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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Argyle King" data-source="post: 9418062" data-attributes="member: 58416">I'm fine with 80s Action movie violence -to an extent.By all means, exaggerating things is part and parcel for fantasy, but I also like to be able to buy into it.Pro Wrestling is a good comparison for about where I think D&D should be. Plenty of things in pro wrestling are ridiculous (i.e. Irish Whip, Undertaker being a wrestling undead; many finishing moves); however, there is still some semblance of trying to look real as an underlying basis. When it is done well, I can buy into it and feel an emotional connection to the story; part of being "done well" is showing me exaggerated violence but still not violating plausible-ish action to such an extent that I'm mentally turned off.For example, I can (to an extent) buy into Kane being a demonic wrestler fueled by hellfire and brimstone that makes him difficult to take down. (It helps that he's 7 feet tall and 300+ pounds of muscle). There are some established in-universe rules for how the character functions. He has both strengths and weaknesses defined in terms of how WWE tends to work. In contrast, Bray Wyatt's (RIP) "Fiend" character, while very similar in concept, was supposedly able to be hit directly in the head with a sledgehammer multiple times without effect, yet would still somehow be defeated by a basic wrestling manuever - which doesn't particularly make sense, even in the context of what is essentially combat theatre.Also, I've found that repeatedly nonsensical combat decisions can take me out of it too. The Star Wars shows 'Book of Boba Fett' and 'Mandalorian season 3' both include  supposedly highly trained combatants making decisions that didn't make sense. Examples include Boba apparently forgetting that he wears a jet pack and being "trapped" by two flanking enemies in a street; Mando 3 includes a group of militant cultists having zero idea about how to prevent their children from being eaten by local megafauna. If I needed to offer a wrestling example here, I'd say that the contemporary cliche of a bunch of guys lazily meandering together near the ring and watching as one guy takes forever to climb the ropes and jump onto all of them.TLDR: I'm on board for exaggerated violence, but style of presentation matters. I'm good with 80s-movie style action, but there needs to be some semblance (even if exaggerated) of basic plausible-ish enough baseline to buy into and whatever in-universe rules are set for how things work should usually be consistent.</blockquote>

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