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RPG Combat: Sport or War?
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<blockquote data-quote="Aenghus" data-source="post: 7726413" data-attributes="member: 2656"><p>People have different tastes with respect to the Sport/War continuum. There are two problems with this continuum though. Firstly, Combat as War sounds more macho, which is a problem, as that's not really true, because of the second point. Which is the DM can always win if they want to. The only way the players can "win" is if the DM permits it. Whether they do so by designing winnable encounters themselves or allowing the players to reframe the enounter to something winnable, the objective is to give the players a fighting chance to win.</p><p></p><p>Players tastes vary a lot with respect to recon, planning, stealth, tricks and thinking outside the box. A bunch of players have fun just charging in and see all the above as timewasting nonsense.</p><p></p><p>And as at least one other person has commented, Combat as Sport involves designed encounters. But "fair" is a loaded term, fair for who? A totally even encounter would be a 50% chance of losing or having to run away. But that's sheer insanity for a combat heavy campaign. TPKs would be inevitable in short order. Actual designed encounters are designed to be winnable by the players most of the time. This allows players who want to to use a style closer to "kick in the door" than "ninja squad" and still obtain success.</p><p></p><p>The only encounters set up to be fair and even I have seen regularly is in Player vs Player combat arenas. These tend to become explorations of the prejudices of the referees in a search for a broken winning combination.</p><p></p><p>Obviously, some people like board games set up to be relatively fair and even and like the constraints of the rules. Others feel over constrained by them and might test the rules to breaking point, or attempt exploring the notional gamespace beyond the rules.</p><p></p><p>Combat as War can devolve into "if you can convince the DM you win you win, otherwise your PC loses" paradigm, which sucks for players who hate the "convince the DM" subgame.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Aenghus, post: 7726413, member: 2656"] People have different tastes with respect to the Sport/War continuum. There are two problems with this continuum though. Firstly, Combat as War sounds more macho, which is a problem, as that's not really true, because of the second point. Which is the DM can always win if they want to. The only way the players can "win" is if the DM permits it. Whether they do so by designing winnable encounters themselves or allowing the players to reframe the enounter to something winnable, the objective is to give the players a fighting chance to win. Players tastes vary a lot with respect to recon, planning, stealth, tricks and thinking outside the box. A bunch of players have fun just charging in and see all the above as timewasting nonsense. And as at least one other person has commented, Combat as Sport involves designed encounters. But "fair" is a loaded term, fair for who? A totally even encounter would be a 50% chance of losing or having to run away. But that's sheer insanity for a combat heavy campaign. TPKs would be inevitable in short order. Actual designed encounters are designed to be winnable by the players most of the time. This allows players who want to to use a style closer to "kick in the door" than "ninja squad" and still obtain success. The only encounters set up to be fair and even I have seen regularly is in Player vs Player combat arenas. These tend to become explorations of the prejudices of the referees in a search for a broken winning combination. Obviously, some people like board games set up to be relatively fair and even and like the constraints of the rules. Others feel over constrained by them and might test the rules to breaking point, or attempt exploring the notional gamespace beyond the rules. Combat as War can devolve into "if you can convince the DM you win you win, otherwise your PC loses" paradigm, which sucks for players who hate the "convince the DM" subgame. [/QUOTE]
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