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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7462864" data-attributes="member: 42582">There is no need for combat reslutoin to involve metagame, just as there is no need for (say) climbing resolution, or swimming resolution, or resolving a friendly game of darts, to involve metagame.For instance, in combat each combatant makes a roll, adjusted appropriately by armour, weapon, etc, and the higher roll wins. Much as one might resolve a game of darts.The fact that D&D resolves combats in rounds, thereby imposing some metagame from the start, is a legacy of wargaming. It's not inherent to RPGing.A characterknowing that s/he has one second wind between rests is no more or less absurd than knowing that s/he has one second level spell slot between rests. It doesn't "defy reason". And deciding that now is the time to try all out is, in fact, something that a person can decide. (This point has already been made upthread by [MENTION=87792]Neonchameleon[/MENTION] and [MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION].)If Vancian slots aren't metagame, then the wizard, in the fiction, knows exactly when s/he has the ability to memorise more spells of a given level. Which means that s/he can identify the levels s/he is earning as s/he earns them. There is no "gradually growing stronger" at all.But in any event, none of this goes to [MENTION=5142]Aldarc[/MENTION]'s point. Vancian spell casting is a wargame mechanic, that creates a little sub-game of choosing the right spells to defeat the anticipated obstacles. The fact that a veneer of in-fiction rationale is layered over the top doesn't change that about it.On the first thing, my players know that I prefer undead, demons, cultists and the like as opponents, and make choices based on that.On the second, this is an example of mechanics and gameplay parting ways, yet the mechanics lingering on. In the game for which Vancian casting was invented (Chainmail and early D&D), there is no such thing as it being key to cross an obstacle quickly. If an obstacle can't be crossed, then the players simplhy can't get that treasure, or defeat that opponent, or whatever it might be. That's part of the point of Vancian memorisation as a mechanic - it puts the players to the test in this way.If gameplay has changed, though, so that the GM is establishing a story that the players must progress through, and that progression requires crossing certain obstacles, which in turn requires having certain spells memorised - then why would one even use Vancian casting? What is it adding to the game?And if we stick with Vancian casting, but the GM takes steps to mitigate the costs of bad memorisation decisions, then what is the GM doing to correspondingly power-up fighters? (Who don't get the benefit of this partiular bit of GM mitigation.)</blockquote>

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