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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6348382" data-attributes="member: 42582">Just adding to this - the feature of 4e that you describe means that prep (at least when done via skill chalenge) is itself a scene, which the players have to engage and try and succeed at, rather than some preliminary to a scene which then determines the outcome of that later scene.No link from me, sorry - a google of "Raven Crowking operational play" doesn't bring up anything relevant except for my earlier post in this thread.I think Advanced Squad Leader is seen as an exemplar for this sort of play, and I think it also overlaps to a high degree with [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION]'s "logicistical play". Mapping, prep, managing resources - those "accounting" aspects that loom large in a certain style of play - are at the heart of operational play.I think Gygax's description of "skilled play" in the final (pre-Appendix) pages of his PHB captures the main features of operational play pretty well: select a target/mission, choose the right equipment and spells, plan it out, and then methodolically proceed to implement that plan, departing from it only if an obvious and easy new target presents itself, or if the party becomes lost.On this approach, encounters that the players weren't expecting - either wandering monsters, or occupied rooms that are entered by mistake - are to be avoided. The emphasis is on players controlling the framing (and the GM isn't allowed to change the backstory, of dungeon layout and contents, once it is set).</blockquote>

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