D&D General I really LOVE Stomping Goblins

[Reynard]

Breaking: Winner of 2022's Weirdest Flex Award declared 24 days into the new year.

How is it a flex, let alone an award winning one? I mean, I'll never turn down an award, but...

 

[Charlaquin]

I think the topic of "why is killing in games fun?" is worthwhile. Not just rpgs, but any games. Like in videogames, even games like mario, to defeat something is to harm or kill it, even when abstracted. Chess is a game that involves killing of opponent pieces. etc. One thing I've noticed in dnd is that killing inside and outside of initiative feels very different, with the former feeling more fun and less meaningful and the latter having increased emotional/psychological stakes to a certain degree.

I think it has to do with the abstraction that gamification creates. In the combat minigame, your “enemies” are ultimately just obstacles, which you permanently remove from play by “killing” them. Outside of that minigame, the enemies are narrative figures as well as gameplay obstacles, so killing them naturally carries more narrative weight.

You see this kind of thing in video games too. When you drop the villain’s health down low enough and the game gets interrupted by a cutscene where they surrender, and you’re given the choice to spare them or finish the job, the game usually frames the former as the morally better choice, especially if the game has any sort of karma point system. But, such games almost never give you that choice to spare or kill the hundreds of nameless mooks you kill throughout the rest of the game, and you never get dark side points for it. Because you’re not really supposed to think of them as people you’re killing, just obstacles you’re removing from play.

 

[CleverNickName]

For me, it's skeletons and zombies. Hordes of low-level undead monsters, scattering before my cudgel like leaves before a leaf-blower.

 

[Reynard]

For me, it's skeletons and zombies. Hordes of low-level undead monsters, scattering before my cudgel like leaves before a leaf-blower.

Usually skeletons and zombies are devoid of personality and pretty boring, but there are exceptions.

 

[CleverNickName]

Usually skeletons and zombies are devoid of personality and pretty boring, but there are exceptions.

And that's just how I like my cudgel-fodder. Straightforward and uncomplicated.

 

[payn]

And that's just how I like my cudgel-fodder. Straightforward and uncomplicated.

One of the reasons I love the usually evil mindless undead trope. Its a spooky unnatural existence that offers no quarter to the living. Destroy on sight is a tasty stock enemy.

 

[Lanefan]

Stomping Goblins sounds like it should be a band name.

 

[Reynard]

One of the reasons I love the usually evil mindless undead trope. Its a spooky unnatural existence that offers no quarter to the living. Destroy on sight is a tasty stock enemy.

Like goblins!

 

[Reynard]

Stomping Goblins sounds like it should be a band name.

Is "Stomping" a verb or adjective in that band name?

 

[Charlaquin]

Is "Stomping" a verb or adjective in that band name?

Yes