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General Tabletop Discussion
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What makes us care about combat balance in D&D?
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<blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 6665674" data-attributes="member: 85870"><p>See this is interesting to me too, because one of my groups is waaaaay into GURPS, but their playstyle is completely at odds with GURPS' strengths. They want "heroic" combat, where they're made to look "badass," but are constantly fighting against GURPS' natural inclination to make combat intense and deadly. GURPS' strength is its free-form skill system. Characters should be broadly competent at a lot of things, which opens a variety of avenues for victory depending on the challenge.</p><p></p><p>In a world where individual or small group combat is that deadly, wouldn't it make sense to roleplay making alliances? Currying favor with well-positioned NPCs? Covering your backside with local authorities? </p><p></p><p>But instead of playing up to that inherent strength, the group basically ignores it and still approaches everything as a combat scenario. And when that's the the case, combat in GURPS plays out exactly as you describe here, [MENTION=2656]Aenghus[/MENTION]. They ruthlessly ensure that victory is preordained, or they simply don't take the risk.</p><p></p><p>In D&D a "straight up fair fight" typically ends with most of the party at 1/2 to 2/3 hit points, and the cleric has expended the bulk of their healing for the day. In GURPS a "straight up fair fight" means there's a 50/50 chance half the party is dead in three rounds....</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="innerdude, post: 6665674, member: 85870"] See this is interesting to me too, because one of my groups is waaaaay into GURPS, but their playstyle is completely at odds with GURPS' strengths. They want "heroic" combat, where they're made to look "badass," but are constantly fighting against GURPS' natural inclination to make combat intense and deadly. GURPS' strength is its free-form skill system. Characters should be broadly competent at a lot of things, which opens a variety of avenues for victory depending on the challenge. In a world where individual or small group combat is that deadly, wouldn't it make sense to roleplay making alliances? Currying favor with well-positioned NPCs? Covering your backside with local authorities? But instead of playing up to that inherent strength, the group basically ignores it and still approaches everything as a combat scenario. And when that's the the case, combat in GURPS plays out exactly as you describe here, [MENTION=2656]Aenghus[/MENTION]. They ruthlessly ensure that victory is preordained, or they simply don't take the risk. In D&D a "straight up fair fight" typically ends with most of the party at 1/2 to 2/3 hit points, and the cleric has expended the bulk of their healing for the day. In GURPS a "straight up fair fight" means there's a 50/50 chance half the party is dead in three rounds.... [/QUOTE]
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What makes us care about combat balance in D&D?
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