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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 5606856" data-attributes="member: 22424">Quite simply, I don't agree with the categories, or rather, I think that one of them is overly-specific. Specifically, I don't agree with his "combat" category.I think a better division would be:ExplorationThis includes the obvious wilderness/dungeon exploration, and the finding of traps, but also mysteries, and puzzles.Here, I don't think the game is actually lacking much. Honestly, the most appropriate resolution is probably "the players declare what they're doing; the DM describes what they find." Sure, you'll need some mechanical support, to decide whether they actually find the trap/clue, survive the wilderness, or understand the symbolism in that painting they found (or whatever).But I don't think it's appropriate to have a massive, rules-heavy resolution method here. By and large, these scenes aren't exciting in and of themselves, so any heavy rules would just drag the scene out. Let the players get on with their explorations, I say!RoleplayingThis includes interactions with NPCs (and intelligent items!), diplomacy, and the like.Again, I don't think the game is actually lacking much here. Once again, the players will largely drive the action, with the DM narrating the results. And, again, there is a need for some mechanics to determine success or failure, but again I don't think this wants the same level of detail as combat scenes.After all, a lot of people find that the use of Skill Challenges cause roleplaying scenes to become stilted and unnatural, so how much worse would grafting on a "social combat" engine be?Action ScenesThese include:- Chases- Combat, one-on-one (duels)- Combat, skirmish (includes one-on-several)- Combat, massed armies- Combat, vehicular (ship-to-ship, Rohirrim vs Oliphaunts)- Deathtraps (these were "Encounter Traps" in 3e)I'm sure there are more.The difference between these and the exploration/roleplaying events is that these tend to be (hopefully) exciting, fast-moving scenes with immediate life-or-death consequences. As such, it's entirely reasonable for the game to move to a much finer granularity of resolution here.DowntimeAnything that typically happens between adventures. Notably, this would include item crafting, spell research, and shopping for gear. Oh, and levelling up.I would argue that this should be as mechanic-free as possible. Either the character can perform the action, or not (no rolls, including for haggling). This would allow such things to be done very quickly and, in particular, between sessions, thus not taking up time at the table.</blockquote>

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