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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 4137724" data-attributes="member: 2067">That's a pretty amazingly lame way to put it. If D&D is supposed to be a story, why does it matter if halflings are 3/4ths the size of people (in 4e) or 1/2 the size of people (in 3e)? Certainly, the narrative force of the game is more important than simulating a pseudo-realistic height for a creature with human-like strength, right?D&D has always, and will continue to, make nods like that. "It's supposed to be a story!" is a defense, but it's not one that works all that well for this, because D&D in many ways is not a storytelling game. It has been a role-playing game, and a resource-management game, and a dungeon survival game, but the storytelling has, for the last 30 years, been something that happened organically, not deliberately. D&D hasn't told you to set up plot points or climaxes or boss monsters or character arcs, D&D hasn't tought you the basis of character development or Checkov's Gun, of fantasy metaphysics as physics, or of speculative symbolism. Novels and movies based on D&D have cheerfully, and, presumably with the blessings of those who control the game, subverted the rules for narrative purpose, because the rules weren't there to tell a story. Now, also for those 30 years, storytelling has happened alongside D&D, and it's been a big shame that it hasn't been more supported, though I doubt it will ever be a focus of the game. 4e comes along and is giving us more storytelling game devices -- solo monsters, for instance, that can serve as boss monsters. Perhaps we'll see more talk about episodic structure and pacing in the DMG, too, which would be even more of a nod. D&D is not supposed to be a story, any more than it is supposed to be a realistic model of medieval warfare. But swords are swung and plots are resolved nonetheless. The story of a game has never been a trump card in D&D so far, and there's no quote from 4e that says it now is. So "because it makes a bad story!" is a fine example of a good excuse for something in a home game (where a more intense focus on story is all part of making the game your own), but it's a tremendously limp excuse for the core D&D rulebooks (which, so far, hasn't ever had to use that excuse to make for some fun games). What HAS been a trump card, and what I suspect is closer to the actual reason, is game play. Namely, the idea of having a powerful uber-attack that you can unleash is fun, and having to save that attack or limit that attack is part of that fun, because using it over and over again would make things too easy and be tremendously boring for both sides.For what it's worth, I think the logic given in the thread is pretty good, and I can rationalize martial dailies with all of them at different points -- a combination of your skill in being able to notice the opportunity for a tremendous attack, and the luck of that opportunity presenting itself, and the effort you have to put into it, all can explain away most daily martial powers for me, just as a tremendous effort can explain away most encounter martial powers.However, I do think there will be some exceptions, like the "trip being an encounter power" thing, that don't fit that rationalization very well. Not really sure how those are going to go until I see the whole game, myself.</blockquote>

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