Vaalingrade
Legend
But you play a role that believes they are.But neither are as real as the players.
But you play a role that believes they are.But neither are as real as the players.
This kind of assumes two things:Except that I dislike swingy combat and frequent character death at least as much as I dislike overly-short rounds, so that path leads to no better results I'm afraid.
And there's a reason I spoke of flowcharts rather than predictability per se. That is, a flowchart is about determining what I (or any particular player) should do on any given turn, not a perfect map of each combat. The combats will change, but if the system is too simple, it becomes trivial to set up a decision procedure that automates combat decision-making.
Thing is, in reality after a few battles most parties would likely come up with a series of SOPs quite quickly, much like a basketball team's set plays.At which point, "strategy" has ceased to exist; it is mere tic-tac-toe/noughts-and-crosses writ large. My experience of both Labyrinth Lord and Dungeon World combat (as a player) was in this vein. It's why I always work to make my DW combats interesting in ways that break such SOP/flowchart stuff, set pieces or complications rather than the painfully dull drudgery of Yet Another Goddamn Kobold Fight.
Again, you seem to be focusing only on the optimal choice. What about the fun-risky-entertaining choice that maybe isn't so optimal?I guess more simply put, I don't know how any given combat will play out in OSR-like/ultralight gameplay. But I can set up a procedure that, with a handful of yes/no questions, can pick either the optimal action, or a near-optimal action, in the vast majority of cases. It may end up that the optimal choice is to run, if a fight goes unexpectedly poorly. It may be that the optimal choice is to stab the balrog, if a scary fight goes shockingly well.
That's what I'm proposing: thinking outside the flowchart is what keeps the brain engaged; and if an unexpected action doesn't present itself in this combat, it will some other time.But the actual involvement of my brain in the process of deciding what to do is damn near zero. When I don't have to use my brain as part of play, I get bored. Roleplay uses lots of my brain, because I'm having to keep in the headspace of someone who isn't me. Combat doesn't have that element, generally speaking, so it needs to provide something else to keep my brain engaged or I get bored.
I feel seen.The answer to this is to have chaotic players at the table playing chaotic characters who don't follow orders or scripts and who are going to do their own thing - whatever it might be, probably different every time - in any combat that arises. And if you ain't got such players, become one yourself.
Again, you seem to be focusing only on the optimal choice. What about the fun-risky-entertaining choice that maybe isn't so optimal?
Or you're not trying hard enough.That's what I'm proposing: thinking outside the flowchart is what keeps the brain engaged; and if an unexpected action doesn't present itself in this combat, it will some other time.
Agreed in principle up to here.If the players love their cobbler that much, then clearly I have underestimated how well I played him or her, and should be thinking about what else I can do with this NPC. That's straight up free player investment for zero effort on my part. Why would I turn down the opportunity to draw my players in with something they already love?
Yes. I have told my players as much. If they wanted to straight up leave behind the whole world their characters have known and go to some other continent, they have the freedom to go so. If I have prepared a slate of various things, and my players genuinely look at all of it and say, "Meh, that's not very interesting, we want to do this instead," that's not a fault on their part, but on mine. It means I failed them as a DM, and I need to work to fix that failure.
Fortunately, my players actually do enjoy what things I have prepared and how those things evolve as a result of play, or how new things enter into play without any prior intent. I have no need to go back to the drawing board and wonder how I got things so wrong.
I don't run a pure sandbox. I just respect my players' autonomy. That is a check on me as DM. It makes sure that I actually put out content worthy of my players' attention and investment.
"Win the fight before the dice are rolled" simply moves the interesting bit from the combat itself to the planning and strategizing piece beforehand - in theory, anyway. And if face-charging those foes means you'll probably die but good strategizing means you'll very likely live, I'd call that overcoming a challenge rather than saying there wasn't a challenge in the first place.How odd. My experience of old-school combat has been precisely the opposite. Well, almost. Either you mindlessly charge in and win, or you mindlessly charge in and lots of PCs die. And that very thing you speak of, "win the fight before the dice are rolled," is incredibly boring. Because it means there was never any challenge in the first place. There was never actually a threat at all, just a bookkeeping effort, no different from the logistics you mentioned in the part I snipped out.
I wish hordes were treated as 1 enemy like smaller swarms
A horde of zombies could be walking dead dangerous
Instead of each zombie rolling +2 if there’s 5 zombies for every 1 party member than they roll +4 etc and damage is 3-6 instead
...
Hard pass. If I signed up to play Dungeons and Dragons, I have zero patience for someone trying to play Boutiques and Bookbinders. If you want to retire and start a cute little B&B, then your character is an NPC now.PCs engaging in the setting and roleplaying in the world is great, you just need to bring the adventure to their business.
I hope you make your views on this clear in every game you participate in, because there are people who enjoy the parts of the game (and yes, they still are part of the game) where the PCs aren't actively "on duty in the field".Hard pass. If I signed up to play Dungeons and Dragons, I have zero patience for someone trying to play Boutiques and Bookbinders. If you want to retire and start a cute little B&B, then your character is an NPC now.
People can roleplay and engage with the setting by going on adventures. Signing up for a fantasy adventure game and then trying to avoid adventures is literally the same thing as making a character who refuses to work with the rest of the party and tries to wander off alone all the time, and it should be treated the same way, not called "good roleplaying." Well, no. I take that back. the person going off solo might actually do something interesting at point.
I thoroughly enjoy every one of the things you mentioned, and object strenuously to your subjective opinion of them. What you want doesn't sound like a fun, meaningful RPG experience in a verisimilitudinous imaginary world to me, and that's what I want.To add couple of more boring bits.
Tracking mundane stuff, logistics in general. In our group we dropped tracking weight, carry capacity and mundane items like rations and ammunition and such. One of the first party investments in campaign is solid carriage. Sometimes it's painted yellow with "Troller independent trading Co" sign. We just set aside piece of loot for living expenses and call it a day. Under equipment it's usually just - adventuring pack.
Stronghold and domain management - it's just boring. Let's be honest. Once you get some land and castle, you are retired as an adventurer. Being feudal lord is full time job. Already have corporate management job IRL, don't need one in game. I like political intrigue games, but then i use system that is catered to that kind of game, like Houses of the Bloodied or VtM.
Although i generally like sandboxes, with limited game time, i find it quite frustrating sometimes since lot of time is spent on planning what to do next. Too much freedom sometimes leads to choice paralysis.
Also, lore dumps via NPC interactions. No offense to my DMs, they are great guys, but dude, i'll forget most of it by the next session. Same goes for long inter PC role play interactions.