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Combat as War vs. Sport and a Missing Third Mode
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<blockquote data-quote="Steady Vane" data-source="post: 9887650" data-attributes="member: 7051331"><p>Playing the world means the level of gameplay decisions that affect combat are at the macro level, not player build vs monster manual level.</p><p></p><p>Combat as sport puts the onus of handling combat on player build and party build. Combat as war puts the onus on decision making. Negotiate, fight, frighten, flee, ally, trap, whatever, it is all macro decisions to solve the problem of combat and move on to interacting with the rest of the world.</p><p></p><p>There's a post further up in this thread that points out that what a game rules for drags what it focuses on around in a sort of gravity way. Combat as sport expects the answers to combat to be on your character sheet. Combat as war expects the answers to combat to be in game systems outside your individual character. Combat as Theater says that if combat is assumed to be balanced as in combat as sport, why not make it interesting by having the story actually matter, through fudging and metacurrencies to help with pacing and tension.</p><p></p><p>In combat as sport, you win because your character is built correctly and you make the right tactical decisions using what is on your character sheet. Combat is the goal. In combat as war, you win because you make game system level decisions to pick the right encounters to get to your real goal, which is something else. In combat as theater, you use metacurrencies and table fiat to have a combat that is as balanced and narratively satisfying both. Story is the goal, and combat can facilitate that while being heroic.</p><p></p><p>Hope that helps.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Steady Vane, post: 9887650, member: 7051331"] Playing the world means the level of gameplay decisions that affect combat are at the macro level, not player build vs monster manual level. Combat as sport puts the onus of handling combat on player build and party build. Combat as war puts the onus on decision making. Negotiate, fight, frighten, flee, ally, trap, whatever, it is all macro decisions to solve the problem of combat and move on to interacting with the rest of the world. There's a post further up in this thread that points out that what a game rules for drags what it focuses on around in a sort of gravity way. Combat as sport expects the answers to combat to be on your character sheet. Combat as war expects the answers to combat to be in game systems outside your individual character. Combat as Theater says that if combat is assumed to be balanced as in combat as sport, why not make it interesting by having the story actually matter, through fudging and metacurrencies to help with pacing and tension. In combat as sport, you win because your character is built correctly and you make the right tactical decisions using what is on your character sheet. Combat is the goal. In combat as war, you win because you make game system level decisions to pick the right encounters to get to your real goal, which is something else. In combat as theater, you use metacurrencies and table fiat to have a combat that is as balanced and narratively satisfying both. Story is the goal, and combat can facilitate that while being heroic. Hope that helps. [/QUOTE]
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