GrimCo
Hero
Exactly. You can't get tailor made out of box. It's like fitted shirt. You find one that fits best and then take it to the tailor for final fitting to your body.Because there’s no such thing as a perfect game that is a perfect fit for your table out of the box. That mindset is likely why you seem to think investigating a dozen games to find “the one” is a better prospect than finding a “close enough” game and tweaking it.
Or he can just buff up characters. Give them more hp, better to hit, stronger weapons, easier opponents.Again, if the only problem with a game you already have is the lethality, house rule it. That’s one house rule that takes one sentence to convey. “We’re playing Shadowdark but starting at 3rd level.” It’s that easy.
Agree. I ran very tactical combat heavy game using 5e. Had a group of wargamers who liked combat as a challenge. I like it too, we agreed it would be adversarial, as in, i would actively try to get them. I'm not really wargamer and generally like more casual fast and loose combats, but ok, why not(to be fair, i did spent 4 years as junior officer in mechanized infantry so i had some practical experience). There are good manuals on tactics on the internet. You can use them. Out comes grid, minis and scenarios. Terrain, cover, fields of fire, choke points, traps, pincer maneuvers, concentrated fire, whole shebang. They were 5 lv 5 characters, optimized for combat vs CR 1/2 human warriors without any special abilities. I just played them as very well trained and rehearsed small unit. After 4 encounters (none of which were deadly), they were almost tpk-ed.Sounds like 5E with more tactical play. There’s probably a tactical combat 3PP book out there somewhere.
It’s also worth noting that tactical play is something you can just choose to do. You don’t need heavy rules for it. Read up on tactics and use them. “The Monsters Know What They’re Doing” series is a great place to start.
Play monsters smart. Play them to make most of any advantage they can get. Go for the weakest opponents. Make monsters retreat, regroup, raise alarms, have backup incoming.
Yup. Chances of finding perfect game out of the box, that caters 100% to everyone's taste is close to 0.Pardon the phrase, but as I said, this is a fool’s errand. There is no perfect game. Find one that’s close enough and tweak it.
Yes, make a list. Maybe we here can spitball some house rules to get that tailor made experience out of something that you already play.To turn this productive, what is your table’s sweet spot as you see it? You have part of a list there, so expand on it.