Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5635619" data-attributes="member: 42582">But to make guns ineffective against aliens and horrors doesn't require D&amp;D-style combat rules. &quot;If you stop and shoot, roll a die: 1-3 you're eaten, 4-5 your gunfire has no effect but you may keep running if you wish, 6 you hit your target and delay it for a moment or two&quot; might do the job.I think what you've identified here is less a limit of the medium and more an expectation (or set of expectations) held by certain participants in the medium.The players you refer to, who expect attack and damage rolls, and who acknowledge fear&nbsp; or threats only if these are expressed in terms of to hit bonuses and damage rolls relative to defences and hit points, seem to be specifically D&amp;D players. (Or players of games with cognate mechanics.)I don't agree with the first sentence - physical combat gives rise to notorious mechanical complexities like initiative systems and what they represent, hit points and what they represent, etc, etc. I do agree with the second - in that coherent and highly playable action resolution mechanics for non-combat actions are certainly viable.Well, as I've posted upthread I don't think it's about combat. I think combat looms larger in D&amp;D than in many other RPGs, though, even RPGs with superficial resemblances in respect of mechanics and/or tropes like RM, RQ etc.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 5635619, member: 42582"] But to make guns ineffective against aliens and horrors doesn't require D&D-style combat rules. "If you stop and shoot, roll a die: 1-3 you're eaten, 4-5 your gunfire has no effect but you may keep running if you wish, 6 you hit your target and delay it for a moment or two" might do the job. I think what you've identified here is less a limit of the medium and more an expectation (or set of expectations) held by certain participants in the medium. The players you refer to, who expect attack and damage rolls, and who acknowledge fear or threats only if these are expressed in terms of to hit bonuses and damage rolls relative to defences and hit points, seem to be specifically D&D players. (Or players of games with cognate mechanics.) I don't agree with the first sentence - physical combat gives rise to notorious mechanical complexities like initiative systems and what they represent, hit points and what they represent, etc, etc. I do agree with the second - in that coherent and highly playable action resolution mechanics for non-combat actions are certainly viable. Well, as I've posted upthread I don't think it's [I]about[/I] combat. I think combat looms larger in D&D than in many other RPGs, though, even RPGs with superficial resemblances in respect of mechanics and/or tropes like RM, RQ etc. [/QUOTE]

Verification