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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6033907" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>There sounds like there may be an excluded middle, here: You design the physics engine to deliver drama. Games do that almost automatically by the success/failure switch: there's ALWAYS anxiety about whether or not you will win, and catharsis with eradicating that tension. Candy Land does that. Hell, <em>craps</em> does that.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>There's a lot of ways to solve the metagame problem of "combat is not dramatic/threatening enough" while still employing in-game logic. </p><p></p><p>For instance, instead of an arbitrary +2 bonus, you make it easy for monsters to gain Advantage on their attacks via monster traits or basic rules additions (flanking, fienting, high ground, better stealth rules, etc). The multiple rolls help bend the curve and make more hits connect, increasing HP attrition. You could also increase raw monster damage (via the same methods) so that even if they don't hit as often, they're dealing more damage with each hit. You can also tweak healing so that there's more attrition between encounters (and more encounters per "day"), leading to rougher adventuring days. </p><p></p><p>None of that necessarily violates in-game logic. Heck, even a +2 bonus doesn't necessarily violate in-game logic. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>All a "Page 42" has to do is give you rough targets for what is achievable in-game at those given DC's. Klaus posted a pretty good example up above. Assuming you gird your in-world logic so that it produces a satisfying metagame result, you can then come at it just from the metagame as a DM, if you want, without necessarily violating that in-world logic. The problem arises when there's <em>only</em> metagame logic, and the in-world logic is an afterthought.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 6033907, member: 2067"] There sounds like there may be an excluded middle, here: You design the physics engine to deliver drama. Games do that almost automatically by the success/failure switch: there's ALWAYS anxiety about whether or not you will win, and catharsis with eradicating that tension. Candy Land does that. Hell, [I]craps[/I] does that. There's a lot of ways to solve the metagame problem of "combat is not dramatic/threatening enough" while still employing in-game logic. For instance, instead of an arbitrary +2 bonus, you make it easy for monsters to gain Advantage on their attacks via monster traits or basic rules additions (flanking, fienting, high ground, better stealth rules, etc). The multiple rolls help bend the curve and make more hits connect, increasing HP attrition. You could also increase raw monster damage (via the same methods) so that even if they don't hit as often, they're dealing more damage with each hit. You can also tweak healing so that there's more attrition between encounters (and more encounters per "day"), leading to rougher adventuring days. None of that necessarily violates in-game logic. Heck, even a +2 bonus doesn't necessarily violate in-game logic. All a "Page 42" has to do is give you rough targets for what is achievable in-game at those given DC's. Klaus posted a pretty good example up above. Assuming you gird your in-world logic so that it produces a satisfying metagame result, you can then come at it just from the metagame as a DM, if you want, without necessarily violating that in-world logic. The problem arises when there's [I]only[/I] metagame logic, and the in-world logic is an afterthought. [/QUOTE]
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