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Message: <blockquote data-quote="alien270" data-source="post: 6289601" data-attributes="member: 6698097">Good overview!  One way to approach the issue is to think about how you define "tactical" in a tabletop RPG.  Good tactics involve choosing the best options to maximize your results, and usually this gets tied pretty strongly to grids, positioning, flanking, complicated spells/maneuvers, etc.  It's often thought of as the opposite of more narrative, cinematic combat.  But I would argue that such a dichotomy is oversimplified.  Why should tactics rely on pre-defined actions/positions/powers (in other words, picking something from a list)?  The main benefit of that is standardizing play and keeping expectations consistent, but just because your options are more free-form in a narrative system doesn't mean that they're not tactical.  Indeed, some of the more free-form abilities (Swashbuckle, Terrain Stunt, VPV, Tiefling's Curse, etc.) essentially boil down to "here, have some advantage, just describe it in such a way that makes sense."  I'm glad you're finding the Dicey Stunts system useful (I'm the author).  The ability to use such stunts are hinted at in the Rogue's Swashbuckle talent as being available for anyone to use (and reinforced by the Skill Escalation feat), and IMO one of the major oversights in the core rulebook is that more guidance on how to use free-form stunts is lacking.  I think Tweet and Heinsoo expect players to improvise with their skills in combat and that GMs should reward the narration of clever tactics (there are a few APs with Heinsoo GMing that suggests this), and perhaps they just assumed it was too obvious to print.  13th Age is explicitly called out as being a system for advanced/experienced GMs (though fine for new PLAYERS), after all.  Still, most of my players come from a primarily 3.x/PF background where you're basically either looking at your spell list or full-attacking, and so they weren't really trying anything beyond what was written on their character sheets.  Which was my main motivation for writing up the Dicey Stunts system.  I wanted them to have an example framework that could be applied to a variety of actions, but with the described action triggering an option or ruling.  Their increased use of these stunts has made the game feel more "tactical."</blockquote>

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