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"Hot" take: Aesthetically-pleasing rules are highly overvalued
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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 8113596" data-attributes="member: 29398"><p>We've just come to accept that as a fact of life.</p><p></p><p>Longest and messiest combat I've ever run, in terms of time taken to play through, was about ten or eleven hours spread over three sessions. A large party of 13 or so characters (about 8th-10th level) taking on a mostly-underground stronghold full of probably 30-40 significant opponents including numerous people with lots and lots of class levels, a few into the mid-high teens.</p><p></p><p>And it quickly got spread out into several smaller battles all over the complex, but I had to run them as one great big one as something done in one fight might have immediate repercussions in another (e.g. someone sent fleeing in terror <em>here</em> might run around a corner and right into another battle <em>there</em>)</p><p></p><p>That part goes well once you're used to it. We use d6, so after everyone's rolled I ask for 6s from the players - we do those, then I sort out the opponents' 6s (with the understanding this all happens at the same time in the fiction; if a tie really needs to be broken we roll sub-initiatives); then I call for 5s, and so forth on down to 1s.</p><p></p><p>If there's only a few players (no matter how many characters) it goes quick. If there's more players it slows down, often because - as also happens in turn-order games - people check out when it's not their turn at bat.</p><p></p><p>What it completely abandons is the trope of two warriors simultaneously taking each other out with their final swings, and things like that, which to me is kinda sad.</p><p></p><p>I'm more trying to replicate a fog-of-war setup than anything scientific. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 8113596, member: 29398"] We've just come to accept that as a fact of life. Longest and messiest combat I've ever run, in terms of time taken to play through, was about ten or eleven hours spread over three sessions. A large party of 13 or so characters (about 8th-10th level) taking on a mostly-underground stronghold full of probably 30-40 significant opponents including numerous people with lots and lots of class levels, a few into the mid-high teens. And it quickly got spread out into several smaller battles all over the complex, but I had to run them as one great big one as something done in one fight might have immediate repercussions in another (e.g. someone sent fleeing in terror [I]here[/I] might run around a corner and right into another battle [I]there[/I]) That part goes well once you're used to it. We use d6, so after everyone's rolled I ask for 6s from the players - we do those, then I sort out the opponents' 6s (with the understanding this all happens at the same time in the fiction; if a tie really needs to be broken we roll sub-initiatives); then I call for 5s, and so forth on down to 1s. If there's only a few players (no matter how many characters) it goes quick. If there's more players it slows down, often because - as also happens in turn-order games - people check out when it's not their turn at bat. What it completely abandons is the trope of two warriors simultaneously taking each other out with their final swings, and things like that, which to me is kinda sad. I'm more trying to replicate a fog-of-war setup than anything scientific. :) [/QUOTE]
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