D&D General Why Combat is a Fail State - Blog and Thoughts

[Piperken]

This also is a good read I feel. I esp. liked:

...I’d encourage you to think about how that game you love, or that game you don’t love, or this new game that is surprising you, scaffolds roleplaying. Think about what other games approach it similarly. Think about how this changes how people might interact with the game. Think about why it works, or doesn’t work for you, and why it might work for other people if it doesn’t...

How Do Roleplaying Games Help You Roleplay

 

[pemerton]

Yeah, another great blog post.

"How to tell if someone is lying?"

Player: Well, I've seen this work all the time in movies and tv shows, and so this is a game where I'm a character from that genre, so this should totally work.

DM: I know that evaluations of lying based on expressions have no basis in scientific reality, and so I'm not going to let that work.

Player: Wait a minute, but you let this other thing happen last session that isn't realistically possible either!

And really, the only way that you get around that, I think, is agreeing upon the fiction of the world, and then giving both parties ample opportunity to walk back or alter their actions or descriptions after discussion, i.e. you can't turn a miscommunication or disagreement about what works in the fictional game world into a gotcha.

Isn't another way to get around it to have an agreed set of rules and procedures for establishing the parameters of permissible action declaration, and how to resolve those declared actions?

 

[pemerton]

I think “the answer is not on your character sheet” is overstating the case a bit. Obviously the character sheet can provide answers to problems. But I think the intent behind the adage is that the character sheet ought not to be the first place the players look for solutions to problems. Sure it’s where your stats live, but it’s generally more in the spirit of the game to take a more fiction-first approach.

Isn't the character sheet also where your gear lives? At least in a typical D&D-esque RPG.

Just tell me, the DM, what your character wants to do and how they're trying to accomplish it. I'll let you know if we need any numbers off your sheet. Of course, please do study your sheet... between sessions... to more fully understand your character's abilities and strengths and equipment. But, in general, lean more on your - and your team's - imagination than on your character sheet when we're at the table.

But, in any standard version of D&D, how does this work for the fantastical elements? Spells, and the ability to cast them. are a quintessential character sheet thing.

 

[pemerton]

Has TSR or WotC ever released a scenario that didn't have a fight in it?

There's a difference, isn't there, between an adventure presenting a situation in which hostile, potentially violent, beings are present and "having a fight*?

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Isn't the character sheet also where your gear lives? At least in a typical D&D-esque RPG.

But, in any standard version of D&D, how does this work for the fantastical elements? Spells, and the ability to cast them. are a quintessential character sheet thing.

That’s why I said “study your sheet…between sessions” and “in general, lean more on your… imagination”. And probably why @Charlaquin stated, well, her entire statement.

 

[TiQuinn]

Isn't another way to get around it to have an agreed set of rules and procedures for establishing the parameters of permissible action declaration, and how to resolve those declared actions?

Sure.

 

[Remathilis]

Modern D&D doesn’t want the players to be scared of the dungeon and monsters. It’s why charging in and going nova works so well. Superheroes!

I had my group of mostly 5E players try AD&D and OSR games and they quickly learned you don’t have to fight everything. Sometimes the reward isn’t worth the risk.

They also learned tactics and just charging in isn’t always the best way to handle combat.

They also learn a bunch of negative behaviors as well: spending undo amounts of time hyper analyzing every door, chest, and 10 ft floor tile for traps/mimics, assume every NPC is a doppelganger/succubus, and searching for every possible way to parse a DMs words to gain advantages.

 

[Charlaquin]

Isn't the character sheet also where your gear lives? At least in a typical D&D-esque RPG.

Sure

 

[NN]

They also learn a bunch of negative behaviors as well: spending undo amounts of time hyper analyzing every door, chest, and 10 ft floor tile for traps/mimics, assume every NPC is a doppelganger/succubus, and searching for every possible way to parse a DMs words to gain advantages.

No they don’t

 

[DEFCON 1]

They also learn a bunch of negative behaviors as well: spending undo amounts of time hyper analyzing every door, chest, and 10 ft floor tile for traps/mimics, assume every NPC is a doppelganger/succubus, and searching for every possible way to parse a DMs words to gain advantages.

That's a DM who has trained their players to act in that way... by being unable to create scenarios that don't involve trapping every floor tile and door, and making every NPC secretly against everything the PCs want to do.

(General) you don't want your players spending ungodly amounts of time analyzing every door, chest and 10 foot floor tile? Don't trap them. Teach them that (general) you as a DM find that style of gameplay to be more pain than its worth and just don't bother. Teach them to play your game the way you'd prefer to play it. Not every NPC is secretly out to get the PCs. In fact, the true answer is virtually zero NPCs are secretly out to get the PCs. The ones that want to get the PCs? Are pretty obvious. Play that way and your players will learn.

(And by extension... (general) you are tired of your players always creating PCs that have darkvision? That's because you've continually thrown monsters at them from the darkness in an effort to surprise them. Stop doing that... stop making it imperative to have darkvision... and you'll teach your players they can play any species they want.)