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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7726700" data-attributes="member: 42582">There are two weird things here.First, any encounter must be one that the PCs can expect to survive, if the GM is doing his/her job properly. (Ie it is generally regarded as bad GMing to declare, out of the blue as it were, "The red dragon lands in front of you 1st level guys and breathes - you're all dead!")What the mode of survival is, and how it is to be achieved, can vary. Classic D&D has evasion mechanics, and (by dint of them) emphasises fleeing more than does 3E. 4e does not have specific evasion mechanics, but has skill challenges to handle that sort of thing.Classic D&D also has reaction mechanics, and other versions of D&D have social resolution mechanics, which permit adjudication of conversation as a method of survival.Now, if the GM has some particular solution in mind for surviving the encounter ("They should flee" or "They should talk") and other options are likely to lead to PC death, I think that's a poorly-designed, rail-road-y encounter; but in any event the skill of play consists in identifying the range of options, choosing between them based on relevant considerations (which might include their likelihood of yielding success) and then successfully implementing one's choice.I don't really see how the war/sport dichotomy sheds much light on the above.Second, on your account of CaS, 4e is not an example of the "combat-as-sport" model. The 4e DMG (pp 56-57, 104) says the following:Step-by-Step Encounters 1. Choose an encounter level. . . An easy encounter is one or two levels lower than the party’s level. A standard encounter is of the party’s level, or one level higher. A hard encounter is two to four levels higher than the party’s level. . . . A standard encounter should challenge a typical group of characters but not overwhelm them. The characters should prevail if they haven’t depleted their daily resources or had a streak of bad luck. An encounter that’s the same level as the party, or one level higher, falls in this standard range of difficulty. You can offer your players a greater challenge or an easier time by setting your encounter level two or three levels higher or one or two levels lower than the party’s level. It’s a good idea to vary the difficulty of your encounters over the course of an adventure . . . If every encounter gives the players a perfectly balanced challenge, the game can get stale. Once in a while, characters need an encounter that doesn’t significantly tax their resources, or an encounter that makes them seriously scared for their characters’ survival - or even makes them flee. The majority of the encounters in an adventure should be moderate difficulty - challenging but not overwhelming, falling right about the party’s level or one higher. Monsters in a standard encounter might range from three levels below the characters to about four levels above them. These encounters should make up the bulk of your adventure. Easy encounters are two to three levels below the party, and might include monsters as many as four levels lower than the party. These encounters let the characters feel powerful. If you build an encounter using monsters that were a serious threat to the characters six or seven levels ago, you’ll remind them of how much they’ve grown in power and capabilities since the last time they fought those monsters. You might include an easy encounter about once per character level - don’t overdo it. Hard encounters are two to three levels above the party, and can include monsters that are five to seven levels above the characters. These encounters really test the characters’ resources, and might force them to take an extended rest at the end. They also bring a greater feeling of accomplishment, though, so make sure to include about one such encounter per character level. However, be careful of using high level soldiers and brutes in these encounters. Soldier monsters get really hard to hit when they’re five levels above the party, and brutes can do too much damage at that level.That's advice about pacing and managing player expectations. Even if followed, it doesn't generate significant certainty that you'll probably win, except in the anodyne sense that I mentioned above, namely, that the GM is not just going to declare that a red dragon breathes on you or that an orc horde turns up and massacres the party. And nothing about the game makes it remotely difficult to ignore the advice, and include a larger proportion of what the DMG calls "hard" encounters - I know that, because I've done it throughout my 4e campaign. (I think the DMG overestimates the interest that what it calls "standard" encounters possesses for a group of experienced RPGers/wargamers.)</blockquote>

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