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<blockquote data-quote="mlund" data-source="post: 6259010" data-attributes="member: 50304">Frankly, &quot;hit the goblin with my sword&quot; doesn't cut the mustard if&nbsp; you're particularly sensitive to narrative or simulation. A lot of the&nbsp; &quot;damage&quot; in terms of HP in sword fights involve people avoiding getting&nbsp; skewered or gutted at the expense of being bludgeoned, put off-balance,&nbsp; and exhausted until they can't defend themselves properly anymore.&nbsp; Then sharp things go through soft things that scream and bleed&nbsp; and someone is hors de combat (or even more realistically in armored&nbsp; fighting, someone gets knocked on their can, loses their helmet, and&nbsp; get's their face bashed in / throat cut).&quot;Hit&quot; and &quot;Miss&quot; are game terms / &quot;gamist constructs&quot; in the context of&nbsp; &quot;rolling to hit.&quot; Characters aren't just trying to hit enemies in a literal&nbsp; sense (armor doesn't stop you from being hit literally), they are trying to defeat enemies by any means and&nbsp; opportunities that present themselves.Mechanics exist to adjudicate what can and can not happen. What people do physically (actions) is a matter of resolving their intentions against their opportunities.A player can say &quot;I move 30' to the end of the room,&quot; but when they move over the pit trap 10' away their character's action is actually &quot;Move 10 feet and fall in a hole.&quot;A player announces what she wants her character to do. In a risk-based situation (like encountering combat, stunts, antagonists, and hazards) the dice will determine what is possible and then the DM and the player can figure out what it means. Sometimes it means you swing your sword a few times and draw the enemy's shield upwards, letting you sock them in the jaw with your gauntlet when your original intent was to split their skull. Sometimes it means you try to find an opening to stab them with your rapier and don't find one. Sometimes it means you glance off their armor or they parry your weapon aside. It's very open ended if you didn't already fence yourself in unnecessarily.Exactly. You say, &quot;I attack with my Great Ax.&quot; You roll dice and possibly subtract HP to see what your boundaries are. Then you describe what just happened on the table-top in terms of what just happened in the fantasy realm. Maybe someone's head came off their shoulders. Maybe someone blew out their quad avoiding being decapitated. Just have fun with it within the navigational buoys.That's one of the reasons rolling the attacks and damage together isn't just good for saving time at the table. It can also help with coherency / continuity in narrating combat.- Marty Lund</blockquote>

[QUOTE="mlund, post: 6259010, member: 50304"] Frankly, "hit the goblin with my sword" doesn't cut the mustard if you're particularly sensitive to narrative or simulation. A lot of the "damage" in terms of HP in sword fights involve people avoiding getting skewered or gutted at the expense of being bludgeoned, put off-balance, and exhausted until they can't defend themselves properly anymore. [B]Then[/B] sharp things go through soft things that scream and bleed and someone is hors de combat (or even more realistically in armored fighting, someone gets knocked on their can, loses their helmet, and get's their face bashed in / throat cut). "Hit" and "Miss" are game terms / "gamist constructs" in the context of "rolling to hit." Characters aren't just trying to hit enemies in a literal sense (armor doesn't stop you from being hit literally), they are trying to [B]defeat[/B] enemies by any means and opportunities that present themselves. Mechanics exist to adjudicate what can and can not happen. What people do physically (actions) is a matter of resolving their [B]intentions[/B] against their [B]opportunities[/B]. A player can say "I move 30' to the end of the room," but when they move over the pit trap 10' away their character's[B] action[/B] is actually "Move 10 feet and fall in a hole." A player announces what she [B]wants[/B] her character to do. In a risk-based situation (like encountering combat, stunts, antagonists, and hazards) the dice will determine what is possible and [B]then[/B] the DM and the player can figure out what it means. Sometimes it means you swing your sword a few times and draw the enemy's shield upwards, letting you sock them in the jaw with your gauntlet when your original intent was to split their skull. Sometimes it means you try to find an opening to stab them with your rapier and don't find one. Sometimes it means you glance off their armor or they parry your weapon aside. It's very open ended if you didn't already fence yourself in unnecessarily. Exactly. You say, "I attack with my Great Ax." You roll dice and possibly subtract HP to see what your boundaries are. Then you describe what just happened on the table-top in terms of what just happened in the fantasy realm. Maybe someone's head came off their shoulders. Maybe someone blew out their quad avoiding being decapitated. Just have fun with it within the navigational buoys. That's one of the reasons rolling the attacks and damage together isn't just good for saving time at the table. It can also help with coherency / continuity in narrating combat. - Marty Lund [/QUOTE]

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