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There is a problem that simply by labeling and dividing them up like this, we imply each type can only do its own thing. Which is incorrect. IMO each style is about the order of priorities, and I thank you for pointing that out. Every edition had each of these as somewhat of a goal, it is...

TL;DR Theater is the type of group that yaps for three hours and then have a single combat per session. I do not think the game focus is the only reason this happens, famously 3.5 had a similar problem caused by combat length after all, but Theater generally assumes risky moments might happen...

Player improvisation can happen no matter which paradigm the game is under. It's about level of scale and impact. You mention the classic examples of flooding the dungeon, but I can counterpoint with a classic example of player improvisation in combat as sport: swinging on a chandelier across...

Arguably 5e brought around the Theater school of thought by using Inspiration as a baked-in metacurrency to focus play on more than just monster bashing. The new school games that came after 5e, like Draw Steel and Daggerheart, embraced using metacurrencies to push the game in a direction they...

Playing the world means the level of gameplay decisions that affect combat are at the macro level, not player build vs monster manual level. Combat as sport puts the onus of handling combat on player build and party build. Combat as war puts the onus on decision making. Negotiate, fight...

Daggerheart literally has a system for sharing the spotlight, or focusing on one character as they get their power moment. 5e tells GMs to fudge rolls to make the story interesting. The style is indeed about mechanics, and deserves to be among the other two

While seemingly about combat, each descriptor more describes what the relationship between combat and the rest of the game rules is. Or what the game wants out of combat in its system. War sees combat as flashy, but ultimately an obstacle to be interacted with. Talk, fight or flee, each has...

Agree on earlier editions focusing on Combat as War. They had multiple rules to avoid or handle combat. Reaction rolls meant every meeting was not a combat if you could help it, hard-coded fleeing rules meant you could escape if combat went poorly, and the morale rules helped as well. All meant...

The way the different combat types are described are also kind of the way the editions are presumed to approach the game in general

I think the terminology is helpful because although systems might slant to one version out of the three, you can generally lean into the various modes to vary up combat between sessions. Like, a grueling dungeon crawl, versus a one-fight-a-day spectacle about unwinding, versus a mechanical...

TL;DR OSR and 3.5 play differently, shocking I know :P

Sport vs War is also sort of feeling around an issue of what the combat part of the game focuses on, or is abstracted to. War description implies the combat is informed by and has consequences for things outside the combat, but it largely a series of battles one after another. It implies a...

That was supposed to be a reply to this :P

Fireball the Gazebo is a good and underappreciated one.

Man where are y'all when I complain about the 5.5 art. I always get the exact opposite take there.

I think I have seen it before as "combat as spectacle". I must say I think theater is perhaps a more generous term however.

Having it be options seems fun, I like this a lot. Many of the proposed changes in this thread could be optional rules and I do not think anything would go amiss

Simplicity and granularity is a scale, but I think 5e is slightly, not very, too far to one side. If you have every character trying to optimize a main action, bonus action, move in one or multiple parts, and an object interaction doing something, it does not seem so bad. Then multiply that by...

Granularity slows down combat. I am okay with having less to do on turns if it means turns come around faster. Would you prefer 5.5 to become as granular as 4e, where combat took multiple hours? I feel half the reason people play one combat a day is that combat has become so slow. 5.5 is...

Some spicy takes but that is what we are here for. I feel like asking for a faster and more thematic version of the game is not too much