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Elephant in the room: rogue and fighter dailies.
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5926228" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>One take away from this is that, whatever sort of fiction 4e is concerned with, it's not fiction about the minutiae of combat positioning and combat manoeuvres. The fiction that does emerge moment-by-moment from 4e play, and that feeds back into 4e action resolution, is who is in whose face, who is helping whom, etc. It's a fiction about conflicts and loyalties.</p><p></p><p>This seems to be an issue mostly about search-and-handling time. From my memories of running classic D&D, this can come up in the consultation of encounter tables, as one table sends you to a different subtable sends you to a spell list or magic item table etc.</p><p></p><p>It seems orthogonal, though, to the issue of fictional positioning and simulation. But I may have missed something.</p><p></p><p>I don't want to harp too much, but in playing B/X, don't your players have regard to their hit point totals? What does that correlate to in the gameworld. Are the PCs wondering how lucky they are?</p><p></p><p>And do they ever wonder how come no bugbear has ever been decapitated by the first sword blow?</p><p></p><p>I've got nothing against hit points as a mechanic - I currently GM a game (4e) that uses them! But I don't see that they're entitled to a free pass from the theorists of dissociation and the critics of metagame mechanics.</p><p></p><p>And there is also the role of XP, as someong ([MENTION=11821]Obryn[/MENTION], I think) noted upthread. When your B/X players think about doing something to earn XP, what does that correlate to in the minds of their PCs?</p><p></p><p></p><p>And there's nothing in the fiction that suggests I can't decpaitate that bugbear, or that captain of the guard. But in fact I can't until I chew through their hit points first.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 5926228, member: 42582"] One take away from this is that, whatever sort of fiction 4e is concerned with, it's not fiction about the minutiae of combat positioning and combat manoeuvres. The fiction that does emerge moment-by-moment from 4e play, and that feeds back into 4e action resolution, is who is in whose face, who is helping whom, etc. It's a fiction about conflicts and loyalties. This seems to be an issue mostly about search-and-handling time. From my memories of running classic D&D, this can come up in the consultation of encounter tables, as one table sends you to a different subtable sends you to a spell list or magic item table etc. It seems orthogonal, though, to the issue of fictional positioning and simulation. But I may have missed something. I don't want to harp too much, but in playing B/X, don't your players have regard to their hit point totals? What does that correlate to in the gameworld. Are the PCs wondering how lucky they are? And do they ever wonder how come no bugbear has ever been decapitated by the first sword blow? I've got nothing against hit points as a mechanic - I currently GM a game (4e) that uses them! But I don't see that they're entitled to a free pass from the theorists of dissociation and the critics of metagame mechanics. And there is also the role of XP, as someong ([MENTION=11821]Obryn[/MENTION], I think) noted upthread. When your B/X players think about doing something to earn XP, what does that correlate to in the minds of their PCs? And there's nothing in the fiction that suggests I can't decpaitate that bugbear, or that captain of the guard. But in fact I can't until I chew through their hit points first. [/QUOTE]
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