D&D General Styles of D&D Play

[Minigiant]

Except that they don't. They only break those styles if you ignore the spells and try to run those styles as if the spells don't exist. If you embrace the spells, you can do all four styles easily. You just have to account for the magic when you do it.

Except they do.

The counter magic spells and items are usually in splatbooks.
The high level hazards and obstacles are usually in splatbooks.
Splatbooks 5e doesn't have.

That why many say "Opposed but Supported in the past"

 

[Hussar]

Numerical support can enhance roleplay just fine. It's not all or nothing. If you do nothing but roll dice to accomplish everything then you are rollplaying. Simply using numbers alongside of roleplay doesn't switch it from one to the other.

I see. So, the cut off line where it goes from "enhance role-play" to "rollplay" is, of course, entirely determined by your preferences.

 

[Maxperson]

I have not personally seen any evidence that they aren't leaving the hobby.

I have not personally seen any evidence that they aren't turning into bigfeet and leaving the game to go live in rural American forests, occasionally posing for pictures.

It's fairly useless to worry about a lack of evidence that something isn't happening.

 

[Hussar]

You aren't changing the style. You are accounting for certain spells. A survival based game doesn't have to be about food being hard to come by and spoiled by create food and water. If the party make-up is such that create food and water is coming down the pike, you can make food scarce before level 5 and then that portion just goes away and all the other survival portions of the game remain.

In other words, you change the style to fit the game and then claim that the game supports that style of play. Okay.

 

[Maxperson]

Except they do.

Then why haven't they affected me in any of the styles? I account for them in my planning, so they still do what they do, but don't spoil the games.

The counter magic spells and items are usually in splatbooks.
The high level hazards and obstacles are usually in splatbooks.
Splatbooks 5e doesn't have.

I've never seen or needed those splatbooks as counters to anything. They simply represent different options for various styles of play.

 

[Maxperson]

In other words, you change the style to fit the game and then claim that the game supports that style of play. Okay.

No. No I don't change the style.

Survival: The group finds itself marooned on a desert island after their ship sinks in a storm. Most of their gear is gone. At first food and water is an issue(and perhaps longer if they don't have someone to learn create food and water at 5th level), but eventually it ceases being an issue, but they still need to survive on the desert island whose central mountain is an active fire mountain. Earthquakes begin happening around 5th or 6th level, gases start leaking out of fissures in the ground, and eventually a full eruption happens. And so on.

The survival style =/= We have no food!!! That can be an aspect of it, but there are many, many ways to run survival and you can account for the spells the party will eventually get in setting it up. The scenario changes over time, but the style does not.

 

[Minigiant]

Then why haven't they affected me in any of the styles? I account for them in my planning, so they still do what they do, but don't spoil the games.

I've never seen or needed those splatbooks as counters to anything. They simply represent different options for various styles of play.

What is your mid level or high level survival hazard?

How does a nobleman see through your illusions and transmutations? Slinging dispel magic without consent is rude and not everyone is a spellcaster and has subtle spell.

 

[Maxperson]

I see. So, the cut off line where it goes from "enhance role-play" to "rollplay" is, of course, entirely determined by your preferences.

If you want to make my "preference" = 100% rolling, then sure.

Personally, I've seen very, very few games that boil down to rollplay and every last character driven game I've seen has been a mix of rolling and roleplay. There's nothing about adding in some mechanical support that somehow drives away character driven play or roleplay.

 

[Imaro]

No. No I don't change the style.

Survival: The group finds itself marooned on a desert island after their ship sinks in a storm. Most of their gear is gone. At first food and water is an issue(and perhaps longer if they don't have someone to learn create food and water at 5th level), but eventually it ceases being an issue, but they still need to survive on the desert island whose central mountain is an active fire mountain. Earthquakes begin happening around 5th or 6th level, gases start leaking out of fissures in the ground, and eventually a full eruption happens. And so on.

The survival style =/= We have no food!!! That can be an aspect of it, but there are many, many ways to run survival and you can account for the spells the party will eventually get in setting it up. The scenario changes over time, but the style does not.

Yeah I'm not sure where this idea that D&D nullifies survival challenges comes from. The challenges just need to scale like most things in the game. For a good example of this check out the Conan Exiles videogame.

 

[Maxperson]

What is your mid level or high level survival hazard?

An erupting volcano on a smallish desert island is a fine mid level survival hazard. At high level it will likely involve trying to survive on some other plane.

I also don't see why a style has to be present from level 1-20. It's perfectly fine to start of surviving on the island up to level 8 or 9, then transition off the island as you figure out a way off and encounter a much larger island with inhabitants and transition from survival to political. The game has also been character driven from level 1 and I've tossed in a small amount of slapstick just because.

How does a nobleman see through your illusions and transmutations?

Can you explain why this matters? I mean, even not knowing why it matters, illusion is easy. The nobleman touches or examines it and either automatically knows it's an illusion or makes the save and sees through it, or both!