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Is D&D Too Focused on Combat?
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<blockquote data-quote="jbear" data-source="post: 7733280" data-attributes="member: 75065"><p>I honestly don't need any special emphasis to be put on any particular area of the game, personally. I've played D&D where there were detailed rules for every aspect of exploration you could think of. It was exciting to discover these rules, reading them in the books for the first time. But it became quickly clear to me that there were too many rules to learn them off by heart. The practical result was that game play was frequently slowed down while looking up the rules every time a player tried to do something. I also found myself saying - 'No you can't do that, and you can't do this because ...' and then there would be another stop while I looked for the rule I was pretty sure I had read related to that situation somewhere. </p><p></p><p>4e I found refreshing because the rule system was so easy to memorise that I was able to learn the fundamental mechanics so thoroughly that I never had to look up rules during play. Then, based on the solid notion of the systems mechanics, I did what I felt needed to be done with it on different occaisions in order to create fun, dramatic, cinematic play experiences - whether those experiences involved combat, social interaction, or exploration ... or logistics I guess (though never really considered that one of the pillars of D&D, personally). </p><p></p><p>5e I also found refreshing because it moved a step back towards the style I remember playing when I first began, but with a far tidier engine that again was very easy to memorise, so that books are rarely if ever referenced during game play (except the odd spell reference every now and again perhaps). I personally find 5e to be lacking a touch for my taste in terms of battle complexity, but I do appreciate the speed of play and the flow of most battle scenarios that doesn't need to be defined or balanced as an 'encounter'. This means that 60% of battles that lack in complexity are just fine, because the battle isn't actually the most interesting thing going on; the conflict is just a small part of a bigger story. But the system is tight enough that I can easily turn up the dial and create a fully complex battle scenario (especially after the many things that I learned from 4e regarding interesting battle terrain and having way more interesting goals happening in a battle than solely killing everything and taking the lewt). </p><p></p><p>As for the other pillars, exploration and social interactions, do I need more input on how to run them or make them equally interesting play experiences? Not really. Certainly not if that is just going to result in more rules that I'm going to have to try to memorise or that I would have to look up during play, thus slowing down the game. When I want those aspects of the game to really stand out, I invest some of my own time creating a special scenario that will test my players and their characters, and allow the stories the players have created before, the connections they invoke from their characters back stories, or the connections they make to their PCs social networks, to influence the outcome in significant ways that make sense based on the story my players and I are weaving together at the time. I really don't feel any great need for more emphasis on these areas mechanically than I feel the need for a greater need for there to be a greater emphasis on combat (despite my own personal tastes on this matter). My players and I can best handle that ourselves.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jbear, post: 7733280, member: 75065"] I honestly don't need any special emphasis to be put on any particular area of the game, personally. I've played D&D where there were detailed rules for every aspect of exploration you could think of. It was exciting to discover these rules, reading them in the books for the first time. But it became quickly clear to me that there were too many rules to learn them off by heart. The practical result was that game play was frequently slowed down while looking up the rules every time a player tried to do something. I also found myself saying - 'No you can't do that, and you can't do this because ...' and then there would be another stop while I looked for the rule I was pretty sure I had read related to that situation somewhere. 4e I found refreshing because the rule system was so easy to memorise that I was able to learn the fundamental mechanics so thoroughly that I never had to look up rules during play. Then, based on the solid notion of the systems mechanics, I did what I felt needed to be done with it on different occaisions in order to create fun, dramatic, cinematic play experiences - whether those experiences involved combat, social interaction, or exploration ... or logistics I guess (though never really considered that one of the pillars of D&D, personally). 5e I also found refreshing because it moved a step back towards the style I remember playing when I first began, but with a far tidier engine that again was very easy to memorise, so that books are rarely if ever referenced during game play (except the odd spell reference every now and again perhaps). I personally find 5e to be lacking a touch for my taste in terms of battle complexity, but I do appreciate the speed of play and the flow of most battle scenarios that doesn't need to be defined or balanced as an 'encounter'. This means that 60% of battles that lack in complexity are just fine, because the battle isn't actually the most interesting thing going on; the conflict is just a small part of a bigger story. But the system is tight enough that I can easily turn up the dial and create a fully complex battle scenario (especially after the many things that I learned from 4e regarding interesting battle terrain and having way more interesting goals happening in a battle than solely killing everything and taking the lewt). As for the other pillars, exploration and social interactions, do I need more input on how to run them or make them equally interesting play experiences? Not really. Certainly not if that is just going to result in more rules that I'm going to have to try to memorise or that I would have to look up during play, thus slowing down the game. When I want those aspects of the game to really stand out, I invest some of my own time creating a special scenario that will test my players and their characters, and allow the stories the players have created before, the connections they invoke from their characters back stories, or the connections they make to their PCs social networks, to influence the outcome in significant ways that make sense based on the story my players and I are weaving together at the time. I really don't feel any great need for more emphasis on these areas mechanically than I feel the need for a greater need for there to be a greater emphasis on combat (despite my own personal tastes on this matter). My players and I can best handle that ourselves. [/QUOTE]
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