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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 9548189" data-attributes="member: 2067">Yeah, I think there's a real tension between the desire to maximize options and the cost to those decisions. Real Paradox of Choice stuff. Deciding between options is kind of inherently satisfying! But it also takes time and analysis and cognitive load. The usual resolution to that paradox is fewer, more dramatic options (up to a point). I wonder what the minimum level of options are to feel like we're making a satisfying choice. Do we need 3 decision points in a turn? Is 1 enough? 5? 7? 9?I'd wager this is different for different folks, depending on how much they play D&D for the choices, but I wonder how few the game could theoretically get away with...Like, I think we can intuit from AD&D-era fighters that one decision point (who do I attack?) is probably not enough. Results in the "attack....attack....attack..." monotony. But the other side of that continuum is probably 4e's combats, which were RICH with decision points, but also hit a "drag" point for a lot of tables. 5e's somewhere in the middle (and where it is depends in part on which class you choose - an elements monk has more choices than a champion fighter)....but it definitely takes longer than 1 minute to resolve a turn, still. Movement is kind of its own kettle of worms, too. It's mostly one decision point (do I get closer to or farther away from a particular enemy), but there's a lot of steps to that decision point, since each 5' of movement could result in different effects from terrain or provoke OA's. I think it's a very valuable design exercise to see how much that 4:1 ratio can be improved, if only because the amount of people with 4-5 hours to spend on a weekly game is....pretty limited. I spend that time with my in-person group, but it's ALWAYS touch and go, and half of them aren't even parents, just folks with stuff to do.</blockquote>

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