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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Argyle King" data-source="post: 6067365" data-attributes="member: 58416">I don't need it to be perfect.  I'd settle for vaguely reasonable.  I completely admit that I'm not an expert on 'medieval armed combat.'  I also admit that -even if I was- tactics change over time.  I'm also aware that sometimes sacrifices in realism need to be made for the sake of playability, and I am perfectly ok with that.That being said, there are tactics which D&D says are good tactics solely based on how the game works, and -in pretty much any realm outside of D&D (whether that be a real combat, an action movie, or even other rpgs)- those tactics would get you killed.  Meanwhile, tactics which would normally be good in a different realm (whether that be a real combat, an action movie, or even other rpgs) are very often subpar due solely to how the game works.  Even considering the fantasy elements and things I cannot possibly hope to quantify (such as magic,) many of them simply don't make sense if I give any more than a cursory thought toward them.  I'm not an expert at medieval combat, but I would say I do more than dabble in the knowledge of it, and I would dare to say I was at one time an expert in modern warfare.  In my mind I have tactics, strategy, and concepts I would use in a battle if faced with one.  The saying that a plan rarely survives first contact is true, but some plan is still better than no plan.  In addition to having a background in warfare, I'm also a tabletop gamer.  In my mind, I have tactics, strategies, and concepts I use when fighting orcs, dragons, and kobolds as well.  I suppose it often seems odd to me that -when playing D&D- there's little to no overlap between those two sets of combat knowledge when playing the more modern iterations of D&D.  Really though, it's beyond just having no overlap; what's most jarring is that great tactics from one are things that -the majority of the time- would get you killed when applied to the other.  It's more than just something I see from the player side of the table too.  It's also not something which is isolated to the realm of combat.  When GMing and trying to tell a story, I find that I need to bend my vision and my creativity to the will of the game's mechanical structure more than I'd like to.  Some of the things which seem really cool in my head don't work as well after I need to mold them into something that fits into the game.  I will openly admit that sometimes that was a result of me mistakenly believing an idea I had was better than it really was; however, I find that it is most commonly a result of the game world working vastly differently than the things I know.  For a lack of better words, I had to learn a second set of reality before I was able to successfully run a game in today's D&D.  (My experience with old editions is very limited, so that may have been true then too; I'm mostly comparing to other games.)  I had to learn to build my story around what the game said was cool or what the game said would work, and I felt that too often trumped what I wanted my vision to be.  So, as I said, I'm not looking for a perfect model.  Also, as said, I understand making sacrifices in the name of playability.  Too, am I capable of understanding that rpgs are a group activity, and the game's vision should be a shared one; mine isn't the only right answer.  Still, it would be nice if the game's vision was more similar to my own, and I didn't feel as though I had to forget so much of what I already know when playing.  Both as a player and a GM, I find I have to turn parts of my brain off to be able to enjoy D&D.  Either that, or I need to embrace that it's a game first and an immersive experience second.  I can most certainly still have fun with the game, but -at the end of the day- I don't feel that the reasons I picked up tabletop gaming in the first place are always satisfied.  Perhaps that's a failing on my part; all I can really say is that's just the way it is for me.</blockquote>

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