Cognitive dissonance in YOUR favorite RPG [+]

[GMMichael]

. . . After a certain point (generally once a character's parry goes above 7 and their toughness+armor goes above 11), it no longer becomes truly possible to challenge the players in fights without essentially escalating the risk of PC death per encounter above a level I'm not comfortable with.

You may have just inspired me to give SW another try!

What I'm hearing is that high(er) level fights are either cakewalks or TPKs, with not enough between.

What is a challenging fight? Is that a metagame reference to PC health, or one with low odds of slaying all opponents? Are motivations and goals involved, or just life and death?

 

[Gradine]

I've been hemming and hawing on this one for a while, but I didn't have an answer yet, and I like to vote in every poll I see, even ones I don't have much stake/interest in, so to help others avoid sampling bias.

I ultimately went with "no", because I've honestly never felt the need for all of my game mechanics to directly reflect the world. Back in 4e there was a big row over "dissociated mechanics" and I just couldn't muster up to care at all about it. I guess I mostly just compartmentalize game mechanics and the fiction?