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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 6151476" data-attributes="member: 6696971">Pro, yet worthless and inaccurate, snark.As to my position here, its pretty straight forward and I don't see it as picking a nit:1)  I wouldn't call what occurred there "combat".  It was handled as an Action Scene, but it was, in effect, exclusively color with mechanics as a peripheral element in ultimately deciding the resolution of the conflict.  2)  The "wild-eyed, flee in terror action" does not require mechanical resolution.  The tactical Attack of Opportunity rules added nothing to this but unnecessary table handling time; no tension, no odds of anything happening beyond the death of the fleeing orc.  He was going to die and that was that.  If a non-surprise, 1 round combat is going to be dictated so quickly, and so stridently by an arbitrary decision for a combatant to run, perhaps we should either just treat it as color off the bat, maybe have them clearly yield immediately, or perhaps if we don't want to just treat it as mere setting color, there could be a sub-system to resolve such a scenario mechanically that is rewarding to the players by providing some asset (contingent upon outcome) or by providing legitimate tension as to the impact of the encounter (perhaps prolonged combat having some clear, present and explicated hazard involved).  I fail to see the use of resolving random, non-challenging combat encounters mechanically (from a resource ablation perspective or from a "changing the dynamics of the immediate situation within the fiction" perspective).3)  I don't agree at all that the orcs would be freaked out by humans (despite members of their clan being ganked) to the degree that they would be "scared witless".  Creatures that they visibly (I'm talking sensory information here, not deduction) cannot defeat via physical means, because their might is irrelevant, and/or are clearly supernatural (incorporeal creatures such as ghosts, banshees, wraiths)...sure.  Same goes for creatures that are so physically imposing such that their awe-inspiring size/strength/cruelty naturally imposes terror upon those of a "might makes right" ethos (eg dragons or giants)...sure.  But not a bunch of weakling humans...until they specifically earn the right to be perceived on the level of supernatural as ghosts or the level of might as huge, physically imposing creatures.</blockquote>

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