And what conditions they're affected by. And if you or they can move without taking OAs. And if you're near the three trap panels in the room. And if you're near the secret escape hatch. And if you're near the cliff. And if you're near the lurker who snuck back toward the door you came in through. And whether there's any cover nearby. And if any of the zones the shadow dragon dropped are in your zone's space. And whether you're flanking/being flanked. And who is adjacent to the shaman's spirit companion. And whether the ranger or the warlock are closest to a target. And if the wall spell you cast is high enough to touch the low ceiling in the room.
See, half of those are totally unnecessary.
Conditions? Okay.
OA's? Nonexistent. Nobody provokes for anything (a system designed with this would take it into account when designing spells/ranged attacks/etc.)
Near the trap panels or escape hatch or cliff or cover? You can reach them and do something with them on your turn. You're far enough away to have to avoid constant worry, but not so far away that you couldn't get there (or be tossed there) with relative ease.
Near the lurker? This is the "What can hit me?" question. Answer: Everything. That lurker is a threat, and he'll be able to reach you on his turn.
Zones? Nonexistent. Perhaps instead you have a
battlefield effect that affects everything on the battlefield until it takes an action to negate the effect. In which case, yes, you're in it, unless you've designated that you're not.
Flanked? Nonexistent. Perhaps instead you use
Aid Another for the same effect.
Adjacent to the shaman's spirit companion or ranger or warlock closest or wall spell high enough? Nonsensical in the context of an abstract combat system. You gain no benefit from proximity to anything, and your wall spell is high enough if you want it to be.
All this, of course, assumes that the system is designed from the ground up to not be minis or grid-based. Which is part of why it's kind of impossible to do this with 4e as it stands now. Though it's easier with Essentials than with core 4e, still, any push/pull/slide effect is largely meaningless.
That all said, while I don't know how viable a product it would be, official D&D Story Game and LARPing manuals would be kind of snazzy for those who engage in those types of RPGs.
All it means is that you give up the precise positioning dimension of combat. We already treat so many things in the game as abstract -- hit points, rations, attacks, healing, blah blah blah -- adding "your exact location in spacetime" to the list is, IMO, kind of overdue.
When you choose to do this, you also gain a game that is very easy to introduce people to. They don't need to buy another $100 in plastic, grids, and fobs, and they don't need to invest another 2 hours in learning the ins and outs of OA's, reach, adjacency, flanking, imaginary cover lines, and positioning.
D&D has abandoned simulation in so many ways, I think it could only gain by abandoning simulation of the character's exact location.
Of course, I am not a minis fan, so there's grains of salt to be had in my criticisms. Still, this is the kind of game
I want to play.
