Combat as Sport or Combat as War

[haakon1]

run a game that looks like Princess Bride crossed with Kung-fu Panda

In addition to your brilliant CaW v. CaS axis of play style, perhaps there needs to be a Grim (trying to be serious) v. Silly (played for laughs) axis?

I can see how CaW-Grim and CaW-Silly could exist.

I can also see how CaS-Grim and CaS-Silly could exist.

It doesn't seem like any of the editions gives too much thought to the "silly" perspective, but AD&D at least had the cartoons.

In AD&D and Oriental D&D days (1981-1988 for me), I remember quite a few people with pun character names, and sheer silliness like a guy hiring a troupe of mimes as hirelings, just because it was silly to have a "mime chorus" follow us around.

Ah, the good times -- Hubie Illin the thief, Mugu Gaipan the yakuza, Mono Glutamate the samurai, all sort of stuff like that back in the day, but we've been serious since about 1996. <shrug>

 

[Libramarian]

If the CaW gauntlet doesn't affect the outcome of the CaS boss fight, what's the point of the CaW part?

Hmmm, I guess if it's fun while you're doing it, or adds to the atmosphere, that's OK, but I'd worry about the players figuring out the gauntlet is irrelevant . . . and it sorts of feels like DM cheating if the boss monster fight gets tweaked up or down to balance where the PC's power level is at after the gauntlet.

Perhaps you could achieve what you're looking for if there was a "once a day" recharge, so you could effectively have the powers of an overnight rest (in traditional D&D) right before the boss fight?

One mechanical conceit I was thinking of would be you get all your HP back before the final battle, but you accrue fatigue depending on how much HP you lost.

Fatigue makes it more likely you will die rather than fall unconscious if you fall in the final battle.

So your fatigue wouldn't actually affect the chance you would lose, but it would affect the chance you die if you lose.

Something that makes it feel like, you fight at full strength in the final battle, but you're running on adrenaline. Maybe you've already sustained a fatal blow that won't become obvious until you fall.

 

[jodyjohnson]

If CaS is more about the creature math does that same math make CaW unworkable?