Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 5313959" data-attributes="member: 467">First, to answer Umbran: It isn't that we know Fight X is going to be boring, it's that we know that some fights end up not being worth their time investment in fun -- that isn't to say they are completely boring, but rather that they'd be more fun if they we shorter. More importantly, we often don't know which fights those will be. Although many folks in this thread are advocating truncating the minion battles and doing the boss battles full on, I don't -- not least because sometimes there isn't a &quot;boss battle&quot; in the first place. If the PCs are hexploring or dungeon delving, their battles aren't going to be part of a narrativist rising action -- they are going to be encounters, random and otherwise, that are part of the setting. The idea of the &quot;adventure&quot; as a &quot;plot&quot; with a &quot;villain&quot; is only one way to play, and not one I am particularly fond of using all the time.No matter when a more streamlined or abstract combat system might be used, the bugbear does seem to be keeping the resource management impact roughly equivalent with a&nbsp; full on battle, including the possibility of expending more or fewer resources than intended or expected. Perhaps something like this (and I am going to use Pathfinder as an example, but that doesn't mean you couldn't do something similar in 4E or whatever):Each player, in turn, spends a &quot;resource&quot; in order to make a Combat roll. The resource is based on both the character and the chosen tactic. A wizard might expend a fireball while a fighter time expends hit points. Once the expense is made, the character rolls and either chalks up a &quot;victory point&quot; or suffers a Loss (probably hit points, but the exact circumstances might change this). Characters can forgo their own Combat rolls to support other PCs or mitigate Losses (like a Cleric expending a healing spell). Once enough Victory points are gathered, the battle is won. This should allow for some variable tactics on the players' part, but shouldn't take nearly as long as turn by turn, square by square combat.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Reynard, post: 5313959, member: 467"] First, to answer Umbran: It isn't that we know Fight X is going to be boring, it's that we know that some fights end up not being worth their time investment in fun -- that isn't to say they are completely boring, but rather that they'd be more fun if they we shorter. More importantly, we often don't know which fights those will be. Although many folks in this thread are advocating truncating the minion battles and doing the boss battles full on, I don't -- not least because sometimes there isn't a "boss battle" in the first place. If the PCs are hexploring or dungeon delving, their battles aren't going to be part of a narrativist rising action -- they are going to be encounters, random and otherwise, that are part of the setting. The idea of the "adventure" as a "plot" with a "villain" is only one way to play, and not one I am particularly fond of using all the time. No matter when a more streamlined or abstract combat system might be used, the bugbear does seem to be keeping the resource management impact roughly equivalent with a full on battle, including the possibility of expending more or fewer resources than intended or expected. Perhaps something like this (and I am going to use Pathfinder as an example, but that doesn't mean you couldn't do something similar in 4E or whatever): Each player, in turn, spends a "resource" in order to make a Combat roll. The resource is based on both the character and the chosen tactic. A wizard might expend a fireball while a fighter time expends hit points. Once the expense is made, the character rolls and either chalks up a "victory point" or suffers a Loss (probably hit points, but the exact circumstances might change this). Characters can forgo their own Combat rolls to support other PCs or mitigate Losses (like a Cleric expending a healing spell). Once enough Victory points are gathered, the battle is won. This should allow for some variable tactics on the players' part, but shouldn't take nearly as long as turn by turn, square by square combat. [/QUOTE]

Verification