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Is D&D Too Focused on Combat?
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<blockquote data-quote="Jay Verkuilen" data-source="post: 7733982" data-attributes="member: 6873517"><p>Even back in 2E I would run things that had a skill challenge feel to them. I would have proficiency checks resolve things like contests, like a horse race, betting, or even a bardic face-off. I'd just have the racers make a sequence of checks, allowing some potential cheating if it seemed to fit and I got a good rationale for it, and then tally up successful rolls in N tries or first to N successful rolls. </p><p></p><p>This introduced some opportunities for there to be structured interactions that involved checks that weren't combat, although depending on how things went they might well lead to combat. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" /></p><p></p><p>I guess it depends on what you mean by "mainstream D&D". I've played some really deep games in D&D and still do. IMO the shallowest, most gamist/dice-a-rolling games I played, at least past childhood, was with 4E. All the defined powers and "player/DM proofing" (analogy to "user proofing" in IT) pushed it towards being a minis game. I did have a good time with 4E sometimes, mind you, so a lot of it depended on the players and DM, but even so, it really felt like a miniatures game a lot more than any other version I've played. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Not sure. In small doses this is fine and clever. However, all too often it ended up with the barbarian doing pushups while everyone else tried to figure out what skills checked the boxes on the skill challenge rubric.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jay Verkuilen, post: 7733982, member: 6873517"] Even back in 2E I would run things that had a skill challenge feel to them. I would have proficiency checks resolve things like contests, like a horse race, betting, or even a bardic face-off. I'd just have the racers make a sequence of checks, allowing some potential cheating if it seemed to fit and I got a good rationale for it, and then tally up successful rolls in N tries or first to N successful rolls. This introduced some opportunities for there to be structured interactions that involved checks that weren't combat, although depending on how things went they might well lead to combat. :lol: I guess it depends on what you mean by "mainstream D&D". I've played some really deep games in D&D and still do. IMO the shallowest, most gamist/dice-a-rolling games I played, at least past childhood, was with 4E. All the defined powers and "player/DM proofing" (analogy to "user proofing" in IT) pushed it towards being a minis game. I did have a good time with 4E sometimes, mind you, so a lot of it depended on the players and DM, but even so, it really felt like a miniatures game a lot more than any other version I've played. Not sure. In small doses this is fine and clever. However, all too often it ended up with the barbarian doing pushups while everyone else tried to figure out what skills checked the boxes on the skill challenge rubric. [/QUOTE]
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