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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JamesonCourage" data-source="post: 5744126" data-attributes="member: 6668292">This might be true to some, not to others. However, any combat that is important to the story, the PCs have a good chance of failing, and that is dangerous will produce drama and tension. Pretty much regardless of system, in my experience. I find that those factors are so much more important than the mechanics of the individual system.Of course, mechanics can determine how easy or hard it is for PCs to fail, or be placed in danger (or potentially how important it is from a story perspective). So, yes, games can have a definite impact on that based on their mechanics, but really insofar as they relate to those three factors. Take my 4e bandits on the road example: the PCs will just use their dailys and are at full healing surges. No story, no real chance of failure or danger. No tension or drama. But, compare it with the fight with the BBEG when they each have a single healing surge left.The 4e game engine and system definitely affect danger/chance of failure, and thus drama and tension. That is, sometimes it makes the fight less dramatic and with less tension, and other times it makes it more dramatic, and with more tension. I think that combat roles have much less to do with this.Again, though, this is purely how the game mechanics interact with story, chance of failure, and danger. I don't see any strong relation to combat roles.Um, if players just picked powers from pools, they'd get the potentially the exact same interactions. They'd just get more. They'd get to splash a healing power, or a controller power, or a defender power. They'd get to be half defender/half controller. They'd still have exactly what you're describing above in terms of clever use of PC powers and action budget, as well as giving players many, many ways to make their own luck.I'm sorry, but I'm just not seeing the clear argument for combat roles based on what you've presented here. If I've missed something, though, let me know, because I am curious. As always, play what you like <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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