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The danger of the Three Pillars of D&D
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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5821935" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>You're on the right track. For a few years now, I've been posting about how for me as a player and a DM, the individual combat or conversation or exploration is largely irrelevant, that it is the context in which this encounter occurs that interests and engages me. The encounter only has meaning in the broader scope of the adventure. Or, to put it in dungeon-crawling terms: the trap only has meaning in the broader scope of the dungeon. I don't play D&D to have encounters, I play D&D to have adventures. Encounters are a necessary but insufficient condition for that adventure. </p><p></p><p>Thus, I want a game in which the individual encounter is not an end in and of itself, but rather part of a greater whole (which I call the "adventure.")</p><p></p><p>In that context, it is fine to have a character who doesn't contribute much socially (just as it is fine to have a character who doesn't heal much). There are other encounters, and there are other times to shine. This accurately reflects archetype and genre, and it makes gameplay more varied and dynamic, so I consider it a strong design plus. It's OK to have a trap that goes off and does damage, or a brief skirmish with a few minions, or an assassin who can kill in a single attack roll, or a petrify spell, or a save-or-die effect, or whatever, because it's fine for a party member to be unncessary for a given encounter -- they are still necessary for the overall adventure. This causes the encounters to be briefer: they're individually less important, less complex, and less carefully balanced, so that overall the adventure can be more important, more complex, and more carefully balanced.</p><p></p><p>As a consequence of that change in focus, each encounter must be a smaller part of a bigger event individually. Not every combat should take an hour. Encounters can be of varying size and threat level, because they are not self-contained, but rather part of the adventure as a whole. So fast encounters aren't so much a goal as they are a useful consequence of the different focus. </p><p></p><p>I get that you don't prefer minor encounters yourself, but for me, I see the game gaining so much in moving to that model, that I find it hard to advocate for the alternative. You can still have big, significant encounters, but they no longer have to all be big, singificant encounters.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 5821935, member: 2067"] You're on the right track. For a few years now, I've been posting about how for me as a player and a DM, the individual combat or conversation or exploration is largely irrelevant, that it is the context in which this encounter occurs that interests and engages me. The encounter only has meaning in the broader scope of the adventure. Or, to put it in dungeon-crawling terms: the trap only has meaning in the broader scope of the dungeon. I don't play D&D to have encounters, I play D&D to have adventures. Encounters are a necessary but insufficient condition for that adventure. Thus, I want a game in which the individual encounter is not an end in and of itself, but rather part of a greater whole (which I call the "adventure.") In that context, it is fine to have a character who doesn't contribute much socially (just as it is fine to have a character who doesn't heal much). There are other encounters, and there are other times to shine. This accurately reflects archetype and genre, and it makes gameplay more varied and dynamic, so I consider it a strong design plus. It's OK to have a trap that goes off and does damage, or a brief skirmish with a few minions, or an assassin who can kill in a single attack roll, or a petrify spell, or a save-or-die effect, or whatever, because it's fine for a party member to be unncessary for a given encounter -- they are still necessary for the overall adventure. This causes the encounters to be briefer: they're individually less important, less complex, and less carefully balanced, so that overall the adventure can be more important, more complex, and more carefully balanced. As a consequence of that change in focus, each encounter must be a smaller part of a bigger event individually. Not every combat should take an hour. Encounters can be of varying size and threat level, because they are not self-contained, but rather part of the adventure as a whole. So fast encounters aren't so much a goal as they are a useful consequence of the different focus. I get that you don't prefer minor encounters yourself, but for me, I see the game gaining so much in moving to that model, that I find it hard to advocate for the alternative. You can still have big, significant encounters, but they no longer have to all be big, singificant encounters. [/QUOTE]
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