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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tomBitonti" data-source="post: 6183771" data-attributes="member: 13107">A part of that may relate to a player perception of encounters as repeatable and optimizable.  That is, where eEncounters are expected to share elements to a degree that techniques can be discovered, practiced, then implemented to achieve repeatable overwhelming success.Think of an MMO raid encounter, which is practiced many many times (for a new fight at the edge of player's abilities, what is called progression).  The expectation is to learn the encounter, develop and practice a strategy, then execute that strategy to a sufficient level of skill to overcome the encounter.This would be like taking a test over and over again until getting an A on it.  Some encounters have hard modes, and those can be overcome for an A+, for those inclined to put in the effort.In this mode, encounters are not so much story telling elements, but practicable challenges.  Players do not acquire meaningful state between encounters, except to gradually increase in gear.  Before each new encounter, there is a full reset of player state.  Max health and full ability recharge.That contrasts strongly with a player who acquires state through a story, with significant changes in ability occurring as a result of story events: One player gaining a limp because of a critical to their leg, but also gaining a stalwart helper because of the aid they provided earlier, while sojourning under a darkened sky because they failed to prevent a fell ritual in the last session.A change is necessary for players to shift modes.  Some care is necessary from the GM, as optimized tactical play is de-emphasized in favor of true-to-character decisions.  Then, the GM must not create encounters that rely on tactical mastery.  (And need to shy away from the notion that "winning" the encounter is the goal.  Discovering what happens based on the mix of player abilities and motivations and on the presented story elements is the goal.As an example, throwing players into a diplomacy based encounter where the players play true to their abilities.  A character with a low charisma or wisdom should be expected to completely "lose" the encounter.  A character who has hatred for elves would expect to show this when negotiating with them, with a result probably quite different than optimal.  A character with a low wisdom who has stated that they are afraid of undead might be expected to run away from a zombie, possibly leaving their wounded teammate behind (nom nom nom), even though they would otherwise be able to defeat the zombie.Thx!TomB</blockquote>

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