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General Tabletop Discussion
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E)
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<blockquote data-quote="Stalker0" data-source="post: 8478218" data-attributes="member: 5889"><p>I would argue the journey rules do the exact opposite. They take the "handwaving" of "you all travel for 3 days, have one combat, and make it to your destination" and transform it into a crunchier experience, full of various encounters, player choices, and the survival limitations of supply.</p><p></p><p>Now, every game mechanic has a certain amount of "contrivance", assumptions and simplifications that allow the model to work, at the expense of some measure of flavor or "realism".</p><p></p><p>For example: Journey rules assume you can only do one main task a day. Does this really make sense, not really, its unlikely someone is hunting or praying for 16 hours a day. But we assume the notion of "this is the only task is mechanical value", and it gives us the benefit of only doing one roll in a day instead of like 3 or 4. I can say my players raised an eyebrow on this one when we playtested, but ultimately came around to it.</p><p></p><p>The key question in every game system is....at what point is too much flavor sacrificed in the name of mechanics? I would argue that the inability for players to choose what activity they are going to perform in future days is the final straw on the camels back. Flavor wise....I just can't sell that. Why the heck would a starving party who had terrible luck with hunting the first few days, just give up and go "well we said we were going to busk today when we started the journey, so nothing else to be done" Character wise....that's insanity, no one would do that. That is the equivalent of the DM going:</p><p></p><p>DM: "Alright everyone, you open the door, head into the next room and our confronted with 3 giants!"</p><p>Players: "Whoa wait a minute! We just had a big fight in the hallway, we don't get a chance to rest or retreat or anything?"</p><p>DM: "Well you all told me you wanted to head down the hallway and into the next room before the first fight started...so your committed to that action now"</p><p></p><p>Do you think a group of players would find that reasonable? I guarantee my players would not.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Stalker0, post: 8478218, member: 5889"] I would argue the journey rules do the exact opposite. They take the "handwaving" of "you all travel for 3 days, have one combat, and make it to your destination" and transform it into a crunchier experience, full of various encounters, player choices, and the survival limitations of supply. Now, every game mechanic has a certain amount of "contrivance", assumptions and simplifications that allow the model to work, at the expense of some measure of flavor or "realism". For example: Journey rules assume you can only do one main task a day. Does this really make sense, not really, its unlikely someone is hunting or praying for 16 hours a day. But we assume the notion of "this is the only task is mechanical value", and it gives us the benefit of only doing one roll in a day instead of like 3 or 4. I can say my players raised an eyebrow on this one when we playtested, but ultimately came around to it. The key question in every game system is....at what point is too much flavor sacrificed in the name of mechanics? I would argue that the inability for players to choose what activity they are going to perform in future days is the final straw on the camels back. Flavor wise....I just can't sell that. Why the heck would a starving party who had terrible luck with hunting the first few days, just give up and go "well we said we were going to busk today when we started the journey, so nothing else to be done" Character wise....that's insanity, no one would do that. That is the equivalent of the DM going: DM: "Alright everyone, you open the door, head into the next room and our confronted with 3 giants!" Players: "Whoa wait a minute! We just had a big fight in the hallway, we don't get a chance to rest or retreat or anything?" DM: "Well you all told me you wanted to head down the hallway and into the next room before the first fight started...so your committed to that action now" Do you think a group of players would find that reasonable? I guarantee my players would not. [/QUOTE]
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