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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 8357835" data-attributes="member: 29398">For me it depends how important the outcome is to what might happen next.I once ran a situation where the PCs stumbled onto an in-progress three-way battle between some Ogres, some (known-to-be-hostile) Humans, and some [other creatures I forget now]; the immediate backstory being the Humans and Ogres were fighting over the right to hunt and eat/enslave the other creatures, who in turn were fighting back against both.I expected the PCs would pick a side to support and dive in, but no: instead they took cover, watched, and waited for an easy-to-mop-up winner to emerge.&nbsp; This meant I had to, in the name of both realism and random chance, play out the whole combat round by round and narrate what the PCs saw, much like a play-by-play commentator.The end winner (and only survivor) was a single Ogre; who the PCs immediately charmed, cured up, and took in to the party as a meat shield.Most of the time, though, if it matters I'll just roll a situationally-modified d20 each round for each side.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 8357835, member: 29398"] For me it depends how important the outcome is to what might happen next. I once ran a situation where the PCs stumbled onto an in-progress three-way battle between some Ogres, some (known-to-be-hostile) Humans, and some [other creatures I forget now]; the immediate backstory being the Humans and Ogres were fighting over the right to hunt and eat/enslave the other creatures, who in turn were fighting back against both. I expected the PCs would pick a side to support and dive in, but no: instead they took cover, watched, and waited for an easy-to-mop-up winner to emerge. This meant I had to, in the name of both realism and random chance, play out the whole combat round by round and narrate what the PCs saw, much like a play-by-play commentator. The end winner (and only survivor) was a single Ogre; who the PCs immediately charmed, cured up, and took in to the party as a meat shield. Most of the time, though, if it matters I'll just roll a situationally-modified d20 each round for each side. [/QUOTE]

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