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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 6196226" data-attributes="member: 6696971">Disregard the bottom of my last post.  I actually think I can answer  this with brevity <everyone cheers>.  By the way, great post.   Provocative, clean, cogent.  Very pemerton and @<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?27160-Balesir" target="_blank">Balesir</a> like and very  non-Manbearcat-like <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />On (i).  This is why certain folks espouse the virtues of tight math/encounter budget and balanced PCs/monsters.  If (1) the math/balance is tight and (2) GM proficiency is assumed, then it is as close to "inconceivable" as you can get.  Eg, I haven't been "surprised" by the outcomes of any 4e combat I've framed and my players have engaged since the vestigial stages of our play.  When I set an encounter budget I know, with precision, where the outcome will lie.  I also know exactly what they cannot handle so when I present an unwinnable challenge, I know to explicitly frame it as such.  If 1 and 2 are not assumed, then absolutely you could write a bad combat encounter.  I've done so aplenty in my life and at the beginning of our acclimation to 4e (because I didn't trust the encounter math...came from 3.x epic level play so I assumed it was tuned low and I threw a level 5 combat at three 1st level PCs and it ended in TPK...errr LOL?..sorry guys...).On (ii) and (iii) together.  (i) plays into this.  I want the math/encounter budgeting to be tight so (ii/iii) never sees the light of day.  In terms of real play, as you can see above, I let the party die even if its due to my incompetence (which it has been before as above).  I couldn't fudge things if I wanted to (which I don't and I won't).  My table has a very severe "gamist" bent to it.  My players want to overcome challenges and they want the legitimacy of their strategy/tactics/deployed resources/synergy to be actualized for better or for ill.  The numbers and dice are out in the open.  I don't hide anything.  If I screw up, I own it, I apologize, and then I get better at what I'm doing and/or we move to another system if that isn't possible (eg force is a prerequisite to hold things together because the resolution/math tightness of the encounter budgeting/balance is so poor - by design perhaps).That, of course, may not work for all tables.  But anything different would sow serious dissension at mine.</blockquote>

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