had skill challenges*; and in both cases I see players utilizing those mechanics. The way 3e and 5e treat all non-combat as task resolution at best and DM fiat at worst leaves players feeling like they are in an unsupported grey area, and thus something to be avoided when possible.</p><p></p><p>Now, of course, all that can easily be "bolted on"** and some groups will "trust" the GM enough to go with it anyway, but a robust game that supports other kinds of results would result in more groups exploring those results.</p><p></p><p>*although perhaps an imperfect mechanic</p><p></p><p>** e.g. <em>Clocks</em> from the Powered by the Apocalypse games, the clue acquisition and mystery design mechanics from Gumshoe.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ratskinner, post: 7526485, member: 6688937"] Not that I'm saying the stakes of any encounter or even combat encounter [I]should[/I] be death...but! That's all that the basic mechanics address (HP attrition mediated by resource depletion and tactics). I think players tend to lean on the mechanics of the game (whatever game is being played) and in D&D this leads them to address all combats (sometimes all encounters) this way. IME, if there aren't mechanical consequences or at least a framework to directly inform the fiction, there is a large segment of gamers who just won't care. This is what I mean by D&D not being tuned for anything other than this one kind of dungeoneering narrative. Not that this is always the case to the same degree, even among editions. Early editions had extended mechanics to deal with exploration and some very specific (class-based) non-combat things, 4e had skill challenges*; and in both cases I see players utilizing those mechanics. The way 3e and 5e treat all non-combat as task resolution at best and DM fiat at worst leaves players feeling like they are in an unsupported grey area, and thus something to be avoided when possible. Now, of course, all that can easily be "bolted on"** and some groups will "trust" the GM enough to go with it anyway, but a robust game that supports other kinds of results would result in more groups exploring those results. *although perhaps an imperfect mechanic ** e.g. [I]Clocks[/I] from the Powered by the Apocalypse games, the clue acquisition and mystery design mechanics from Gumshoe. [/QUOTE]
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