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Is D&D "about" combat?
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<blockquote data-quote="Terramotus" data-source="post: 5645504" data-attributes="member: 7220"><p>WoD, both old and new, is all about roleplaying. I recall, during my group's experimentation with it, that in a published adventure it mentioned that you should punish your players heavily for attacking someone who is an "end boss" for the module, because "This is not The Legend of Zelda."</p><p></p><p>GURPS has all sorts of rules interfaces that promote roleplaying through its disadvantages. GURPS can also quite easily do a fantasy setting, and the advancement mechanic isn't necessarily based on killing things and taking their stuff like D&D is.</p><p></p><p>Virtually any rules-lite system (or at least liter than D&D) is probably better geared for roleplaying because any time you spend messing with game system rules of any type could be spent roleplaying instead.</p><p></p><p>I'm sure there are many other options. Those are the first ones that come to mind.</p><p></p><p></p><p>IMO, when people talk about combat in the way they are in this thread they mean something along the lines of "using game mechanics to resolve outcomes of a physical confrontation". Roleplaying may or may not be a part of that. If a game is "about" combat, it's about those conflict resolution mechanics, implying that other forms of conflict resolution are de-emphasized. Seeing as how there are not many RPGs that have advanced game mechanics to resolve other types of conflicts, such as internal or social conflicts, then the chief alternative to being "about" combat would be a game "about" roleplaying.</p><p></p><p>D&D, as written, doesn't really give a damn about roleplaying. You can do it or not as far as it's concerned, but there's not much of anything there in the way that the game is played that even encourages you towards it, even when it's not required. So to say it's about roleplaying seems pretty impossible to me. It's something you can do with it, but that's not the way it's written. GURPS has rules that come close to flat-out requiring roleplaying if you take certain disadvantages. WoD highly encourages it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Terramotus, post: 5645504, member: 7220"] WoD, both old and new, is all about roleplaying. I recall, during my group's experimentation with it, that in a published adventure it mentioned that you should punish your players heavily for attacking someone who is an "end boss" for the module, because "This is not The Legend of Zelda." GURPS has all sorts of rules interfaces that promote roleplaying through its disadvantages. GURPS can also quite easily do a fantasy setting, and the advancement mechanic isn't necessarily based on killing things and taking their stuff like D&D is. Virtually any rules-lite system (or at least liter than D&D) is probably better geared for roleplaying because any time you spend messing with game system rules of any type could be spent roleplaying instead. I'm sure there are many other options. Those are the first ones that come to mind. IMO, when people talk about combat in the way they are in this thread they mean something along the lines of "using game mechanics to resolve outcomes of a physical confrontation". Roleplaying may or may not be a part of that. If a game is "about" combat, it's about those conflict resolution mechanics, implying that other forms of conflict resolution are de-emphasized. Seeing as how there are not many RPGs that have advanced game mechanics to resolve other types of conflicts, such as internal or social conflicts, then the chief alternative to being "about" combat would be a game "about" roleplaying. D&D, as written, doesn't really give a damn about roleplaying. You can do it or not as far as it's concerned, but there's not much of anything there in the way that the game is played that even encourages you towards it, even when it's not required. So to say it's about roleplaying seems pretty impossible to me. It's something you can do with it, but that's not the way it's written. GURPS has rules that come close to flat-out requiring roleplaying if you take certain disadvantages. WoD highly encourages it. [/QUOTE]
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