Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Generico" data-source="post: 4037634" data-attributes="member: 59693">I kind of always thought the ideas the OP stated were obvious.  I guess maybe they're not.What it really boils down to is pacing.  You have pockets of civilization, which lend themselves to a slower paced, right brain dominant, RP-centric experience, mostly as a result of roleplaying being much easier with humans and elves than with zombies and owlbears.  Then you have "danger zones" - dungeons and wilderness - which lend themselves to a left brain dominant, faster paced, combat-centric experience, because talking to zombies and owlbears is hard.Dungeons are typically used as high intensity, exciting areas.  They provide a believable explanation for a controlled space with a very low time between encounters.  However, you can't stay in that high intensity state the whole way through a long play session.  This is where pockets of civilization come in.Pockets of civilization - cities, encampments, etc - provide a slower paced area, where combat is believably less frequent.  They provide believable gathering areas for NPCs that are capable of complex social interaction with the PCs, and with each other.  They also act as a resting place, where the players can take a break from the math and other mechanical tasks of combat.  Conveniently enough, the RP opportunities provided by less intense areas of civilization provide an easy jumping off point from which the PCs can return to the dungeon areas."Wilderness" is really just another type of dungeon.  Where it differentiates from the more controlled enclosed dungeon is in its reduced predictability.  A wilderness area is basically a dungeon where all the rooms are hidden.  An encounter could occur anywhere, as though the PCs had stumbled into a dungeon room without realizing it.These areas play the way they do because they lend themselves to a certain pacing.  The see-saw act of RP to combat to RP is what keeps the game session interesting without mentally fatiguing your players.  If you spend too much time in near continuous combat scenarios, people get worn out on the mechanical thought processes required for combat.  If you spend too much time in continuous complex social interaction, people get worn out on that too.  Jumping back and forth between left brain dominant activities, such as mechanical combat, and right brain dominant activities, such as social interaction, is essential for keeping the player interested without wearing him out at the same time.  This balancing act can make or break a game.</blockquote>

Verification