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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 5825543" data-attributes="member: 92305">It did...sorta. I've had several conversations with Steve Winter, one of the three design heads of 2E. He told me one of the mandates of 2E was to break the game away from the graph paper plot and into a more free-form situation where the GM describes the action and the players react to that description. (Winter also said that they were trying to please those that wanted to keep the graph paper plot, too.) Look at the 2E combat round. It is designed to facilitate play with a GM and players sitting around a coffee table, in comfortable chairs, describing the action to each other. This contrasts with 1E's combat round that is meant for the players all to be scrunched over a graph paper plot on the kitchen table. In 2E, what happens? The combat round starts with the GM going around the room having everyone declare their actions for the round. Then, the GM directs play based on what everyone has said, not unlike this: GM: Up ahead of you, in the forest, you see these green humanoid plopping out of the trees. Trolls! They come bounding toward you. At this point, initiative is thrown, and actions are declared. Then, once all actions are declared, the GM moves the combat round forward. It's not quite like the free-form of 1E, but it is definitely not the regimented tactical system of 3E. But, really, I'm not looking to get into a discussion of the merits of the different combat systems from previous editions of D&D. I'm more interested in how I can bring free-form play to the tactical wargame that is D&D 3E.</blockquote>

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