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D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
4e Heal info in new Confessions article
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 4001565" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>This post raises a lot of issues about game design and the payoff of play. Just to pick on a few of them.</p><p></p><p>First, it may well be that something has <em>already</em> gone wrong if fights with goblin door guards are producing mortal injuries. In 4e terms that <em>sounds</em> like a fight with minions, or perhaps with an ordinary brute or soldier. If it's not something more epic than that, the sensible deployment of powers by a player should be enough to make sure nothing mortal comes about.</p><p></p><p>Second, it seems to be a goal of 4e design to reduce (eliminate?) the sorts of routine encounters that are typical of dungeons in past editions: "no more 10-by-10 rooms with two orcs," W&M p 14. So the fight with the goblin door guard may well have been an epic battle, in which case getting into the room must have been pretty important, in which case a dramatic recovery to complete the job is far from narratively absurd.</p><p></p><p>Third, every time I go to see a fantasy movie I want dramatic stuff to happen. Why shouldn't it be the same in a fantasy RPG? This notion that I have to work at the game for hours and hours, for sessions and sessions, before I get 6-fingered man style payoff is (IMO) misguided. It doesn't spoil my enjoyment of movies that I see one or two a week and every 2 hours of watching produces multiple dramatic payoffs. Why shouldn't D&D be the same? If combat takes about an hour to resolve (for example) 1 dramatic payoff per player per combat doesn't seem out of the question. I don't see ennui setting in at that point.</p><p></p><p>Fourth, what sort of rules can reconcile that rate of payoff during play with the plausible ingame evolution of a storylilne about the same group of characters? Drama every day is unrealistic for the PCs (which is quite compatible with drama every session being good for the players). The DMG will therefore need to have (non-simulationist) rules about the passage of time during and between sessions. Presumably it will.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 4001565, member: 42582"] This post raises a lot of issues about game design and the payoff of play. Just to pick on a few of them. First, it may well be that something has [i]already[/i] gone wrong if fights with goblin door guards are producing mortal injuries. In 4e terms that [i]sounds[/i] like a fight with minions, or perhaps with an ordinary brute or soldier. If it's not something more epic than that, the sensible deployment of powers by a player should be enough to make sure nothing mortal comes about. Second, it seems to be a goal of 4e design to reduce (eliminate?) the sorts of routine encounters that are typical of dungeons in past editions: "no more 10-by-10 rooms with two orcs," W&M p 14. So the fight with the goblin door guard may well have been an epic battle, in which case getting into the room must have been pretty important, in which case a dramatic recovery to complete the job is far from narratively absurd. Third, every time I go to see a fantasy movie I want dramatic stuff to happen. Why shouldn't it be the same in a fantasy RPG? This notion that I have to work at the game for hours and hours, for sessions and sessions, before I get 6-fingered man style payoff is (IMO) misguided. It doesn't spoil my enjoyment of movies that I see one or two a week and every 2 hours of watching produces multiple dramatic payoffs. Why shouldn't D&D be the same? If combat takes about an hour to resolve (for example) 1 dramatic payoff per player per combat doesn't seem out of the question. I don't see ennui setting in at that point. Fourth, what sort of rules can reconcile that rate of payoff during play with the plausible ingame evolution of a storylilne about the same group of characters? Drama every day is unrealistic for the PCs (which is quite compatible with drama every session being good for the players). The DMG will therefore need to have (non-simulationist) rules about the passage of time during and between sessions. Presumably it will. [/QUOTE]
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