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<blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5775451" data-attributes="member: 54877">4E isn't focused on combat. It is focused like a laser on action adventure. Since fantasy action adventure is going to include a far amount of combat as part of the action adventure, this makes it appear at casual glance to be more focused on combat than it is.&nbsp;And that relates to my answer to the OP. Combat itself isn't directly important in D&amp;D, but action adventure is. Only, if you have action adventure, there is a chance that combat could break out fairly regularly. If the game does combat well, and the participants enjoy that aspect, it will tend to break out easily. Whereas, some people like the action adventure part, but would be just as happy if combat was more threat than reality, and over quickly when it happened. You can satisfy all of them by putting the combat frequency and length controls in their hands.&nbsp;The above is all separate from people who either don't like action adventure, or want their action adventure leavened or even heavily replaced with dancing at the ball, running their castle, participating in the baron's minstrel contest, etc. Chances are, if a group leans heavily this way, they won't like running through the orc fortress in a mad dash for freedom over an hour of game time, or a trap-filled lich tomb, any more than they like a long combat. Or at least not often. (Disdain for &quot;the dungeon&quot; is seldom confined to the combats.) How you satisfy the full range of desires here is more difficult. You need those controls on the action adventure part as a starting place, and then you need some more stuff.&nbsp;My groups' personal preference is that the non-action adventuring stuff be around in some form, though we are pretty flexible on exactly how.&nbsp; I don't mind the 4E &quot;you are reponsible for doing all that yourself&quot; method, but I'm happy to use more involved means too.&nbsp; The action adventure, however, must be there and work, or we aren't going to bother.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Crazy Jerome, post: 5775451, member: 54877"] 4E isn't focused on combat. It is focused like a laser on action adventure. Since fantasy action adventure is going to include a far amount of combat as part of the action adventure, this makes it appear at casual glance to be more focused on combat than it is. And that relates to my answer to the OP. Combat itself isn't directly important in D&D, but action adventure is. Only, if you have action adventure, there is a chance that combat could break out fairly regularly. If the game does combat well, and the participants enjoy that aspect, it will tend to break out easily. Whereas, some people like the action adventure part, but would be just as happy if combat was more threat than reality, and over quickly when it happened. You can satisfy all of them by putting the combat frequency and length controls in their hands. The above is all separate from people who either don't like action adventure, or want their action adventure leavened or even heavily replaced with dancing at the ball, running their castle, participating in the baron's minstrel contest, etc. Chances are, if a group leans heavily this way, they won't like running through the orc fortress in a mad dash for freedom over an hour of game time, or a trap-filled lich tomb, any more than they like a long combat. Or at least not often. (Disdain for "the dungeon" is seldom confined to the combats.) How you satisfy the full range of desires here is more difficult. You need those controls on the action adventure part as a starting place, and then you need some more stuff. My groups' personal preference is that the non-action adventuring stuff be around in some form, though we are pretty flexible on exactly how. I don't mind the 4E "you are reponsible for doing all that yourself" method, but I'm happy to use more involved means too. The action adventure, however, must be there and work, or we aren't going to bother. [/QUOTE]

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