Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stalker0" data-source="post: 5755720" data-attributes="member: 5889">This is one discussion I am particularly apt to have, since I think it came up in 4th edition a fair amount.First of all, I think everyone recognizes that a gaming system at some level has to be less than 100% simulationist. Else you spend some much time with mechanics that you never play the game. This is a weakness of PNP games that we can never get away from....and so a compromise will be made somewhere along the road.I think its also important to note that Dnd stems from a common culture that drives our sense of immersion or reality. In other words, the community is already more willing to accept certain mechanics over others, regardless of good flavor.Take this simple example. What is every fighter power was an encounter power, and every wizard power was at-will?This can actually be explained with flavor pretty easily. Magic is an endless power of power that can be channeled by a person. Since its not their energy they expend, fatigue doesn't factor in. Meanwhile, a fighter grows tired as he fights, so only has so many powers before he is exhausted and forced to rely on basic attacks.In some worlds and gaming systems, this might be perfectly acceptable, but it clashes greatly with the years of culture built by DND, and probably wouldn't be generally acceptable. I'm noting this because when people are debating how one gamist mechanic is acceptable and another is not....this culture is also there at the heart of the discussion.With that in mind, I want to review two 4e game mechanic and why I think one has been generally accepted and the other has not.Diagonal Movement same as regular movement: This change caused a lot of fuss when it was first announced. People said they would never use such an unrealistic and "gamey" concept. Yet years later it isn't really talked about much. Why?I think it stems from two answers. The first is that because 4e greatly reduced the range of combat compared to 3e, the cases were the fantasy and reality most greatly clash don't come up that often. Most of the time the difference in rules is just a few feet of distance, and since we already use the 5 foot square to streamline movement, its really not that much more of a stretch.The second reason is because its universal. PCs use it, monsters use it, everyone uses the same mechanic. Further, other areas of the system use it consistently. For example, forced movement and regular movement respect the diagonal rule consistently. This helps promote consistency which helps immersion.Fighter Daily Powers: On the other hand, years later I still see complains about this one. Why?First of all, Dnd culture has known for years that one primary difference between Wizards and fighters is that wizards have limited spells, and a fighter can fight all day long. That convention has been around a long time, and still affects our expectations.But even with that people are generally comfortable with encounter powers for fighters. So the idea that the fighter isn't at full strength every moment has been generally accepted. So why encounter powers and not dailies?Again, I think its steam from two points. Again, encounter powers work on a narrow focus, a single fight. As such, our immersion isn't pushed too hard. Because its a single fight, I can use things like fatigue to explain the idea in flavor. A fighter has some big moves that tire him out, but he rests for a bit and then can use them again. Ok, I can buy that.But with dailies that same flavor doesn't work. Ok I use a big move that fatigues me. I rest for a bit and....I still can't use it?Well....maybe its REALLY fatiguing, so much so that it takes a full night sleep to recover. Ok....I could buy that, but the problem here is the rest of the system doesn't support that.We have a number of mechanics that simulate fatigue, HP, healing surges are the two most prominent. So why is it that using a daily is so incredibly fatiguing....but doesn't effect my hp or my surges?If it did, I bet people would accept fighter dailies much more readily. The second aspect is that fighter dailies are not consistent with the rest of the world. If all fighters had dailies that would be one thing. But NPC fighters often don't have dailies. They have encounter powers....or even powers that recharge! So....why does my fighter only uses his guns once a day, but that fighter over there can use his big guns every few rounds!This further strains credibility, and I think in this case pushed it far enough where it has become a flavor issue for many.</blockquote>

Verification