Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
What makes us care about combat balance in D&D?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Aenghus" data-source="post: 6665536" data-attributes="member: 2656"><p>D&D means different things to different people. I never played in a "gp=xp" game and as the gamers here in Ireland learned RPGs from books rather than from existing players, a separate culture evolved to the original. As I learned it, the exploring and money grubbing was primarily a low level activity, but the lucky survivors of the low level grind discovered plots and made enemies and the main game motivation changed to opposing particular enemies and bringing them down, sometimes alongside domain building activities. Few DMs would allow defeating enemies non-violently, especially back in the day, which meant the relative importance of combat tended to increase over time in the campaigns I'm familiar with, even when the frequency of combat stayed the same or lowered, as the players were emotionally invested in certain results that required combat. </p><p></p><p>I mean, look at the name of the game and many of the illustrations which feature adventurers fighting monsters including dragons. From a "D&D as heist" PoV these are all failure states, but from a heroic quest PoV these are expected adventurer activities, and the stance you pick should shape the rules used and the interpretation of those rules.</p><p></p><p>There are so many factors that alter individual experience of D&D it's difficult to discuss without going through a checklist of options first. I prefer mid- to high- level D&D and long campaigns both as a player and a DM, but a lot of players and DMs prefer the lower level stuff and one-offs or shorter campaigns.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Aenghus, post: 6665536, member: 2656"] D&D means different things to different people. I never played in a "gp=xp" game and as the gamers here in Ireland learned RPGs from books rather than from existing players, a separate culture evolved to the original. As I learned it, the exploring and money grubbing was primarily a low level activity, but the lucky survivors of the low level grind discovered plots and made enemies and the main game motivation changed to opposing particular enemies and bringing them down, sometimes alongside domain building activities. Few DMs would allow defeating enemies non-violently, especially back in the day, which meant the relative importance of combat tended to increase over time in the campaigns I'm familiar with, even when the frequency of combat stayed the same or lowered, as the players were emotionally invested in certain results that required combat. I mean, look at the name of the game and many of the illustrations which feature adventurers fighting monsters including dragons. From a "D&D as heist" PoV these are all failure states, but from a heroic quest PoV these are expected adventurer activities, and the stance you pick should shape the rules used and the interpretation of those rules. There are so many factors that alter individual experience of D&D it's difficult to discuss without going through a checklist of options first. I prefer mid- to high- level D&D and long campaigns both as a player and a DM, but a lot of players and DMs prefer the lower level stuff and one-offs or shorter campaigns. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
What makes us care about combat balance in D&D?
Top