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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 6717264" data-attributes="member: 6790260">This is true--this poll alone doesn't support it. I'm mostly guessing at this part of the bimodal-ness, for related but not polled reasons. The other poll is very clearly bimodal.My reason for suspecting bimodality even among combats is, simply put, the books themselves. WotC spent two+ years playtesting this thing. If there was absolutely any data they collected whatsoever, surely it would have to be the number of fights people tend to get into between long rests. Surely, if they weren't just making up numbers without any reference to actual player behavior, they were basing the "6-8 encounters a day" advice (which is mentioned in the PHB, so I can only assume it is mentioned more frequently in the DMG) on choices actually made by players. Thus, on the basis that there IS a clear bimodal distribution for short rests between long rests, and the fact that WotC so clearly expected 6-8 encounters per day even though this poll would indicate that 2-4 fights is far, far more common...I believe that there really is some degree of "splitting" within the fandom. Some like short, dangerous days with few rests. Others like longer, smoother days with slightly more rests--perhaps reflecting a desire for more "attrition" than "swinginess," I dunno.Otherwise, we have a really difficult to explain gap--where a whole mess of groups take around 1 short rest a day, and a separate group takes around 3 a day (or slightly less, on average), but for some reason both groups only have 1-4 encounters per day. I mean, I admit that that is an actual possibility...but it seems really unlikely to me.Of course, without actual data (since, as I've stated many a time, forum polls are junk), all of this is just whistlin' Dixie as far as actual analysis goes.</blockquote>

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