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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7720555" data-attributes="member: 996">True. Some are the game modeling strategies & tactics from history or genre, others are the players developing tactics & strategies to deal with system artifacts....  Wow.  I missed were 'protect the spellcasters' was a real-world tactic.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />  Seriously, though, it was pretty abstract back then, and a mixed bag.  Focus fire was, IMX, less a thing back then, not because it wasn't effective, but because it wasn't ubiquitous.  Enough of us were still clueless enough to think that leaving an enemy un-engaged was somehow bad (because, "IRL Tactics" it probably would be).  The effectiveness of focus fire is an artifact of hp abstraction and not realistic-tactics, at all.  Realistically, merely wounding enemies is enough - in fact, depending on the nature of the foe (human nature, IRL cases), it can be better, because you stop the wounded enemy, and tie up the buddies dragging him back and stress the resources used to care for him.Flanking didn't do much - denied a shields +1 AC vs one of the two attackers.  Surprise was a very real advantage, but very random, even if you tried to achieve it, it was a crapshoot (it even involved two 6-sided dice, so very much like a crapshoot). Sure, in-world characters would /totally/ discuss rounds, hit point totals, AC, initiative...    Well, starting with 2e, there was a more to the characters, so that's not a terrible thing, IMHO.  The point of Roleplaying /is/ assuming the character, the more the game can model the abilities of the character, not rely on those of the player, the better it facilitates assuming the character's role.  That's something that D&D steadily improved through the editions.  And, even though 5e's slow pace of release has the damper on that, eventually it'll probably deliver that way, too. It's hard to get more disconnected from what the characters are doing than casting a completely imaginary spell (for 18 seconds, while someone tries to stab you /once/, once in 18 seconds, while you're obliged to stand on the spot, erect, waving your hands in prescribed patterns and speaking very precise phrases...), or spend a whole minute to make one attack roll.  Let alone fall 100' and walk away from it without a broken anything.  D&D was always very, very abstract.  There was no seismic shift away from tactics over the decades.  (That we're today getting Advantage for good tactics instead of consulting tables of modifiers notwithstanding.) We just grew up, got some rose-colored glasses, and started posting about the good ol' days, on line.  Instead of only annoying anyone on the porch with us, we can be a nuisance to fellow gamers all over the world. Ain't technology grand?  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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