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<blockquote data-quote="Brother MacLaren" data-source="post: 4572805" data-attributes="member: 15999">I haven't been in that situation in quite a while, but if I ever were again, here's what I'd do: decide on the chance that each combatant has to win, taking into account their abilities.&nbsp; Roll to determine who wins ahead of time.&nbsp; Then script the fight so it comes to that outcome.&nbsp; For a significant fight that the PCs might be able to influence, keep track of the round-by-round stats within the script, so if they intervene you can go into &quot;real time.&quot;&nbsp; As long as the players know that's the process, they can weigh their time at the table against their hopes for the outcome.&nbsp; Just deciding based on what would make for a good story is not my style.&nbsp; To me, what's cool about D&amp;D is that flukes of the dice can make things happen that don't follow conventional narrative tropes.&nbsp; Maybe the BBEG is supposed to sweep in, level the town, and leave the PCs wanting revenge, and maybe that might be best for the story you have in mind, but suppose you figure the NPC captain of the guard has a 2% chance to kill the BBEG with a few lucky shots... and your dice come up 02.&nbsp; Well, looks like that storyline just took an unexpected turn.&nbsp; That the story is what comes out of the decisions and the dice is one of the things that makes D&amp;D great.&nbsp; In the short term, your preferred storyline is thwarted.&nbsp; In the long term, you've advanced the idea that &quot;there's always a chance&quot; and that the world has more internal reality than one where NPC guardsmen wear red shirts.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Brother MacLaren, post: 4572805, member: 15999"] I haven't been in that situation in quite a while, but if I ever were again, here's what I'd do: decide on the chance that each combatant has to win, taking into account their abilities. Roll to determine who wins ahead of time. Then script the fight so it comes to that outcome. For a significant fight that the PCs might be able to influence, keep track of the round-by-round stats within the script, so if they intervene you can go into "real time." As long as the players know that's the process, they can weigh their time at the table against their hopes for the outcome. Just deciding based on what would make for a good story is not my style. To me, what's cool about D&D is that flukes of the dice can make things happen that [I]don't[/I] follow conventional narrative tropes. Maybe the BBEG is supposed to sweep in, level the town, and leave the PCs wanting revenge, and maybe that might be best for the story you have in mind, but suppose you figure the NPC captain of the guard has a 2% chance to kill the BBEG with a few lucky shots... and your dice come up 02. Well, looks like that storyline just took an unexpected turn. That the story is what comes out of the decisions and the dice is one of the things that makes D&D great. In the short term, your preferred storyline is thwarted. In the long term, you've advanced the idea that "there's always a chance" and that the world has more internal reality than one where NPC guardsmen wear red shirts. [/QUOTE]

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