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Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
do CRs seem a bit arbitrary?
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<blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 6561008" data-attributes="member: 6696971"><p>It looks like we might be talking about something a wee bit different. I mean, we both know that in AD&D, Gygax expressed that if the PCs have an overwhelming advantage or the "threat" poses no risk (such as you appear to be alluding to in the two situations you have above), the players earn no group xp as they have overcome nothing. If the PC's skilled play actually led to the trapped minotaur or the bound and helpless adult blue dragon, they would earn the full xp.</p><p></p><p>Further, if the GM has framed the situation thusly (the PCs stumbled upon the encounters as is, thus no skilled play led to the scenario), then combat isn't the point of the encounter. Something else must be going on. As such, any analogue to CR, encounter budget/xp, etc isn't necessary. </p><p></p><p>Again, CR becomes unwieldy (when combat balance and risk adjudication are of import) in scenarios where "extra-scene" vectors (eg (1) strategic play and/or power plays or (2) the very nature of certain NPC resource scheduling and/or narrow utility and how they interact with the combat resolution mechanics) severely impact intra-scene dynamics. The evaluation of general NPC potency (relative to some basic unit - eg 1 PC) becomes much more reliable when the impact of 1 is (impactful but) comparably muted (eg gain 1d6 asset die to a dice pool that involves 8 dice vs 8 dice) and 2 is relatively bounded and/or NPC resource scheduling is predicated on the encounter as the primary locus of conflict (as the encounter, vs the adventuring day/campaign, is the only relevance they will, usually, have...thus resources will be balanced for it).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Manbearcat, post: 6561008, member: 6696971"] It looks like we might be talking about something a wee bit different. I mean, we both know that in AD&D, Gygax expressed that if the PCs have an overwhelming advantage or the "threat" poses no risk (such as you appear to be alluding to in the two situations you have above), the players earn no group xp as they have overcome nothing. If the PC's skilled play actually led to the trapped minotaur or the bound and helpless adult blue dragon, they would earn the full xp. Further, if the GM has framed the situation thusly (the PCs stumbled upon the encounters as is, thus no skilled play led to the scenario), then combat isn't the point of the encounter. Something else must be going on. As such, any analogue to CR, encounter budget/xp, etc isn't necessary. Again, CR becomes unwieldy (when combat balance and risk adjudication are of import) in scenarios where "extra-scene" vectors (eg (1) strategic play and/or power plays or (2) the very nature of certain NPC resource scheduling and/or narrow utility and how they interact with the combat resolution mechanics) severely impact intra-scene dynamics. The evaluation of general NPC potency (relative to some basic unit - eg 1 PC) becomes much more reliable when the impact of 1 is (impactful but) comparably muted (eg gain 1d6 asset die to a dice pool that involves 8 dice vs 8 dice) and 2 is relatively bounded and/or NPC resource scheduling is predicated on the encounter as the primary locus of conflict (as the encounter, vs the adventuring day/campaign, is the only relevance they will, usually, have...thus resources will be balanced for it). [/QUOTE]
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Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
do CRs seem a bit arbitrary?
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