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

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Barastrondo" data-source="post: 5052972" data-attributes="member: 3820">That's an aspect of denial, though, isn't it? "There are common countermeasures to this popular tactic"? Just curious. I've long maintained that one of the reasons combat is usually so detailed in most game systems is that it's one of the few thing you can point to where everyone at the table can be expected to be engaged. It's where "waiting your turn" happens on an action-by-action basis, not on a scene-by-scene basis. You don't frequently see one of the key elements of a game to be looking for ways to engage the entire group in the same fashion out of combat: having preparing for a siege, figuring out a way to rescue a prisoner, or stealing a ship being the kind of situation where everyone goes an action at a time and nobody's really the load. Just not my experience, I guess. I've got the kind of group where there's always at least one player who's looking to achieve those extra objectives, and there they are. I see double moves, runs, skill use... all kinds of things crop up in combat. It's probably like the scry/buff/teleport thing; a non-issue for some groups because of the way they're inclined to play anyway, crippling for others. I don't think that's the case, at least from the impression I've gotten of the designers and their previous work. When ritual magic actually feels like something sword-and-sorcery, and you've seen stabs taken at that in 3e products, it seems like there's more of a foundation than "rigidity." I find "why do we fight" paramount as well — but I also like a system that doesn't treat combat as something to be hurriedly gotten over with as soon as possible. If there's to be combat at all, I like it to be interesting. This is true of anything where there should be die-rolling, to be honest. Lace & Steel's deck of cards for modeling duels and social repartee, for instance. The ultimate display of options and creativity is not to use a system at all, just to roleplay without pad, paper or dice. If I'm going to actually limit my options by using a system in the first place, why not pick one that justifies itself by the way it handles? Of course, I've said before that I like themed games a lot. Combat as a punishment for not finding other options suits some themes, but there are some source materials where fight scenes are a reward for the viewer, be it a duel in a Dumas or Sabatini work, or an epic set piece in Red Cliff. It seems only appropriate to use games where combats are fun to play through on both a mechanical and visual level for that sort of thing.</blockquote>

Verification