What happened to Morale?

[TwoSix]

Ew. No.

Few things ruin a game session for me more than an unfun combat encounter. (But then, I'm also quite happy to have an entire session of pure RP or problem-solving, without a single die being picked up.)

I'll let it slide, but only because the Shadowcaster in ToM was awesome.

 

[iserith]

Few things ruin a game session for me more than an unfun combat encounter.

I haven't seen one of those yet.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I haven't seen one of those yet.

Did you participate in the NeXT playtest?

 

[iserith]

Did you participate in the NeXT playtest?

Haha, yeah, ran a couple adventures, played in a couple. I don't recall anything tedious.

But really, even watching grass dry or paint grow would be fun with my regular groups.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Haha, yeah, ran a couple adventures, played in a couple. I don't recall anything tedious.

So, I ran the playtest more than a little, multiple seasons of Encounters. The thing is, it was a test. So I ran it straight, by-the-book, no matter how my little experienced-DM-voice (actually my inner-DM-voice is more of a Charlton Heston in the Ten Commandments type) would point out "this is really not going to end well, you should really tweak that bit there..."

...and, darn, are players less interested in testing games than having fun with them... But the point is, I got into a /habit/ of running that way, so my ongoing campaign was getting kinda by-the-book, I was meticulously printing out all the monsters and double-checking rules in the compendium. That should have been my second warning.

Anyway, in that habit, I had honor of running HotDQ "Seek the Keep" for the first few sessions of 5e Encounters. Now, HotDQ is arguably not as a bad as KotSf (which, when I played in it, myself, didn't seem that bad, thanks to a good DM, hint, hint), but /run in playtest mode/, was a grinding, slow-motion, trainwreck, all the way through Greenest. I mean, I had run some bad games in my time, my time being the 80s, but I'm pretty sure I set a new record with that one.
Once I snapped out of it and started running a game, instead of torture-testing a system - and once we got to the second phase of the adventure, a more normally paced little mini-dungeon crawl - things improved substantially, and even the lame setting tourism that followed wasn't intolerable.

It's not just what you run, it's how you run it.

But really, even watching grass dry or paint grow would be fun with my regular groups.

Watching paint grow sounds potentially fascinating...
...or frightening, depending on the kind of movie you're in...

 

[The Human Target]

The game has changed to more closely model action/adventure fiction instead of miniature based war recreation games.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I haven't seen one of those yet.

I feel like you're probably using different criteria than I am.

Just for instance, I have almost no interest in random encounters/combat for combat's sake. I want, oh, 95% of my combats in a D&D game to advance the plot, or at least be of a nature where it wouldn't make sense for the plot/scene not to have them. So my "unfun combat" box is probably larger than many people's.

 

[Hussar]

I have to admit, I use the 5e morale rules and I find they work great. I'm probably not a real stickler for the details of the rules, but, typically I start rolling when it's obvious that the baddies are going to lose. Which is usually after about 1/3 of the baddies go down/lost HP. Adds a nice tactical element, and it means that it's a very viable tactic to spread the damage rather than focus fire on one critter at a time.