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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Doug McCrae" data-source="post: 5601071" data-attributes="member: 21169">I agree with all of this. Sometimes hit point loss doesn't create tension – when a PC has lots and loses a small amount – but I agree with you that, if the values for hit points and damage are right, then it works.In story terms I think I would separate the necessary suffering of the hero from techniques used to create a sense of urgency and danger – bomb timers and other 'countdowns to doomsday', the revealing of a threat such as a knife being drawn, cutaways to the bad guys plotting, Tarantino seems to be able to create tension from two guys having a conversation about nothing – but, as you say, frequently they are one and the same as is the case with Luke being electrocuted.One aspect of rpg combat that irritates me is that the biggest, most effective powers tend to be used at, or near, the start of a fight, which is the complete opposite to the way it works in fiction. This creates a sense of action 'falling' rather than rising. I understand that Exalted has some mechanics to support the delayed use of major powers, though I'm unfamiliar with the game.To return to the subject of adoptable elements of 4e, one I really like is the number of clear options – which in 4e would be mostly the at-will, encounter and daily powers – that the players have in combat. Not too many and not too few, allowing for interesting gamist decision making. It's a concept that can be readily transferred to rpgs that don't have a battlegrid. A character might have a basic damage power, a weaker area effect, an armour-piercing attack, an attack that only works if another character uses a 'setup strike' and so forth. And I like the idea that each PC's suite of combat options is unique to that character, and flavorful.</blockquote>

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