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<blockquote data-quote="Cadfan" data-source="post: 4759866" data-attributes="member: 40961">The best argument for more out of combat rules is this: if there are rule based baselines players can more easily make decisions because their decisions will have predictable outcomes.&nbsp;The second best argument for more out of combat rules is this: players will naturally focus on the areas of the game which are reflected on their character sheet and which are covered by rules, so if you have a game where the rules mostly cover combat and out of combat stuff is handled through pure roleplaying, the players will mostly just fight things and never roleplay.&nbsp;I disagree with both of these positions.&nbsp;With regard to the first, most out of combat matters are issues where the baseline of believability that the players need to make decisions is already available to them based on their general understanding of real life.&nbsp; This reduces the need for a rule based baseline.&nbsp;With regard to the second, I think that a game that is rules-light out of combat tends to be a little better than a game that is rules-heavy out of combat.&nbsp; If players are actually having this trouble, then it might be better to help them get over it than to create a sub-par gaming system to accomodate them.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Cadfan, post: 4759866, member: 40961"] The best argument for more out of combat rules is this: if there are rule based baselines players can more easily make decisions because their decisions will have predictable outcomes. The second best argument for more out of combat rules is this: players will naturally focus on the areas of the game which are reflected on their character sheet and which are covered by rules, so if you have a game where the rules mostly cover combat and out of combat stuff is handled through pure roleplaying, the players will mostly just fight things and never roleplay. I disagree with both of these positions. With regard to the first, most out of combat matters are issues where the baseline of believability that the players need to make decisions is already available to them based on their general understanding of real life. This reduces the need for a rule based baseline. With regard to the second, I think that a game that is rules-light out of combat tends to be a little better than a game that is rules-heavy out of combat. If players are actually having this trouble, then it might be better to help them get over it than to create a sub-par gaming system to accomodate them. [/QUOTE]

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