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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 3863907" data-attributes="member: 2067">For me, the videogame-ness comes in demanding the saves and skill checks. In a book or movie, the hero would just DO it. In D&D, and in videogames (like God of War) you'd have to DO something to succeed or fail. Skill checks and saves (die rolls) take that position over at the tabletop for me. In God of War, I'd have to press a sequence of buttons or rotate the analog stick. In D&D (or FFZ), I chuck some dice around.In a way, they're sort of "minigames." You usually run right to left, you usually swing at AC's and whittle away HPs, but in this instance, you need to think a little bit different about what victory means. It's as if you stopped in the middle of Super Mario Brothers and started playing a round or two of Shadow of the Colossus. <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=":)" />It's not a new idea, but in D&D's obsessive cataloging, you can loose the fact that you're not really FIGHTING a SEA SERPENT as you are just avoiding getting eaten by something that you can't really effectively wound. It's an ant trying to wrestle an elephant! It's also something of an issue with the "battle grid" that D&D has embraced, because that abstraction looses some of the volatile chaos in the minds of the players. That said, it's also a LOT of fun to be able to challenge something that big -- that's what makes the game heroic, after all. So my "encounter monsters" always include opportunities for the PC's to be resourceful, or just lucky. If the player of the fighter runs to the top of the sinking ship's bow and does a leaping cry for the serpent's neck, axe swinging wildly, I'm totally going to allow it (maybe treat it like a charge), and if he rolls a crit, confirms it, and deals his *3 damage, maybe the serpent will think twice about this attempted easy meal. <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=";)" /> Similarly, say one of the characters knows Aquan and asks the Sahagin scavengers to help them in return for some future favor. Knowing the value of a favor owed (and persuaded with a high enough Diplomacy check), they maybe agree and they call a powerful druid to calm and subdue the beast. Of course, that gives me the perfect opportunity to put them in a tough situation with the Sahagin later. I think the criticism that D&D has been too married to the statblock (and the battle grid) is pretty true. At the same time, in order for me to run that encounter, I'd *HAVE* to wing it, eve with a stat block. Nothing is going to tell me, for instance, how many feet in the air a charging sea serpent can launch it's head while it's teeth are clenched around the bow of a ship. That's...probably WAY too specific for it to be anticipated, but at the same time, if I had a regular ol' statblock for the Sea Serpent, it wouldn't be doing me nearly as much good as that particular bit of information.It's a difference in scale. Something microscopic that the PC's can't really interact with isn't usually a monster -- it's a hazard. Something colossal that the PC's can't really interact with isn't usually a monster -- it's an encounter (or, if you like, more like a trap). "Encounter Monster" is a neologism, but the idea is as old as games. <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=":)" /> It's an idea that FFZ embraces, and that I hope D&D4e puts in it's mix. It's a really useful way to think about beasts like sea serpents or kaiju monsters or stampedes of creatures or other great "forces of nature" more than "things you fight and kill."</blockquote>

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