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Message: <blockquote data-quote="N'raac" data-source="post: 6153225" data-attributes="member: 6681948">I find, once combat is joined, “resolving things with the orcs” becomes a tactical exercise, whether this is resolved quickly or requires extended time.  The character – personality, ethics, morals, values, etc. – of the PC’s and orcs isn’t a big part of that.  Character abilities may get displayed – but that’s what that Polymorph was. I see this more as “the wizard resolves this scene quickly, and we move on to the next as is natural when this one is resolved”. If the Big Bad is just a different tactical exercise to resolve, then whether he is taken out with a single die roll or an extended tactical exercise, this is not, to me, “engaging with the fiction”.  Engaging with the fiction means that the villain makes his monologue (without a player response of “Yeah, sure, while he’s yapping I waste him with my crossbow”).  Encouraging engaging with the fiction may require providing character abilities (rather than rules-less role play) to resolve conflicts in manners other than physical or magical combat. This is where I don’t see the discussion to date focusing on “narrative control”.  It focuses on the ability to resolve scenes, perhaps to resolve them in a manner many around the table find unsatisfying.  But it does not focus on scene framing, it focuses on scene resolution.  As the chickens cluck around, and the PC’s open the next door, neither the fighter nor the wizard has any control over what will be behind that door. And, when the Big Bad shows up, twirls his moustache and begins his monologue, it doesn’t matter whether he is interrupted with a Polymorph spell or a sword strike – the players (or one player) has “reframed the scene” from one where the fiction is engaged to a tactical combat exercise. Assuming the wizard has two teleport spells, he can do the same with the Orcs.  I don’t believe that was the intent of the Wizard example – it was “we’re out of here, encounter ended”.  With that, I suggest the same intent should be assumed here if we are to have a valid comparison.  I think there are two possibilities.  The first is that the Teleporting PC’s are attempting to end the specific challenge from which they teleport away.  Whether that is teleporting back to the inn to escape the orcs, teleporting to the Seven Heavens to evade the powerful demon, or teleporting to another planet to get away from those Skrulls, the objective is to end this scene and move on to something else. The second is that the PC’s are seeking to move from one aspect of this challenge to another, and are using the ability to Teleport to facilitate that.  Whether that is teleporting back to the inn to resupply, reprovision, gather our forces and return for a  better planned attack on the orcs, teleporting to the Seven Heavens to recruit extraplanar allies to battle against the demonic invasion, or to the Skrull WarWorld to knock out their communications, the players are seeking to  resolve the challenge presented (directly or indirectly) by the enemies they teleported away from.If the players’ goal is to evade or circumvent the challenge presented, rather than face and resolve the challenge, the mechanical system is unlikely to change those player goals.  It may frustrate the players’ goals, but it’s not going to change them.</blockquote>

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