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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Argyle King" data-source="post: 9883928" data-attributes="member: 58416">Some good points here. I think the promos, entrances, and etc are more about campaign and encounter structure than Combat as Sport or Combat as War.You can do the same thing in a ttrpg by having challenges and encounters that are not strictly limited to the battlefield. Perhaps there's an opportunity to give a rousing speech before an upcoming conflict; doing a good job may mean swaying some NPC warriors to your side or a morale bonus for the battle.  Though, I think for those things to be meaningful, the mechanical structure of your chosen ttrpg needs to allow for those other modes of play to matter in a tangible way. How is the player rewarded for putting character resources into charisma to interact with the game world rather than putting character resources into being better at combat? When it is done well, pro wrestling is a great illustration of how I believe fantasy should be: yes, it includes unreal and fantastical things, but there is still some baseline level of plausibility and verisimilitude from which suspension of beliefs and a variety of conflict types can be built. For example, the Undertaker being an undead wrestler is a fantasy concept, but his matches still have a referee and the rules (no matter how flexible they may be at times) of the match still matter. I don't believe that Combat as War need to be at odds with Combat as Theatre. You can have narrative scenes for theatre, but still have the approach to them be (for a lack of better words) gritty. Pro Wrestling examples of that would be 80s NWA, 90s ECW, and some of WWE's Attitude Era.</blockquote>

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